London Brief #37: If not Uber then Gett.
LinkedIn founder in EF’s board, Microsoft ousting Benetton from Oxford Circus. Read more in this issue.
People
Reid Hoffmann (co-founder of LinkedIn) of Greylock Partners has invested in Entrepreneur First, a London-based hub for startups, alongside Mosaic Ventures and Founders Fund. Mr Hoffmann is also joining the board of EF.
London mayor Sadiq Khan, employment rights campaigners, and the trade body for the capital’s black cab drivers, who have been staunch opponents of the US ride-hailing app, unanimously backed TfL’s decision to reject Uber’s application for a new licence in London. The basis for the decision is that Uber is not a “fit and proper” private car hire operator.
In the news
Gett and Citymapper are launching Gett Together, a new bus line in London. The BB1 service will run between Highbury & Islington and Waterloo. Gett claims it will be 60 percent faster on fixed routes than a bus.
EF’s 8th Demo Day took place at King’s Place in London’s King Cross. Fourteen startups pitched the crowd: Metis Labs, Kiroku, Kue, Robik AI, Migacore Technologies, Machine Medicine, Mobilus Labs, GTN, Agrosight, Sensum Technologies, CargoMate Technologies, ConnectMed, Portify, and Resurgo Genetics. The show was stolen by the $12.4m investment by Greylock Partners that we have covered above.
Microsoft is to open its first brick-and-mortar store in the UK, a stone’s throw from the flagship Apple Store in Regent Street.
Business as usual
- 10x Future Technologies, a FinTech startup founded by Barclays’ former CEO, Anthony Jenkins, has raised a £34m Series A led by China’s financial services company Ping An and the global management consulting, Oliver Wyman.
- Digital Shadows, a cybersecurity startup, raised a $26m (£19.2m) Series C led by Octopus Ventures.
- GoCardless FinTech company received an additional $22.5m (£16.6m) from its existing backers Accel, Balderton, Notion, and Passion Capital.
- The BioTech firm Synthace has raised £7.3m in Series A funding from investors including White Cloud Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Eleven Two Capital.
- Volo Commerce, a multichannel e-commerce vendor, has raised £6.2m in a round led by NVM Private Equity.
- AppyParking, an app for finding a parking spot, has raised £2.25m in funding from Aviva Ventures and Breed Reply.
- Burrow (formerly known as Dwell), an online mortgage broker, closed a $1.2m (£900,000) Seed led by Passion Capital.
- VenueScanner, an online venue booking platform, has raised £800,000 in Seed funding from angel investors including Tim Mills (Angel CoFund), Tom Singh (founder of New Look), and Phil Burks (founder of Big Yellow Storage).
Number of the day
$12.4m: the latest price tag for the position in EF’s board.
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.
Piotr Wrzosinski
On behalf of the London Brief Team
