t is clearly a job seekers market right now, which affords them the opportunity to take the best of competing offers, even if they have already accepted a previous offer, and “ghost” their new employer by never showing up on their first day, which is happening in record numbers and is not a cool move, at all So, to save you all the tedious effort of having to go back and restart your recruiting efforts after making bad offers or hires, it is important you get it right in the first place.
Business
What’s Happening in the Modern Data Stack: Drivers, Trends, and Opportunities
Alex Salton of Lerer Hippeau dives into technologies and industries they’re excited about, going deep into their change drivers and stakeholders while exploring investment trends and opportunities through an early-stage lens.
Lindus Health Raises $5M to Build the Operating System for Clinical Trials to Accelerate Time to Market
On average it takes at least 10 years to get a drug to market from pre-discovery to marketplace; the price of a successful drug exceeds $2.6B when accounting for the cost of failures. Clinical trials can take anywhere from six-to-seven years alone. Speeding up this process provides hope to the millions of patients suffering from various conditions as well as alleviates the burden on the healthcare system that has to manage the increasing costs of drug development. Lindus Health is building an operating system for clinical research that will allow the research needed for clinical trials to be centralized and modernized. The company projects that shifting away from a pen and paper model with limited technology will unleash next-generation innovation in healthcare as companies can be nimbler than ever before and without the need for the heavy capital requirements that legacy clinical trials required, allowing more participants in the ecosystem. The recently-launched venture is already partnered with leading healthcare research institutions like King’s College London, Imperial College, London, UCL, and the University of Oxford. LondonTechWatch caught up with Lindus Health Cofounder Michael Young to learn more about the inspiration of the company, upcoming strategic plans, the positioning, and recent round of funding from investors that include Firstminute Capital, Presight Capital, Seedcamp, Hambro Perks, Amino Collective, Mehdi Ghissassi, Alex Zhavoronkov, Marc Warner, James Dacombe , Henry de Zoete, and Vishal Gulati.
Revolut Locks Horns with Robinhood as the Battle for Commission-Free Trading Dominance Hots Up
The arrival of a platform like Revolut, which may take lessons from Robinhood’s embattled reputation during its expansion into US trading, could be a significant test of investor loyalty. For Revolut, Robinhood may be its key rival in the US markets, but the company has laid down a solid PFOF-oriented blueprint for success. It’s also delivered a valuable lesson in how not to operate in terms of its well-documented PR blunders. Now, Revolut needs to learn from Robinhood’s mistakes to successfully crack America.
Mojo Raises £3.25M for its Pill-Free Sexual Wellness Platform for Men
There are scores of startups looking to sell men medication for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. There are millions of men using these services to seemingly improve their sexual health. Mojo is a sexual wellness platform that helps men overcome their erectile dysfunction by taking a holistic and medication-free approach. Offered as a subscription, the platform offers access to therapists that provide tailored plan of action that includes video courses, exercises, live events, and group sessions to help men overcome the psychological issues that are affecting their performance in the bedroom. Mojo is also used to address sexual anxiety, porn addiction, and other causes of sexual performance issues. The subscription is £50 for a quarterly subscription after a 7-day free trial. London TechWatch caught up with Mojo Cofounder Angus Barge to learn more about how Mojo seeks to replace the blue pill as the first course of action when it comes to sexual dysfunction for men, the company’s strategic plans, and latest round of funding led by Octopus Ventures and Kindred Capital.
What’s Happening Around the Future of Proptech: Drivers, Trends, and Opportunities
In this column, Lerer Hippeau’s Naya Frazier dive into technologies and industries that are exciting, going deep into change drivers and stakeholders while exploring investment trends and opportunities through an early-stage lens.
The Impact of AI-Enabled Smart Cities
“All kinds of automation are great, BUT a city is about satisfying the quality of life of its residents before everything. Integrated dashboards with AI and robots, and tech-supported decision makings are a life-long technical dream of all generations of urban professionals, engineers, architects, but most of the people would agree that there would not be worse governance than the one of scientist government. For the simple reason that humans are sensitive entities more than rational ones, highly unpredictable and so far never completely understood by any science.”
Cord Raises $17.5M for its Platform that Makes Any SaaS Application Collaborative With Just a Single Line of Code
The first instance of multiplayer mode for non-entertainment use can be traced all the way back to 1968 when Douglas Engelbart of Stanford demoed collaborative document editing, teleconferencing, and manipulation of on-screen elements in what has been dubbed “The Mother of All Demos”. In the 50+ years since these features have become commonplace but not truly collaborative across the average 80+ SaaS applications that an organization uses. Cord brings the true power of collaboration to SaaS applications with a single line of JavaScript. With this single line of code, SaaS application providers can instantly make their applications more collaborative by introducing features like chat, presence, annotations, integrations with task managers and Slack, screen recordings, audio messages, live cobrowsing, and video chat. Building these features internally would not only be costly but also require significant development resources. London TechWatch caught up with Cord CEO and Cofounder Nimrod Priell to learn more about how the founding team’s time at Facebook led to the inspiration for the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding from investors that include Index Ventures, Elad Gil, Jeff Morris Jr., Charlie Songhurst, Guy Podjarny, and Matt Robinson.
AKT Raises £1.5M for its All-Natural Deodorant Brand That Works Anywhere on the Body
The global deodorant and antiperspirant market is expected to surpass $80B this year; the organic personal care products market is expected to grow at 9.3% through the latter part of this decade. Sitting at the intersection of the two is AKT, a direct-to-consumer all-natural, plastic-free premium deodorant brand. Rather than the conventional roll-on or spray, AKT’s three scents are designed as a balm that can be applied to any part of the skin without fear of irritation. Each tube, designed to keep you smelling fresh all day, retails for £18 and is also available as a subscription through AKT’s site. London TechWatch caught up with AKT Cofounder Ed Currie to learn more about how the found team’s experience sweating under the bright lights as theatrical performers inspired the brand, the company’s strategic plans, and latest funding round from Stronebridge.
SquadPal Raises £400K for its Social Community App to Connect Distributed Teams
While the flexibility and benefits of remote work arrangements have been touted, the reality is that working from home can be isolating and depressing for many, leading to lost productivity. The small interactions with colleagues in an office setting or team-building events just can’t be replicated in a remote workforce. SquadPal is a community app for distributed teams to connect and interact at a social level. The app offers games, quizzes, live experiences, competitions, and challenges to improve employee morale, build engagement, and foster comradery among coworkers. The app formalizes and improves much of the makeshift team engagement activities that were being done on company Slack channels and on Zoom. The app is being used by teams at companies like Amazon, Uber, and Paypal. London TechWatch caught up with SquadPal Cofounder and CEO Robinson Nouveau to learn more about how the founding teams’ experience managing remote workforces at the onset of the pandemic inspired the business, strategic plans, recent round of funding from investors that include CapitalT, Jair Paula Jr, Charlie Songhurst, Raphael Theron, Riccardo Bruni, Nick Lally, Christer Holloman, Martin Gould, and Dan Murray-Serter.