London Brief #32: Changes at the top of EF and BGF

Crowdfunding for TableCrowd, Quiqup vs. Amazon, Chinese investments… Read more in this issue.

People

Wendy Tan White, Moonfruit’s co-founder and the director of Tech City UK has left Entrepreneur First to become the first female partner in BGF Ventures. Joe White remains in the EF as the global CFO. EF has also announced that the newly hired Alex Diaz (known from Kalo, Yahoo, and Google) will lead its London programme.

Kate Jackson, founder and CEO of TableCrowd, is raising £400,000 on Crowdcube. Kate has recently appeared in the Guardian and shared some insights in our own London Brief Interview.

In the news

Quiqup partners with Tesco to deliver your shopping in one hour. The service called Tesco Now is an answer to Amazon’s entry into the food market with Whole Foods purchase. And yes, Tesco seems to be the underdog in this fight. Fingers crossed for Tim Linssen’s team in a race against Amazon Prime Now.

TechCrunch Meetup + Pitch-off is still open for applications and registration. The event is scheduled for 19 July, during the Unbound conference.

Business as usual

• StockViews, a marketplace connecting stock investors with equity analysts, has raised £500,000 from investors including Chinese GWC fund.
• Farfetch, a fashion e-store has received $397m in investment from JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce giant.
• Blockchain, the world’s biggest bitcoin wallet provider, has raised $40m in Series B led by Lakestar and GV.
• Yoyo Wallet, a mobile payments app, has raised £12m in Series B round led by the Metro Group.
• Soldo, a platform to control company spending, has raised $11m (£9m) in Series A funding in a round led by Accel.
• AimBrain, a biometric authentication platform, has closed a £4m Series A round led by BGF Ventures.
• MyTutor, an e-learning platform, has closed a £3m Series A round led by Mobeus Equity Partners.
• TrueLayer, a provider of bank APIs, has raised $3m in Series A round led by the Anthemis Group.
• Obby, London’s marketplace for classes and workshops, has raised £250,000 from Angel investors

Number of the day

1 hour: the Tesco Now’s delivery time to Central London customers.

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