Startup News UK 2016 Review - September and October

by Startacus Admin

With our UK Startup review of 2016 now two thirds done, we return to cover the key Startup happenings and news stories that occurred during the months of September and October.

In July and August we covered amongst other things, the post BREXIT startup / tech fallout, the lure of Berlin as a replacement for London as a base for Tech Startups and a whole load of Investment and Startup related news and events.

September started a little more chilled out....

September

• In a busy month for startup accelerator programme news, GCHQ launched a cyber security accelerator with Wayra,  R/GA Ventures launched the first ever UK accelerator for internet of things startups, BMW selected five startups for its fintech innovation lab, Data Science Startups were wanted for Data Science Accelerator Winton Labs,  UK energy company EDF Energy opened an innovation challenge for startups, a 12-Week Accelerator for Startups that could impact the social housing sector launched, and Aviva and the Founders Factory aimed to find fintech's "next big innovators".

• In investment news, Tech-startup-creator Entrepreneur First secured £40m of investment from the Enterprise Capital Fund,  AI startup Luminance bagged $3 Million in new investment, Software startup Lystable received new investment from PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and LeFrak’s venture capital arm, fintech startup Curve banked £2 million, Marketing tech start-up Driftrock cashed in $1m, UK fintech startup DueCourse raised £6 Million+ in investment, and E-commerce startup Paddle set sail after raising $3.2m in a series A funding round. Phew.

• In the inaugural Wales Start-Up Awards Tywyn-based Brighter Foods were the stand out winners bagging four awards including the overall Wales Start-Up of the Year Award.

• TransferWise, the well known British money transfer startup launched in Japan.

• Google brought its 'Digital Garage' to businesses in Scotland.

• Our friends at the MADE Entrepreneur Festival announced the Sheffield based festival would return again in November 16.

• We reported that early-stage tech companies operating in the North of England had until the 9th October to apply to Tech North's Northern Stars competition.

• The Startup Leadership Programme & Deloitte Launched a Manchester Partnership.

• The Startup League an initiative created by Radix launched, offering sponsorship and marketing support to Startups exhibiting / showcasing at major Tech events.

• Three independent retailers popped up at a pop-up shop at London’s Piccadilly Station thanks to a partnership between Startups.co.uk and Sage.

• We covered the news in our Startup news review for July and August that well funded music Startup Crowdmix had gone into administration and in September it was claimed via a leaked document that the startups pre-launch spend was sitting at approx £2 Million per month.
  

• In other business related news, Singapore Startup WB21 was reported to have left London for Berlin post the Brexit leave vote, the UK was ranked best place in Europe to start a digital business  according to research released by EY,  Birmingham was awarded as the ‘most enterprising place in Britain’ 2016 by the Enterprising Britain Awards, it was reported that the UK’s Start Up Loans scheme has seen nearly a third of all loans written off or fall into default since the programme was launched in September 2012,  and finally the introduction of the National Living Wage had seen profits squeezed for 59% of small businesses.

October

• Following on the National Living Wage news above, in October it was then highlighted in October that 97,342 UK businesses had been struggling to absorb the higher staff costs associated with the new wage regulation - according to Insolvency firm Begbies Traynor.

• With this news in mind and with cashflow , late paying clients and growing costs a continuing burden for many a startup and SME, the UK government disappointingly announced in October that the appointment of their 'late payments' Tsar was running late - and would not be expected until 2017.

• In another bumper month for Investments, standout stories included the news that UK shipping startup Weengs had raised $2.7 million, Fintech Startup Aire Received FCA Authorization and $2 Million in Funding, WeSwap launched its equity crowdfunding campaign via Seedrs and even at pre-registration stage had banked it’s £1 Million funding target, Sky invested $2m in stealth TV startup Caavo, Perkbox, an employee incentives / engagement platform raised £2.5M via European VC Draper Esprit (and this was before their Seedrs crowdfunding campaign launched), Scottish tech startup Swipii raises £1.9 million, Edinburgh based Health tech firm Snap40 became a little more healthy with a £2m round of funding, and the now ‘valued at £50 Million’ Monzo (the mobile only Bank) raised an additional £4.8 million in an interim funding round. Phew!

• In October it was also reported, that Cyber Security Startup champion Darktrace was now valued at over $500m and had IPO ambitions - potential UK Unicorn?

• In disappointing news, it was reported that London coffee shop App startup Dripapp had just lost out on funding (apparently BREXIT vote related) and would need to find a potential buyer to support its plans.

• Talking capital - concerns over funding disparities, resulted in a new funding platform being launched which aimed to address the current gender funding gap. Named AllBright it launched with a manifesto to discover and fund some of the best female entrepreneurs / female-led companies in the UK. In other gender related startup news - MassChallenge™ UK revealed 42 of its 100 selected startups were founded by women.

• Apps World returned to the London ExCeL on the 19th-20th October.

• Bristol start-up YellowDog won a global tech innovation award.

• MeWe360, a charitable organisation tasked with identifying and nurturing “untapped” talent in the arts and creative industries opened a competition for one Northern based Creative Entrepreneur to win up to 10k.

• KPMG launched the The Best British Startup competition, a competition which gave four UK mobile businesses, the chance to pitch at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona.

• Just Eat launched a food tech accelerator.

• John Lewis and L Marks invested in three retail tech startups from the latest retail innovation programme JLAB, namely DigitalBridge, Wedding Planner and Link Big.

• In other accelerator / incubator related news, China’s private equity firm CSC partnered with the UK’s Founders Factory with the aim of hiring, invest in and growing five early-stage AI startups and launching two companies each year.

• In more general business / startup related news, it was suggested that London startups were willing to commute outside of London to run a successful business, that the UK Business / Tech scene had been outraged by Amber Rudd’s UK government policy suggestions on tighter immigration employment rules, and at an UK employment tribunal, Uber drivers were ruled as being NOT self-employed - a ruling that could in turn have a knock on effect on the gig-economy and any startup / business that applies a freelancer business model.

Hopefully that gave you a taste of many of key UK Startup news stories that occurred during September and October 2016. Keep an eye out via Startacus itself, our Twitter handle, or via our Facebook page where all of Startacus content is shared. Until next time!

Also why not catch up with the rest of the year:

 

• Startup News UK 2016 Review - January and February
  
  

• Startup News UK 2016 Review - March and April

 

• Startup News UK 2016 Review - May and June
  
  

• Startup News Review 2016 - July and August

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• #october
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Published on: 30th December 2016