News
PrimaryBid, a London-based online platform connecting publicly listed companies with investors for discounted share issuances, closed a £7m funding round.
The round was led by Pentech and Outward VC with participation from Hambro Perks and other new and existing investors. In conjunction with the funding, Craig Anderson, a partner at Pentech, will join the PrimaryBid Board of Directors with Outward VC having a Board Observer seat.
The company intends to use the funds to expand its sales and marketing efforts as well as accelerate IT product development.
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Olivela, Inc., a luxury fashion and beauty retail company, has raised $35m in Series A financing. The round was led by Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc.
Launched in 2017 by Stacey Boyd, Olivela sells fashion, accessories, jewelry and beauty from the world’s most luxurious brands, with a portion of proceeds – 20% – from every purchase to benefit charitable causes around the globe. The company stocks 400+ luxury brands.
To date, it has donated to global charities like CARE and Malala Fund, in addition to community charities such as the Nantucket Cottage Hospital and Aspen Education Foundation.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its next phase of growth continuing to build partnerships with charitable partners locally, nationally, and internationally.
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Not long after buying control of Jack Wills, it has emerged that Mike Ashley is one of the bidders for distressed Links of London.
The Greek-owned jeweller has been struggling for some time and Sky News reported that Sports Direct is one of only two final bidders left in the race to buy the chain.
Twenty-nine-year-old Links is currently owned by Folli Follie Group and, like some of the other acquisitions Ashley has made, could be an important brand in his strategy to try to turn around house of Fraser.
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Spirable , a personalised video marketing automation business, has today announced it has closed a £6M Series A investment round led by Smedvig Capital. Existing backers Frontline Ventures, Downing Ventures, with 24 Haymarket also participated.
Since it’s launch, Spirable has created and distributed over 100m personalised videos in over 50 countries, for some of the world’s largest brands including Johnson & Johnson, Domino’s and Vodafone.
The platform automatically creates and optimises uniquely tailored video ads across social, CRM, messenger and display channels, using data such as location, pricing and weather to dynamically change the content people see, in real-time. This saves brands and agencies a significant amount of time and resources.
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Personalised stationery firm Papier today closed an $11m (£9.1m) funding round, led by Monica Vinader backer Beringea.
Other investors such as Felix Capital, Innocent Drinks’ founders fund Jamjar Investments and Downing Ventures also participated, taking Papier’s total raised to date to $15m.
The design company said it will use the funding to accelerate its growth in the US, which accounts for 15% of the brand’s total revenue and is growing at around 40% each month. It will also expand its product range and build new collaborations.
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Azimo, one of Europe’s leading digital money transfer service, has announced that it has reached profitability during Q2 2019. Following the successful expansion of sending to regions such as Africa and south-east Asia, the volume of transfers enabled by Azimo increased by 60% year on year.
Based in the UK and Poland, Azimo offers customers a fast, low-cost way to send money abroad that challenges the dominance of banks and traditional money transfer providers. It supports payments in more than 80 currencies to more than 190 receiving countries, reaching more than 5 billion potential customers. Building on the momentum of its expansion strategy, Azimo will be extending its services to allow customers to send money from Asia, the biggest money transfer region in the world, before the end of 2019.
Michael Kent, the co-founder of Azimo, is also stepping down as CEO, to be succeeded by former PayPal executive Richard Ambrose, who has been the company’s COO for the last two years. Mr. Kent will take up the position of executive chairman.
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The UK tech sector has attracted more foreign investment in the first seven months of 2019 than it did during the whole of last year and has overtaken the US for foreign investment, per capita.
Research prepared for the Digital Economy Council by Tech Nation and Dealroom.co shows that between January and July this year, UK-based tech firms received a staggering $6.7 billion in funding – with $3.7 billion, or 55%, coming from American and Asian investors thanks to billion dollar tech companies such as energy supplier OVO Energy and food delivery startup Deliveroo.
The sector is attracting an average of $1bn a month from both foreign and domestic investors – one and a half times the amount raised during the same period last year – making the UK one of the most attractive and dynamic markets in Europe.
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Money Dashboard has announced a £4.6m raise on Crowdcube, taking investment from 3,300 crowdfunding investors, in what is one of the biggest FinTech raises on Crowdcube this year.
The money management app helps over 200,000 people master their money. The app connects to over 70 financial institutions so users can manage all their accounts in one place to track spend, plan ahead, and achieve their goals.
Money Dashboard keeps the app free for consumers by generating revenue from insightful market research based on anonymised banking data. This gives data clients critical insight into how businesses such as Deliveroo or Uber are performing
The company states that funds will be used to build out the market leading personal finance app and triple the company’s Edinburgh-based team from 20 to 60 staff.
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Millie Bobby Brown, who made her name in the hit Netflix show Stranger Things, has managed to find time to forge a new business opportunity – her first in her five years in the industry. No mean feat considering she’s still only 15 years old.
It's actually her age that is one of her upcoming beauty brand's key selling points. Gen Z-ers are chomping at the bit for new products, new lines and new, well, everything, but they don’t want it any which way; they are even more socially-conscious than the millennials before them. Hence why Florence by Mills, the name of the brand, is clean, PETA-certified, cruelty-free and vegan. Comprising skincare and make-up, Florence by Mills products include under-eye gel pads - Brown's favourite - a skin tint and a face mist, and all with Gen Z-worthy names (Swimming Under The Eye, Light A Light and Zero Chill, respectively).
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Pingit, part of the Barclays portfolio, has launched a dedicated e-store on which brings together a wide range of its payment devices in one location.
This will provide consumers with a convenient one-stop-shop to browse and buy a large selection of wearable payment accessories, enabling them to pay easily and securely, no matter who they bank with.
Customers will be able to purchase Pingit’s newly-released range of fashion and lifestyle accessories embedded with payment capabilities, from key fobs to wearable payment bands to the Loop.
The company stated in a press release that over the next few months, customers will be able to buy a wide range of partner products including key fobs, leather bracelets and watches from well-known fashion brands such as Timex, Guess, Hugo Boss and Tovi Sorga.
To read more, click here.