2016 was a damp squib in so many ways, for reasons we hardly need to go into here. But despite some reports to the contrary, tech, and more specifically investing in early stage, London based tech startups flourished last year, insists the CEO of one of the UK’s most prolific early stage tech investors. Martijn …
New Retail Fund from Russia That Plans To Invest $3bn In The Retail Stars Of Tomorrow Will Be Headquartered In London
Letter One, an investment company who describe themselves as “a partnership of successful entrepreneurs and international businesspeople” has launched a new investment vehicle, L1 Retail, which consists of a $3 billion dollar fund to back “a small number of retailers that have the potential to become market leaders in their segments and markets”, across Europe. …
Virgin Media Business and Fast Track Reveal Their Top 10 Disruptive Businesses – And Nobody Should Be Surprised!
This week, hot on the heels of the 20th anniversary edition of the FastTrack 100, a league table of the UK’s top-performing private companies, which is published every year in a Sunday Times supplement, Virgin Media Business identified its 10 most “disruptive” businesses from Fast Track’s list. The list contains few surprises for avid start-up …
The “Virtual Technology Cluster Group” Is Set To Partner With Deloitte To Provide Digital Healthcare Start-ups Access to Firms’ Global Supply Chain
Throughout 2016, after the excitement of playing host to one of the world’s most exciting and fastest growing start-up eco-systems, London and the UK faced increasing pressure to grow these early stage, sometimes venture-capital-funded enterprises into something more substantial and permanent; “scaling-up”, however, 2016 has taught us, is never easy to do. The biggest obstacle …
Exclusive! Lady Barbara Judge Opens Up On Why She Is Backing HR Tech Start-up bob; “We’re Done Celebrating Start-ups, Let’s Get To Work!”
The thing about London; it’s full of smart people. Everywhere you look, on the tube, the buses, in the taxis and Ubers; every office and every shop is crammed full of smart people, going about their business. So, when a new phenomenon, the world of tech start-ups, starts to grow up around the Old Street …
Tech VC Force Over Mass Provides A Glimpse Of The Future At Bloomberg, With Special Guest George Osborne
Does tech make our lives better? Will technological advances put us all out of a job (and is that a bad thing?), what role should, or more pertinently could government play in marshalling the forces of technology for good, and does tech make us more, or less sociable? These and a myriad of other deep-tech, …
Trampery Based Social Video Creation Platform Wochit, Used By Time Inc & Johnston Press Takes $13m More Investment From Media Giants & Angels
Has there ever been a more challenging time to be a global media agency? With disruptive new social media platforms springing up nearly every day led by ambitious entrepreneurs, video sharing becoming commonplace and smartphones turning every one of us into wannabe film-makers, the sector is a little congested, to say the least. In one …
Rocket Internet Investment Arm Leads £9m Series A Into Recruitment Contract Finance Provider Sonovate, Who Also Raise £5m Debt Financing
Global Founders Capital, a VC firm based in Munich and backed by the Samwer brothers, founders of Rocket Internet, has led a Series B investment round into Sonovate, a leading recruitment finance provider. Dawn Capital have also participated in the round. The funding is split between £9 million in equity funding and £5m in debt …
IoT Investor / Incubator Breed Reply Announces Latest Start-up Investments, Launches Latest “Best in Breed” Start-up Search
Breed Reply, the investment arm of Reply, who support the Telco, Media, Banking, Insurance and Public Administration sectors with new communication channels and digital media, announced today that they have reached agreement with 4 London Based, early stage IoT start-ups, to provide investment and support. …
Prop-tech Is Getting Bigger & Bigger – Bricklane.com Are Latest To Secure Funding From Zoopla, Robin Klein
A new online investment project that works like a property ISA meaning it is capital gains exempt, investing in properties in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, has raised £1.3m in seed funding from Alex Chesterman’s Zoopla and serial investor Robin Klein. Bricklane.com’s online platform allows savers to invest from as little £100, earn a share of …
British Business Bank’s New £40m “21st Enterprise Capital Fund” Will Be Run By Active PE
Margot James, the government’s new Small Business Minister, announced the launch of a £40m Enterprise Capital Fund, which will be run by Active PE, last week at the ScaleUp Institute’s Manchester Conference. Announcing the decision, James said: ““Small businesses are at the heart of our economy and the whole country benefits when they grow and …
On 3 Month Anniversary of Brexit, London VC Partner Sees Good Prospects For London’s Tech Industry To Ride Out The Storm
One of the earliest angel investors in CityMapper, the London based journey mapping app which has gone on to raise $50m in 3 rounds of funding, says that 3 months on, he believes Brexit has left the nation “in limbo” and falling behind countries such as Germany, France and Sweden but that a post Brexit …
Airbnb Concierge Service Hostmaker Is Looking To Europe After Securing $1m From Initial Capital & Others
A hospitality management service for Airbnb’ers who want to outsource the hassle of short-term-letting their homes has raised $1.1m of funding in a round led by Initial Capital, a group of serial entrepreneurs, with existing investors DN Capital and DSG Consumer Partners also joining the round. Hostmaker was founded by hospitality professional Nakul Sharma, who …
Surrey Based Call Tracking Firm Takes £10m In Funding To Settle Debate About Which Marketers’ Campaigns Are Best
Ever had the feeling that half of your marketing budget was wasted, but you just didn’t know which half? It’s the classic marketers’ dilemma – publicists have wrestled with this tedious problem since the turn of the century. This week, a call-tracking company from Reigate, Surrey, have won £10m of investment from Smedvig Capital, a …
UK DeepTech – Benevolent.AI Reveal Plan To Stay Ahead Of Med-Tech Rivals By After Acquiring World’s Most Powerful “Supercomputer In A Box”
Leading British artificial intelligence (AI) company Benevolent AI has announced that it is the first company in Europe of any kind to begin using the world’s most advanced deep-learning AI Supercomputer – the DGX-1 from NVIDIA. …
Yes We Khan! London’s Mayor & Top Tech Start-ups On A Mission To Big Apple To Tell New Yorkers “London Is Open”
23 of London’s most promising and fastest growing tech start-ups are set to accompany Rajesh Agrawal, the Deputy Mayor for Business and Chairman of “London’s PR Agency” London & Partners, on a trade mission to Chicago and New York, whilst the mayor himself, Sadiq Khan, will also be joining them. …
Copenhagen Based “Con-Tech” Platform GenieBelt Shows Its Bottle, Wins €2m Investment From Solar & Former JustEat CEO
Elements of the construction industry may be unashamedly old-school, but a Danish firm, GenieBelt, co-founded by Klaus Nyengaard, one of the founders of food delivery Unicorn Just Eat (which began life in Denmark) is showing that it is far from immune to a dose of tech disruption. GenieBelt announced this week that it has raised …
Jobbio Bags €5m From NFJ Capital, Balderton Chief To Fund Ambitious Expansion Plans For Recruitment Disruptor
A VC firm, NFJ Capital, that counts Dollar Shave Club, the subscription shaving start-up that was recently acquired for more than $1bn by Unilever, amongst its portfolio has led a $5m Series A funding round into Jobbio, a disruptive career marketplace based in Dublin, with offices in East London and New York. …
Jamjar Investments Opens The Lid & Helps Find $7m Funding For Snackfood Start-up Propercorn
Jamjar investments, the Strategic Investment fund founded in 2013 by Innocent Drinks founders Richard Reed, Jon Wright and Adam Balon, alongside Piper, a private equity firm that has also backed jeweller Monica Vinander and swimwear brand Orlebar Brown has helped low-calorie popcorn brand Propercorn raise a £7m venture funding round. Propercorn was founded by 2 …
Spotlight On: DN Capital; VC Firm Who Backed Happn, Shazam To Raise Fourth Venture Capital Round of €200m
One of Europe’s most active VC investors, DN Capital has made more than 100 investments into 60+ early stage start-ups through seed or growth stage rounds, often to enable start-ups to scale internationally. The firm prides itself on its “start-up mentality” and are searching for the next Google, Facebook, or Shazam, they say. DN are …