As the world emerges from the shadows of lockdowns of the last 16 months, consumers, starved for entertainment options out of the home, will be greeted with new and novel immersive experiences that fuse technology and groups together. Advances in motion tracking, touch screens, and sound technologies are making location-based entertainment solutions more compelling and attractive for those wanting to try something new. Electric Gamebox is a provider of social in-person multisensory gaming experiences designed to be enjoyed by groups of 2-6. The company currently has four locations that offer 30-60 minute experiences that are designed to collaborative and fun with plans for aggressive geographic expansion over the next few years. The Electric Gamebox experience requires a small physical footprint and the company plans to integrate into existing retail locations to increase its availability. Like Escape the Rooms, the gameplay is meant to be versatile for outings for groups of friends, dates, corporate team-building, birthday parties, etc. The company currently offers 6 games that it has developed with plans to bring more titles onboard including brand name franchises to enhance its experiential capabilities. Pricing for its London location starts at £9 for kids and £14 for adults for 30 minutes, making it quite accessible. London TechWatch caught up with CEO, Cofounder, and repeat entrepreneur Will Dean (founded Tough Mudder) to learn more about the inspiration for the business, how the company managed to expand despite lockdown during the pandemic, strategic plans, lastest round of funding from investors that include Philian, Brookfield Asset Management, Index Ventures, Project A, and ActivumSG.
Venture Capital
Lifted Raises Another $6.2M for its Comprehensive Home Care Management Platform
Isolation from the pandemic has been especially hard on older adults, many that are in need of some form of support (both large and small) for activities of daily living. Over the last decade, a record portion of the population has been turning 65 each year in the UK, fueled by baby boomers. The combination of these two factors has made home health care a pillar of the healthcare system to support the needs of the elderly population and their families. Lifted is a comprehensive home care management platform that makes it easy for families to access, use, plan for, and manage their home care needs. The home care industry is extremely fragmented and navigating the landscape can be difficult to find trusted providers. Lifted brings transparent, and reliable experience to the process with its own dedicated staff (other providers rely on contract workers), digital-first experience, and resources. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Rachael Crook to learn more about how her experience caring for her mother inspired the company, the state of the industry, strategic plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Fuel Ventures, 1818 Venture Capital, Perivoli Innovations, the J.B. Ugland family office, Kluz Ventures through its new health affiliated fund Novit Ventures, and VOYAGERS HealthTech.
Urban Jungle Adds Another $11.4M to Expand its Home Insurance Offering
Millennials are more apprehensive about getting any type of insurance than previous generations. As more and more millennials forgo homeownership, they are exposing themselves to financial risk when they choose not to secure renters’ insurance for their possessions while renting. Urban Jungle is a digital-first rental insurance platform that offers fast, flexible and affordable insurance options that start at just £5/mo. Targeted towards younger consumers interested in preparing for their financial future, the company was able to double its customer base to 40,000 during the pandemic with plans to expand its offering. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Jimmy Williams to learn more about Urban’s Jungle experience building traction during the pandemic, strategic growth plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Mundi Ventures and Eka Ventures.
Forecast Raises $19M For its AI-Based Project Management Platform
Project management platforms are among one of the best investments that businesses can use to be competitive and increase productivity. While functionality and features vary from platform to platform, most project management tools focus on planning, resource allocations, time management, and change management. Forecast is an AI-powered project management platform that centralizes all projects, resources, accounting, collaboration, and business intelligence into a single location. The platform integrates a number of the most popular SaaS tools that businesses already using like GitHub, Google Drive, Asana, Okta, Jira, Excel, Quickbooks, Salesforces, Slack, and Trello. By integrating artificial intelligence, the platform is always learning and able to provide predictive estimates based on past historical projects resource management. Founded in 2016, Forecast has helped managed over 178,000 projects with 4M+ tasks. With the use of AI directly in the platform, customers have been able to reduce administrative work by as much as 50%. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Dennis Kayser to learn more about how a student project during university inspired the founding of the business, the benefits that AI is bringing to project management, the company’s latest round of funding from investors that include Balderton Capital, Crane Ventures Partners, SEED Capital, and Heartcore.
Synthesia Raises $12.5M for its AI-Powered Video Generation Platform
Last year, 92% of marketers said that video is an integral part of their marketing strategy. The average person will spend 100 minutes every day in 2021 watching online videos according to a recent study. As organizations are investing in videos, startups are building platforms to support the process. Synthesia is an AI-powered video generation platform that saves enterprises up to 100x the cost and time of producing a video. The company leverages deep learning to simulate real videos and real actors without the need for costly infrastructure like camera crews, actors, cameras, studios, and a lengthy post-production process. Clients are able to produce professional-quality videos in minutes with a single API call and a few clicks. The company is working on codifying the entire video generation process, where videos will be generated through code, offering unprecedented scalability and efficiency. London TechWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Victor Riparbelli to learn more about the future of video production, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding from investors that include FirstMark, Christian Bach, Michael Buckley, LDV Capital, MMC Ventures, Seedcamp, Mark Cuban, Taavet Hinrikus, Martin Varsavsky, and TinyVC.
Cado Security Raises $10M for its Cloud Native Digital Forensics Platform
The rapid acceleration of digital adoption has led to increased cybersecurity threats. Attacks are growing more commonplace and sophisticated in nature. While much of the focus has been on detecting threats, organizations are scrambling to figure out how to disarm a threat quickly and understand how it happened. Cado Security is a digital forensics platform that helps the enterprise quickly determine what architecture is impacted and the implications. Traditional digital forensics platforms offer similar solutions but pinpointing exactly where there is a vulnerability takes hours of manually combing through disparate data. With Cado’s automatic data capture functionality, organizations can now approach their investigations with a tactical approach at cloud speed. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder James Campbell to learn more about the experience of founding this business at the onset of the pandemic, future plans, and recent round of funding, from investors that include Blossom Capital and Ten Eleven Ventures.
Doctify Raises Another $7.5M for its Healthcare Review Platform to Keep Both Patients and Providers Better Informed
70% of patients consider online reviews important when selecting a healthcare provider and 75% of people have searched for a physician online according to a recent survey from Patientpop. With reviews playing such a pivotal role in discovery, gathering reviews is not only essential as a marketing tool but also as a mechanism for clinicians to address issues that may be resulting in less than stellar patient satisfaction. Doctify is the tech-enabled healthcare review platform that provides both patients and healthcare providers with valuable insights. Founded by two physicians in 2015, the platform also offers patients the ability to schedule appointments and teleconsultations. Doctify is offered on a subscription basis to the healthcare provider and is free to use for patients. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Stephanie Eltz to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic expansion plans to further support its mission to keep both patients and healthcare providers informed, latest funding round from investors that include Keen Venture Partners, Amadeus Capital, Guinness Asset Management, and Tom Teichman.
Intelligent Power Generation Raises £2M for its Flameless Ceramic Turbine Generator That Reduces the Dependency on Fossil Fuels
Industrial generators have long relied on diesel fuel in locations like a construction site where diesel is already being used and is readily available or on gas in deployments at oil fields, where the fossil fuel is abundant. The next generation of generators is being developed to work with renewable fuel sources. Intelligent Power Generation (IPG) has developed a 100kW Flameless Ceramic Turbine Generator that works with any type of renewable fuel (hydrogen or biofuel) without any pollution. The climate tech startup is the first to offer this fuel-flexible application that’s commercially viable in terms of cost for businesses. IPG is currently focused on powering electric vehicle infrastructure, grid balancing for use with solar and wind applications, and temporary power solutions. London TechWatch caught up with CEO Toby Gill to learn more about the work that has gone into developing the company’s pioneering technology, future plans, and latest round of funding.
Axonius Raises Another $100M and Secures Unicorn Status for its Cybersecurity Asset Management Platform
According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach is $4M but only 29% of businesses have a cybersecurity expert on their IT team. As businesses use more and more data and as employees use more devices (the average employee now uses 2.3 devices), the potential liability increases each day. Axonius’ cybersecurity asset management platform gives enterprises a full inventory of their assets and ensures that these devices are properly being secured. The platform takes a holistic approach by integrating into existing cybersecurity tools and workflows and ensuring that all devices being used (whether physical or virtual) are compliant with the company’s security protocols. Founded by former intelligence officers from the Israeli Defense Force, the platform solves the fragmentation problem found in enterprises when it comes to security. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Dean Sysman to learn more about the complexities in managing sound cybersecurity policies throughout an enterprise, the company’s future plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Stripes, Bessemer Venture Partners, OpenView, Lightspeed, and Vertex.
Solidatus Raises £14M for its Data Management and Data Lineage Platform
Marc Andreessen famously proclaimed in 2011 that “software is eating the world”. Fast forward to today and it’s data eating the world. Data is growing somewhat faster or much faster than other types of data in 71% of enterprises according to Western Digital. By 2025, there will be 175 zettabytes (10,000 TB) of data. Solidatus is a metadata management and data lineage platform that’s focused on how enterprises view, manage, and understand their growing mounds of data. The company focuses on letting its customers harness the data economy, whether it’s for compliance, governance, introducing efficiencies, or even digital transformation efforts. Solidatus is currently used in a variety of industries including pharmaceuticals, banking, aerospace, manufacturing, consulting, and telecommunications. In 2020 alone, the company was able to quadruple its revenue as the pandemic introduced new complexities for data management across location and geography. London TechWatch caught up with Cofounder Philip Miller to learn more about the company, its future plans, and recent round of funding from investors that include AlbionVC, HSBC Venture,s and Citi.