London Brief #15 — Business rate hike shuns Brexit as the single biggest concern!
Travel Tech accelerator by Founders Factory and EasyJet has just announced its first two startups: Flio and LuckyTrip. Read more in today’s issue.
People
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called on chancellor Philip Hammond to make a London business rate concession. The first rate hike in seven years will force micro businesses to pay on average £17,000 starting April.
A stunning 74% of companies surveyed by FSB indicated the rate increase as their single biggest issue. FSB wants the threshold to be set on £20,000 in inner London and £15,000 in outer London, allowing smaller firms to avoid tax. Other business groups are also raising their concerns — it seems that the business rates shakedown may kill some small shops and startups but will benefit Amazon.com and big supermarket chains.
If you are forced to pay so much for your property, maybe it is a good idea to start sharing unused home office space? Max Jezierski and Sam Roberts who have just founded Hermit Offices can help with that.
In the news
Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotionVentures is now accepting applications for its six-months startup accelerator programme. The first cohort starts April 2017 in London.
Atomico has raised $765m for its Atomico IV fund which will focus on making investments in European startups which are already market fit and ready to scale.
London-based online investment platform Angels Den is hoping to make a name for itself in the North East and has appointed Rivers Capital Partners to help spread its message.
Business as usual
- MealPal, a subscription service for daily lunch options, has launched in London after raising $15 million in venture capital funding led by Comcast Ventures.
- Call analytics firm Iovox with clients such as Zoopla, OpenTable or AutoTrader, has raised $9m in Series A funding from Octopus Ventures and SF Capital, and $1m debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank.
- P2P micro-learning platform SmartUp has closed a $5.5m Series A round co-led by Notion Capital and Hong Leong Group.
- Pleo, a London and Copenhagen-based payments startup, has raised a $3.25m round led by Creandum.
Number of the day
£17,000 — new average business rate for micro business with less than 10 employees in London since April. If nothing changes.
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.
Radek Zaleski
On behalf of the London Brief Team
