Member Article

This summer's five biggest Brexit-busting funding rounds in London

As we approach the tail end of a summer that will be forever defined by June’s generation-defining EU referendum, the panic and hysteria wrought on that strange Friday morning in June when London woke up to that earth-shuddering ‘out’ vote seems a very long time ago.

Of course, we’re still dealing with the fallout from that pivotal decision, and arguments continue to ripple across the country as to the whys and wherefores of the Brexit vote.

However, what cannot be denied is the fact that the capital’s startup ecosystem, in the face of all the uncertainty and fear, has continued to attract multi-million pound investments from both domestic and international backers.

With this in mind, we’ve picked five of the biggest funding deals in London this summer that we think show that London is still very much open for business.

Deliveroo - $275m Series E

Despite recent travails regarding proposed changes to its rider payments (which have been scrapped…for now), the London startup closed one of the summer’s biggest funding rounds back at the beginning of August.

Its $275m (approx. £210m) Series E round was led by new investor Bridgepoint Capital, along with contribution from General Catalyst and existing investors DST Global and Greenoaks Capital, and underlined its continued pre-eminent position in the on-demand delivery market.

Not only was the nine-figure funding round a vote of confidence in the homegrown startup scene, but it also hinted that one of the UK’s biggest tech success stories was confidently taking the fight to US giants UberEATs and Amazon on its home turf.

what3words - $8.5 Series B

Addressing platform what3words was one of the first companies in the capital to close a multi-million funding round in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.

Its original 3-word addressing system, which splits the world into 57 trillion 3m by 3m squares, is already changing the lives of some of the world’s poorest people and is a testament to the outward looking nature of the many of the city’s startups.

The $8.5m (approx. £6.3m) Series B funding round was led by Aramex, a UEA-based global logistics firm, showing that big firms weren’t shying away from investing in the UK less than a week after the ‘out’ vote.

TruRating - £9.5m Series A

Founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Georgina Nelson, TruRating is taking the fight to Trip Advisor with its transparent rating system that guarantees feedback is gleaned from real, paying customers.

The startup closed a £9.5m Series A funding round at the beginning of August, which brought total funding to £13.7m, with participation from international investment firm Sandaire.

With ambitions to expand the service to America and Canada imminently, the investment proved that startups with international expansion ambitions wouldn’t be having their wings clipped.

WeSwap - £6.5m funding round

A London-based startup specialising in currency exchange closing a $10m (£7.7m) funding round a little over two weeks after the EU referendum was both timely and curiously symbolic.

Coming on the same day that microinvesting app Moneybox also closed its own $1.75m (approx. £1.3m) funding round, the investment in both firms demonstrated to the world that the capital was confidently retaining its preeminent position as a global FinTech innovation hub despite all economic and political uncertainty that was swirling around at the time.

Vallie - $750k seed funding

While not quite as eye-wateringly huge as some of the multi-million funding rounds covered here, on-demand valet startup Vallie’s $750k (approx. £568k) seed investment is still significant for what it tells us about the state of London’s startup ecosystem following Brexit.

Namely, that the entrepreneurial zeal of Londoners with innovative ideas and the vibrant investment environment to back those ideas isn’t something that just disappears overnight.

Founded in 2015, Vallie came about after founders Nash Islam and Robin Doble had suffered innumerable headaches and faced exorbitant costs getting parked in Central London.

Their app, which allows users to have their car picked up and parked in a secure location before being returned to them within 15 minutes, has already drawn backing from early-stage tech investors SAATCHiNVEST and angel Danny Kessler.

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