News
Springpod, a London and Liverpool, UK-based careers network that connects young people with employers & education providers, raised £2.25M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Triple Point, Cass Entrepreneurship Fund and Alliance Fund Managers, MSIF’s fund management subsidiary, alongside participation from existing investors.
The company intends to use the funds to launch its platform in new international territories.
Launched in 2018 by Sam Hyams and Oliver Fisher, Springpod is a specialist careers platform enabling young people to know the world of work and university in order to make informed decisions about their future through virtual work experience programs, virtual events and digital student engagement solutions.
Over 150,000 young people have now used the platform to engage with employers, universities and organisations.
Today, London-based leading seed investors LocalGlobe and its Series B sister fund, Latitude, announced to have raised $370m ($150m and $220m, respectively). The new funds will be used to double down on core markets in the UK and Europe, with a long-term view of generating world-class returns.
In the firm’s blog post, Julia Hawkins – General Partner – LocalGlobe said, “Since 2015, we have raised nearly $1bn in committed capital to invest in over 160 pre-seed and seed founders, as well as in breakout teams via our sister fund Latitude who we believe can become drivers of this next economy.”
LocalGlobe, which is predominantly focused on the UK, the seed-stage venture capital firm was founded by father and son duo Robin and Saul Klein, and one of the most active in the country.
Robin says “I would like (us) to be seen as a venture firm that reinvented venture, constantly pushed the boundaries forward and significantly contributed to its wider world and the community around it.”
In the last 12 months, LocalGlobe founders have raised over $2bn+ in follow-on funding (and over $6.5bn since 2015). The firm’s investment portfolio includes prominent names including, Yapily,Tide, Zego, Libeo and more.
Market-leading Berlin-based subscription startup Grover has today secured €60 million (nearly £52 million) in an oversubscribed Series B funding round involving a number of UK investors.
A number of UK investors are involved in the round, including circular economy PE firm Circularity Capital and Augmentum Fintech.
Of this, €45 million (nearly £39 million) came from new investors led by Jonathan Schneider at private equity firm JMS Capital-Everglen along with participation Viola Fintech, Assurant, founders and angel investors from North America and Europe and existing investors, including UK-based circular economy VC, PE firm Circularity Capital, Augmentum Fintech, Samsung Next, Seedcamp and more. Another €15 million (nearly £13 million) came as venture debt financing issued by European growth debt provider Kreos Capital.
Grover will use the funding to increase market penetration, advance product innovation and accelerate international expansion. It will also support its ambitious goals of tripling its subscriptions of 450,000 by the end of 2021. This will help it bring about a more circular approach to consumer electronics.
To read the full article, click here.
Clim8 Invest is a UK-based investment platform meant to help consumers invest in companies focused on tackling climate change. The company announced the launch of its mobile app as sustainable funds outperformed the market in 2020. Also, the company raised $8 million (nearly £5.8 million) in funding.
The investment round was led by 7pc Ventures (early backers of Oculus, acquired by Facebook), British Business Bank Future Fund and technology entrepreneurs and executives including Marcus Exall (Monese), Marcus Mosen (N26), Paul Willmott (Lego Digital, McKinsey), Doug Scott (Redbrain), Matt Wilkins (Thought Machine), Andrew Cocker (Skyscanner), Steve Thomson (Redbrain), Monica Kalia (Neyber, Goldman Sachs), Doug Monro (Adzuna), and Erik Nygard (Limejump).
The investment comes after the company raised £2.4 million funding late last year. It will let consumers invest in companies and supply chains with a focus to tackle climate change.
To read the full article, click here.
Apple and Google have blocked a new update to the NHS COVID-19 app on iOS and Android because it breaks rules about collecting location data.
The new update to the contact-tracing app, which garnered much publicity last year due to its development back-and-forths, delayed launch, and ‘software glitches’, would have asked users to upload venue check-ins, thereby sharing location data.
The update was set to be released to coincide with the reopening of outdoor hospitality venues in England, with pub gardens and terraces being allowed to welcome back guests on 12 April. If a person tested positive for COVID-19 after visiting a venue, other people who had also visited the place could be alerted of the possibility that they too might have contracted the virus.
To read the full article, click here.
LONDON — British financial technology start-up TrueLayer says it’s raised $70 million in fresh funding, highlighting continued appetite from investors for fast-growing fintech firms.
TrueLayer lets fintech apps like Revolut and Freetrade connect with customers’ bank accounts using technology known as APIs, or application programming interfaces. This means users of those apps can then make payments from their bank or view balances and transactions from different accounts.
The company said its latest investment round was led by Addition, the venture capital firm founded by former Tiger Global partner Lee Fixel. Existing investors Anthemis Group, Connect Ventures, Mouro Capital, Northzone and Singapore’s Temasek also invested.
To read the full article, click here.
Andium, Inc., a NYC-based provider of Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) remote-field monitoring and communications technologies, closed a $15m Series A funding.
The round was led by OGCI Climate Investments with participation from existing investors Tom Miglis, former Chief Information Officer of Citadel, and Talis Capital.
The company intends to use the funds for product growth and innovation, strategic investment in talent, and deployment of proprietary Video Solutions product lines for flare monitoring, tank telemetry, and object detection.
Led by Jory Schwach, CEO, Andium provides Industrial Internet of Things monitoring products for oil and gas companies to get access to real-time information from remote locations for emission reductions and the achievement of environmental, social and governance goals (ESG).
Tripledot Studios, a London, UK- and Minsk, Belarus-based mobile games company, secured $78m in Series A funding.
Backers included Eldridge, Access Industries and Lightspeed Venture Partners. In conjunction with the funding, Danny Cohen, President of Access Entertainment, will be joining Tripledot’s board.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations by acquiring studios and rollout the next generation of Tripledot titles later this year.
Founded in 2017 by Lior Shiff, Akin Babayigit and Eyal Chameides, Tripledot Studios creates mobile games such as Solitaire, Woodoku and Blackjack. The company also has several innovative titles in production, which are due to be released later this year.
Tripledot currently has more than 90 employees reaching more than $100 million revenue run-rate as of the beginning of 2021.
Facebook has been in the crosshairs of most privacy watchdogs ever since the infamous Cambridge-Analytica data scandal. This time, the company is facing flak as data of 533 million FB users was recently posted online on a low level hacking forum for free. This personal user data includes names, mobile numbers, email ids, country, city, along with more sensitive information.
The latest massive data leak of Facebook’s user information is actually not that recent. The social media website tells Insider that it is data scraped back in 2019, soon after which they claim to have fixed the vulnerability. The data was posted on a forum for free and has been verified online to reveal that it is actually a real data leak.
The massive trove of user data reportedly fetched $30,000 (approx £21,784) when it was first sold online. It has now been posted by a member of the aforementioned forum for free to gain some site ‘credits,’ which is apparently some form of currency on the forum. Data sold online at high prices could be resold later at a lowered price or made available publicly like the current case, for earning some reputation amongst hackers.
To read the full article, click here.
Helsinki-based, Airbnb rival, Bob W has recently announced to have raised a total of €10 million in seed funding. Last year around June 2020, the tech-driven hospitality company raised around €4 million in its first round of seed funding and now has closed €6 million more.
The recent investment was led by byFounders VC and private equity firm Finnish Industry Investment (Tesi). The raise also saw participation from Kaamos, Superangel, United Angels, and NREP via its 2150 investment wing.
As per the company press release, the funding will expand to multiple new markets across Europe, including the UK, to further develop an autonomous hospitality platform and grow the team.
Niko Karstikko, CEO and co-founder, also informed UKTN that Bob W will launch the first property in the UK around Q1-2022, after securing its first apartments in London.
To read the full article, click here.