London Brief #27: Improbable investment
Champagne for Alice Bentnick, and MalwareTech cyber-security hero. Read more in today’s issue.
People
Let’s pop a bottle of champagne! Alice Bentnick, co-founder of Entrepreneur First and one of our top 10 key people in London tech has been awarded the ‘New Generation Award’ by Veuve Clicquot.
David Buttress, who left the CEO’s seat at Just Eat in February, will join 83North as a General Partner. It should work well, as Laurel Bowden has invested in JustEat since Series B in March 2011.
The anonymous MalwareTech, is a 22-year-old from south-west England who works for Kryptos logic. He became an international hero after purchasing a domain name and stopping (for a moment, at least) the enormous WannaCry ransomware epidemic. Thank you for sacrificing your day off and paying for the domain, mate!
In the news
Improbable, but we knew it! Our choice as the most promising VR startup in London has just received $502m investment from Softbank. It is the largest venture financing round for private British company ever.
Platform-X is a new accelerator from Virgin Trains and Virgin Startup. Apply before Jeremy Corbyn makes railways public and focussed on getting us from A to B on time.
Benthal Green Ventures is recruiting for the Autumn cohort of its accelerator. The programme is aimed at startups tackling social and environmental problems. Apply here.
Tandem, a startup bank, is in trouble, as the Chinese owners of the House of Fraser have backed out of the investment of £35million in the company. Receiving only £6m, Tandem has been forced to cut its headcount once again.
Upcoming Events
Save the date for The London Lean Startup Summit — one of the most exciting London events in 2017! We’ll gather during the London Tech Week on June 13 & 14 at the London Stock Exchange and Here East. Our readers can register with a Netguru discount.
Business as usual
- Improbable, but we knew it! Our choice as the most promising VR startup in London has just received $502m investment from Softbank.
- StarLeaf, a cloud-based video conferencing startup, has raised $40m from investors including Highland Europe and Grafton Capital.
- Jinn, an on-demand food delivery app, has raised a $10m Series B round led by STE Capital
- Takumi, an Instagram influencer marketing platform, has raised $4m (£3.2m) in Series A funding.
- Hadean, an operating system for big data, has raised $2.6m in a round led by White Cloud Capital.
- InsureStreet, a fintech offering risk assessment and reduction for tenants and landlords, has raised £512,000 in Angel funding.
- Clippings, a designer furniture and lighting online marketplace, has closed a £2.8m Series A led by C4 Ventures.
Number of the day
$502m: Softbank’s investment in Improbable, and the biggest venture investment in the UK company so far.
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
