London Brief #44: Coffee, Gold and Blockchain. Nothing has matched Deliveroo’s delivery this week.
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People
Prime Minister Theresa May announced a string of measures aimed at bolstering the tech sector ahead of Brexit. The government will be investing £21 million into Tech City UK (which now becomes Tech Nation). It will also double the number of Tier 1 visas that the UK offers to skilled foreign workers in order to mitigate fears that Brexit will cut off the country’s access to a digitally-skilled workforce from abroad.
Arthur Key, a founder of Bio Bean, a startup supported by Shell, promises to run a third of London buses using oil produced from the coffee waste generated by Londoners.
Coffee is a hot topic this week. Stephen Rapoport has stepped down from his role as CEO of PactCoffee, a freshly roasted coffee subscription service. Instead, Mr Rapoport will act as Chairman going forward. He’s being replaced by new MD Paul Turton, who has a background in B2B retail sales and management.
In the news
Boku, the company that partners with Apple in its rollout of carrier billing for the App Store, expects to raise £45 million on a post-money valuation of £125 million when it goes public on November 20, a week from today. Boku claims that it can reach more customers than Facebook or Visa as it aims at all 5 billion of mobile phone subscribers. It was founded in 2003 under the name of Vidicom Ltd, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
An ethereum development startup ConsenSys is expanding to London. Its new European Hub based in the Silicon Roundabout has space for 60 people. The news comes after the Swedish streaming service Spotify has announced the launch of a London-based R&D unit near Charing Cross.
The London Block Exchange (LBX) plans to launch a sterling-to-cryptocurrency exchange and a Visa debit card, dubbed “Dragoncard,” that will allow people to spend bitcoin, ethereum, ripple, litecoin and monero across the UK.
Glint uncovers itself and joins the race for our wallets. It offers a multi-currency account, app, and card, all backed with shiny gold. The company wants to reintroduce the precious element as a global currency.
Business as usual
- Deliveroo has raised additional $98m led by T. Rowe Price Associates and Fidelity Management & Research Company as part of a Series F round first announced in September. This brings the total value in this round to $480 million
- Zego, a pay-as-you-go insurance provider, has raised a £6m Series A from Balderton Capital.
- Bird.i, a startup which collates and shares satellite, airborne, and drone imagery, has received $2.6m in a round led by Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV).
- Zeelo, a startup which leverages AI to predict demand for coach travel, has raised £1.2m led by Jaguar Land Rover Inmotion Ventures.
- Peanut, an app for new mums with shared interests, has raised an undisclosed seed investment co-led by Sweet Capital Investment and Female Founders Fund. It has made the news mostly because Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures participated in the round.
Number of the day
$480 million: the amount delivered in Deliveroo’s Series F round.
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
