The 1% rule of internet culture dictates that 1% of users of a site add content while the other 99% consume that content. Also, as much of the world shifted to digital during, content consumption on digital platforms increased exponentially as readers looked for sources of information, research, productivity, and entertainment. These trends have led to a meteoric rise in video and visual content (Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) Excerp is a digital media platform focused on online written content. The yet-to-launch platform, founded by three Goldman alums, seeks to provide content creators with the infrastructure and technology tools to create, curate, and distribute their content to mass audiences. While details on the product are sparse, it appears to be a blend of WordPress, Medium, and Substack with embedded marketing, distribution, and content creation tools. London TechWatch caught up with Excerp Cofounder Majid Sebti to learn more about the company’s founding, future strategic plans, and recent round of funding led by Edward Eisler.
Venture Capital
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.
OLIO Raises $43M for its Food Sharing App That’s Addressing the Massive Food Wastage Problem
The United Nations estimates that 17% of the food available to consumers goes directly into the bin. Globally 923 million tonnes of food is wasted each year. 60% of this wastage happens in the home. Addressing this massive societal problem is London startup OLIO, a food sharing marketplace that lets neighbours share excess food by taking a photo, which is then available on the platform for neighbors to pick up. The simplicity of the app has made it quite popular; OLIO has handled 25 million+ portions of food and three million non-food household items that would have ended up wasted. The pandemic has served as a tailwind for the company, with a 5x increase in listing, as people reconsidered their relationship to the environment and sustainable choices. London TechWatch caught up with OLIO CEO and Founder Tessa Clarke to learn more about the genesis of the company, strategic plans, latest round of funding from investors that include VNV Global, Lugard Road Capital, DX Ventures (the venture arm of Delivery Hero), Accel, Octopus Ventures, and Rubio.
PassFort Raises £11.7M for its Platform that Automates Compliance for Financial Institutions
KYC and AML requirements typically require financial institutions to rely on numerous third-party data providers for both onboarding and ongoing monitoring. PassFort streamlines this process into a single robust dashboard that integrates 25+ different data providers, mitigating the chance of fraud and security vulnerabilities. Digitally-focused financial institutions (neo-banks, fintech startups, global banks, and platform banks) can now deliver real-time, risk-based decisioning combined with fast, customer-friendly experiences. PassFort consolidates and streamlines both the onboarding process and ongoing customer management to meet ever-changing regulatory requirements, leaving institutions protected with detailed audit trails. London TechWatch caught up with PassFort CEO and Founder Donald Gillies to learn more about the genesis of the business, strategic plans, latest round of funding Level Equity, OpenOcean, Episode 1, and Entrepreneur First.
Signifier Medical Technologies Raises Another $35M to Address Sleep Disordered Breathing
Sleep apnea and snoring affect one and three people. If not addressed, obstructed sleep apnea can lead to serious health issues including diabetes, heart attack, hypertension, and glaucoma. Most therapy to address sleep apnea has been centered around invasive CPAP machines. Signifier Medical Technologies is a med-tech startup focused on non-invasive solutions for sleep-disordered breathing conditions. In February, the company received FDA approval for eXciteOSA, a medical device that provides neuromuscular stimulation to the tongue to address the conditions causing sleep apnea. Unlike other treatments, the device is used during the day and not while the patient is sleeping, resulting in increased comfort and convenience. 2- minute treatments have been shown to drastically improve the quality of sleep and reduce obstructive sleep apnea and snoring. There is a connected app for the device that encourages patient adherence and also provides valuable data to clinicians. London TechWatch caught up with CFO Alastair Maxwell to learn more about the company’s groundbreaking treatment, strategic plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Alan Howard, Segulah Medical Acceleration, Pioneer Healthcare Partners, and Angelus Partners.
Palta Raises $100M to Build a Consumer Health and Wellbeing Factory
Normally, when a startup matures it brings to consider inorganic growth paths of growth. Startups that acquire a number of businesses may soon be operating a holding company across several lines of business. Palta shakes this model up from the onset by focusing on building several brands concurrently focused on the health and wellbeing space. Approaching it this way has several advantages: products within the portfolio are able to benefit from shared user bases, knowledge transfer from what’s working and not working, funding, shared infrastructure, and shared resources. The company currently operates Flo.Health, Zing Fitness Coach, Voir, Prisma Labs, and Simple Fasting; boasting more than 2.4M paid users with the plans to launch and acquire new applications covering more segments. This fluid model allows Palta to operate at the intersection of private equity, venture studio, incubator, and app maker. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Yuri Gurski to learn more about building a vertically integrated health and wellness cofounding company, the startup’s future plans, recent round of funding from investors that include VNV Global and Target Global.
Disciple Media Raises $6M to Let Creators Build Their Own Owned Audiences Rather Than Relying on Social Networks
The meteoric rise of the newest social networks is largely because of the work of creators rather than the network itself, which has many creators questioning the dependency on individual platforms. Creators spend countless hours developing content with little reward and face the constant risk of algorithm changes, policy shifts, bans, and monetization restrictions when they opt to build their followings on one of the popular social networks. Disciple Media is a SaaS platform that lets these individuals own the access to their audiences by allowing creators to build their own digital communities. The platform offers branded social spaces on the web, iOS, and Android that are easy to set up and maintain. Functions available include unlimited groups, messaging, push notifications, live streaming, and a host of monetization options including subscription, selling courses, and exclusive content. Disciple currently hosts over 2M users across 500 communities. London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Founder Benji Vaughan to learn more about how his own experience in the music business inspired the platform, the company’s strategic plans, and latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $6.14M.
Electric Gamebox Raises Another $11M for its Social In-Person Immersive Gaming Experiences
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.
Yellowpop Raises $4M to Make Neon Signs a Staple of Home Decor
The global online home décor market nearly reached $100B in 2020 and is expected to topple $350B by 2027. The pandemic reoriented how we view our homes and lockdowns led countless individuals to focus their attention and finances on improving the aesthetic of their living situations. Yellowpop is a direct-to-consumer home décor startup that’s hoping that LED neon signs will be a part of this increased shift. The company offers both custom options, where consumers can design their signs, and also from its collection, which includes limited editions co-produced with leading artists, designers, and creators. London TechWatch caught up with cofounder Jeremy Cortial to learn more about the inspiration that led to turning neon signs into art, the company’s strategic plans, recent funding round from Eutopia, and much, much more.
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.