Small business owners are often the jacks and jills of all trades, especially when teams are small and operations are lean. But for many businesses, the time spent handling administrative functions could be better spent building the business. Ember is an accounting and tax platform that streamlines these functions with automation, freeing up valuable time. The platform uses machine learn and has integrated open banking so that businesses can manage all aspects of taxes and accounting from a single platform. Users are able to view the business’s finances in real-time, get support from qualified experts, and optimize, pay, and file taxes with HMRC, which recently made it possible to file digitally. London TechWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Aaron Shaw to learn more about the company’s progress since we covered their pre-seed round in late 2019, fundraising during the pandemic, the company’s latest funding round from investors that include Anthemis, Spring Ventures, and Innovation Nest, and much, much more…
London Startups
Limitless Raises £8M for its Crowdsourced Customer Service Platform
Providing a remarkable customer experience throughout the customer journey is critical to the growth of any company in today’s digital age, where consumers are sophisticated and have high lofty expectations. While there is an abundance of software to help you manage these needs, setting up a fully functional 24/7 customer service center to support the customer experience process can be quite resource-intensive in terms of capital and time. Limitless allows companies to leverage crowdsourced talent to provide customer service in what the company calls a GigCX model. Experts in the gig network are passionate about the brands they are willing to provide support for and are paid for each successful case they resolve. Think of it as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk for customer service. The gig experts are able to introduce flexibility into their schedules and earn incremental income while companies are able to provide a complete customer service experience at a fraction of the cost of maintaining their own operations. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Roger Beadle to learn more about the need for this in the customer experience space, the company’s expansion plans, and recent round of funding from investors that include Redline Capital, Genesys, AlbionVC, and Unilever Ventures.
TapSimple Raises £900K for its Digital Platform to Help Charities Fundraise and Move into the Digital Era
The pandemic has pushed countless industries towards the rapid adoption of technology to survive in a contactless world and non-profits are no different. Traditional methods for fundraising have largely been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns. TapSimple is a digital payment and infrastructure platform that enables charities to these new realities by equipping them with a robust set of tools to manage their fundraising efforts. Charities can leverage contactless solutions, host video giving events, build landing pages, sell tickets, and generate QR codes seamlessly from the platform. At a time when things are so difficult for so many, TapSimple is empowering the organizations that are helping the most vulnerable. London TechWatch caught up with Cofounder Alex Coleridge to learn more about how the team’s work to help homelessness in London inspired the business, the company’s expansion plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Ecclesiastical, Lord Michael Spencer, Lord Mervyn Davies, Dominic Burke, Anthony Bolton, and Sir Martyn Lewis.
Sirenum Raises £2M for Employers to Effectively Manage Shift Workers
The process of managing and organizing shift schedules for workers can be a daunting and time-consuming task for employers. For employees, disorganized shift scheduling creates uncertainty and affects their personal lives in a number of ways including daily activities and sleep. Sirenum is a technology-enabled management solution that allows employees to manage their shift-based workforce from a single centralized platform. The startup handles a variety of tasks including scheduling, payroll, compliance, and reporting. London TechWatch caught up with Cofounder Joshua Pines to learn more about how the company emerged from a solution built for the 2012 London Olympics, the company’s future plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include William Currie Group and former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy.
Swapp Raises $7M for its End-to-End Construction Planning Platform Powered by AI
The use of technology is reshaping the construction industry today just as the introduction of specialized tools did in the past. With so many variables and moving parts in a typical construction, there’s always a risk for delays and these delays can be costly. Swapp is the AI-powered software solution that provides a centralized platform designed for the construction industry to create, manage and refine an end-to-end construction plan as circumstances change. Typical planning for a project can take anywhere between 9 months to a year; Swapp brings this down to a month. London TechWatch caught up with CEO, Cofounder, and serial entrepreneur Eitan Tsarfati to learn more about how his work at Autodesk Israel inspired this venture, the company’s future plans, and latest round of funding led by Point72 Ventures and Entrée Capital.
The January 2021 London Venture Capital Funding Report
The best single month total in London history with $1.9B+ in funding raised, fueled by 5 mega ($100M+) deals and strong Series A activity.
These 11 London Startups Raised the Most Capital in January 2021
Everything you need to need to know about the largest London startup funding rounds of January 2021; broken down by industry, stage, investors, and more…
The 10 Largest London Startup Funding Rounds of Q4 2020
The December 2020 London Venture Capital Funding Report
Funding down 28.7% MOM as much of the nation under lockdown in December. Find out where it went… Aggregate statistics for all London funding deals by stage of funding (Early, Series A, Series B, and Late) including mention of notable rounds for December 2020.
