London Brief #9 — Show My Homework with £2.4m from LocalGlobe
Show My Homework, an online homework platform, has raised £2.4m from LocalGlobe. Read more in today’s issue.
People
Hannah McCollum of ChicP is asking for your support to make hummus from food that would otherwise go to waste. Otto von Bismarck once said that the public should not know how sausages are made. Now Tesco’s hummus joins our list, too.
Ali Parsa of Babylon has partnered with the NHS to introduce its AI-powered chatbot to more than 1.2 million patients in North Central London. The bot will replace 111 line operators to allow users to type in their symptoms and find the best way to help after a series of questions and answers.
The Woman in IT Awards 2017 finalists have been named, including Alice Bentinck, Jyoti Sharma and Estelle Lloyd.
In the news
From London to Edinburgh in 45 minutes? The 760mph UK rail link is shortlisted for Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One project. A ray of hope for all of us suffering from strikes on the Tube and Southern Railways.
France’s digital minister Axelle Lemaire who visited London at the recent TechCrunch Disrupt is now saying that she has noticed an increased interest in the French ecosystem from British fintech companies due to Brexit.
In what appears to be the next blow to “sharing economy”, a law firm Leigh Day is talking to some Deliveroo couriers about a “potential legal action” against the London food delivery startup.
Business as usual
- StreetDots, a startup for street traders has secured £350,000 from private Singapore fund B.O.H led by Laksh Vaaman (Indian Motherson).
- Lobster, a search and licensing platform for user-generated content, has raised £1m from the former CEO of Otkritie Capital, Nikolay Katorzhnov and Vlad Huber, a partner at KL10CH (which reads as ‘The Key’ in Russian), a network of tech-focused co-working spaces in Moscow.
- Babel Systems, a company whose trade and accounting platform is powering Nutmeg, has been acquired for $20m by InvestCloud.
Number of the day
1.2m: the number of patients to be served by Babylon’s chatbot.
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
