Startup News UK 2016 Review - November and December

by Startacus Admin

With our UK Startup review of 2016 almost up to date, we return for the last time to cover the key Startup happenings and news stories that occurred during the last two months of 2016...

In September and October we covered, amongst other things, UK Startup happenings involving UK Startup Accelerators and competitions, key Startup Investment deals that made the news, the impact of the National Living Wage on small businesses, and of course the continued fall out of the BREXIT vote from June.

Onto the start of November and with a certain vote about to happen over in the States, we start with the news that perhaps trumped all others…

November

• So over in the States The ‘Donald’ Trump won the US election. If you’ve read / heard / scanned the news over the last couple of months that news will not come as a surprise. Our focus here is on the reverberation that was felt in the startup / tech scene in the US and more notably in the UK (this is is a UK Startup focused review after all) at ‘The Donald’ win.

• Very similar to the leave BREXIT vote, where the the tech / startup community and media generally reacted with similar surprise, shock and dismay - it was a pretty similar reaction over in the States (in the mainstream tech media at least).

• A good bit of the focus was on the impact that the TRUMP vote may have on the Tech scene and business in Silicon Valley. From headlines in the US such as What does a President-elect Trump mean for Silicon Valley and Post election, entrepreneurs say its time to look beyond the Silicon Valley bubble to Tech Trump: Silicon Valley steps into the valley of unhappiness in the UK, it seemed the ‘Valley’ had not necessarily welcomed or anticipated a Trump win. More-so, it perhaps suggested that Silicon Valley was to a degree under threat by the vote Trump win.

• However post the election, the impact was not limited to just the US, with questions such as what Trump's presidential victory could mean for British business being asked in the UK Startup / Business media.

• Startup / Tech industry anger at the Trump win was in some cases demonstrated quite openly, with for example, Dave McClure Founding Partner of 500 Startups venting quite passionately on stage at Web Summit in Lisbon about Trump Winning the Election.

• However one piece of editorial via Techcrunch, (suggested by a serial founder) compared Trump to a startup that had disrupted the establishment - a fair analogy to make if you think about it.

• Back in the UK, the BREXIT conversation was never far away, with for example, City AM suggesting that Britain must raise its game on innovation to make a success of Brexit. Sadly the conversation at the top of Government often only seemed to rotate around the phrase ‘BREXIT means BREXIT’ and detail on plans and specifics appeared lacking. With government policy on immigration likely to change due to the BREXIT leave vote, the news in the Autumn statement from the Chancellor that there would be a £400 Million investment into the London Tech startup scene, was by some, rounded upon, as whilst capital in startup-world can be key, there is a clear lack of skills and UK talent to fulfill the immediate need for a skilled workforce to grow those Startups - hence why an International workforce in the startup / tech scene remained and remains an immediate concern for many.
  
  

Moving away from Trump / BREXIT / politics…

• Cyber Security Startup Accelerator CyLon went back on the hunt for Startups for their fifth cohort.

• Just Eat selected 5 FoodTech Startups for their 10 week accelerator programme.

• BT launched a startup and small business competition.

• Friends of the Earth launched a digital Startup in Residence programme that offered a startup the opportunity to win 6 months free residency in its office in London.

• The HarperCollins Independent Bookshop Initiative 2017 was highlighted on Startacus.

• North Yorkshire start-up Drenched was awarded as the winner of the Pitch@Palace 6.0 programme with the rather fab Manchester based OfferMoments also scooping the people's choice awards.

• Scottish Tech giant Skyscanner was acquired by one of China’s biggest online travel companies, Ctrip, in a deal worth approx £1.4 billion and fellow Scottish success story FanDuel (fantasy sports platform) was reported to have merged with DraftKings.

• Made 16 - Entrepreneur Festival in Sheffield returned again.

• The Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2016 took place - winners included, Eco Entrepreneur of the Year – Laurence Kemball Cook of Pavegen, Creative Industries Entrepreneur of the Year – Rosie Davies, from London Fashion Agency, Entrepreneurs’ Champion of the Year – Matt Gubba of Biz Britain, Innovation Entrepreneur of the Year – Jason Trost of Smarkets, Intrapreneur of the Year – Matt Asman from CISCO and overall Great British Entrepreneur of the Year – Shaun Pulfrey of Tangle Teezer.

• In Investment news - Millennial banking startup Loot raised another £2.5 million, UK music startup Beatroot bagged £125k funding, recruitment startup platform Hired raised another $30m, HealthTech startup Cera lands £1.3m, ‘Learn to code’ EdTech startup pi-top made a class $4.3M in a series A round of funding, UK venture capital firm Forward Partners announced plans to raise a £60m start-up fund for next year, Bristol based AI startup Graphcore announced it had raised $30 million in an Series A funding round and Manchester based ‘WordPress for dating apps’ M14 Industries acquired London based Startup Double, a ‘Tinder for double dates’.

• In November UK Deliveroo riders demanded unionisation and workers’ rights. This followed Uber's recent tribunal by UK Uber drivers, which had resulted in drivers being defined as ‘workers’ not self-employed individuals.

• Research, according to Virgin StartUp, found that the UK’s startup community brings in over £196 billion each year for the UK economy.

• UK Prime Minister Theresa May visited India for a three-day trade visit - perhaps a sign that the UK was looking beyond Europe post the ‘leave’ (Brexit) vote in June for business / trade links and partnerships. The Prime Minister took over 30 British businesses, including small and medium sized enterprises from every region of the country, which included the Manchester based pioneering tech firm VST Enterprises (VSTE), who after a successful 2016 had this to say about the opportunity to develop internationally.

December

• Talking of PM Theresa May and the UK Government (see above) - research in December by our friends at cloud accounting software company FreeAgent, highlighted that UK micro-business owners are often plagued by late paying clients.  With the news in October that the UK government had delayed the appointment of their 'late payments' Tsar until 2017, this is also an area, alongside trade missions, that the government should remained focused on supporting.

• In December the UK's first university campus VC firm launched with a £2m fund - Campus Capital launched with the aim of building early stage, high growth investment funds in partnership with some of the UK's leading universities. Funds would be based on campus and part-run by active students with the guidance and supervision of the Campus Capital board.

• Seenit won the Startup Battlefield at this years TechCrunch Disrupt London.

• At Techcrunch Disrupt, Roxanne Varza, pitched Station F as a new and to be ‘world's largest’ Startup / Tech Campus that would open in Paris in April 2017 - A direct approach to reach out to London / UK Startups to set up / move to Paris perhaps.

• Government grants of £2m each were awarded to create two new technology business hubs in Manchester.

• Innovate Finance launched a new fintech start-up competition, Pitch360

• Barclays partnered with Creative England on a business accelerator that would aim to support businesses in the gamification, Internet of Things, and 3D modelling fields, to work in other startup sectors into such as healthcare and tourism.

• We listed all of our 2016 Startups of the Week - Go check them all out!

• Finally to round off a year in UK Startups we list some of the standout Investment deals that happened throughout December…

• ‘Video’ startup Newsflare raised £2.4m, FashTech Startup Fabacus raised £1 million of seed funding, HealthTech startup MedShr bagged a healthy £1.5m in a Seed round, UK AI media monitoring startup Signal Media raised £5.8 Million in funding from VCs, Northern Ireland Startup Waste Systems scored a €1.2m investment, Newcastle-based energy startup One Utility Bill secured a £500k investment, and finally HealthTech startup Cera raised £1.3m from investors including JustEat.
  
  

With that, we are all done - happy New Year and roll on 2017!

Now...why not catch up with the rest of the UK Startup news in 2016...

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

UK Startup News Review 2016 - September and October 

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Published on: 5th January 2017