London Brief #13 — Trump, NSA and London Startups
Plus two startup contests and 8 new investments covered. Read more in today’s issue.
People
Eamon Jubbawy, cofounder of the London-based startup Onfido, is one of the potential victims of Donald Trump’s Presidency. Because of his Iraqi origin, he may not be allowed to visit his own offices in San Francisco. In return, Onfido gets some press coverage.
Ron Moultrie, a former NSA Director of Operations, is now part of C5 Capital. He will work from the new C5 office in Washington D.C., but we are sure he will hear and see what happens in London startups. Shhh!
In the news
Softbank’s $100bn Vision Fund is now discussing its first investment. WSJ reports that it could be an investment in excess of $1bn in WeWork, an office-sharing company with six locations in London.
Morrisons, one of the UK’s most well-known supermarket chains, together with TrueStart are looking for startups to solve productivity challenges in the retail industry. Apply here.
AppFactor UK is a contest for mobile startups. The winner will get their application fully developed by iOasys (700 hours of design and development for any native platform, equivalent to 20K pounds).
According to CB insights ‘Global Tech Exits’ report, UK has ranked second for the number of tech exits in 2016.
Business as usual
- UK property website Zoopla agreed to acquire Hometrack for £120m.
- Spoke, an online fashion platform for men’s trousers, has raised a $1.8m late Seed round led by Oxford Capital.
- Hutch, makers of the famous Hot Wheels game, have raised $5.5m in a round co-led by Index Ventures and Backed VC.
- Trussle, an online mortgage broker, has raised £4.5m in a Series A round led by Orange Growth Capital. Existing investors LocalGlobe, Zoopla and Seedcamp also participated in the round, alongside Angel investors Ed Wray, the co-founder of Betfair and Ian Hogarth, co-founder of Songkick.
- Idea Drop, an idea management platform for businesses, has closed a £1m angel funding round. Lord Robert Smith of Kelvin, a former chairman of Weir Group Plc and SSE Plc is amongst the angels.
- OpenGamma FinTech has received $1m in funding from the Japan Exchange Group (JPX) for a minority stake in the business.
- York-based Electrospinning Company has secured £650,000 in funding from a series of investors, including the Rainbow Seed Fund.
- Drie, a platform for developers helping with AWS security, has closed a £410,000 seed funding round.
Number of the day
700 — hours of mobile design and development is the big prize in AppFactor UK
Idea
London Brief is a weekly selection of essential information about startups, technology and the business scene in London. Got news? Give us a shout at londonbrief@netguru.co.
Aleksandra Prejs
On behalf of the London Brief Team
