Oct 5, 2021

This Week in London Startups - Issue #23, 5th October 2021

By London Startup Club • Issue #23 • View online

Facebook’s 6-hour outage is the worst in years, affecting Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

To make matters worse, it wasn’t just affecting customers but also caused major disruptions on internal systems with employees unable to enter office buildings or get any work done.

if you’re interested to understand what actually happened, Rob Graham, founder of Errata Security has explained the technicals here in a Twitter thread.

The outage continued as markets closed, causing Facebook’s stock to drop by 5%. That may seem a lot, but the trillion-dollar company has nearly 3 billion monthly active users causing a lot of disruption.

It’s also important to remember that many developing countries and small businesses rely on the Facebook network to run their businesses. An outage of 6 hours means no orders through Instagram or WhatsApp.

It’s a reminder of the monopoly Facebook has over communications and services around the world. This has led to more conversation, being led by US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that Facebook should be broken up in her latest post on Instagram.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see if this outage does spark a bigger conversation around tech monopolies or if these companies are now simply too big to fail.

Haris Qureshi, Editor & Co-Founder @ London Startup Club

Spotlight

This week we are spotlighting the Go To Market team at Multiverse.

Multiverse is building an outstanding alternative to university through professional apprenticeships. Just last week, they announced the close of a record-breaking $130m Series C investment round.

In the last 12 months, revenue at the company has grown 4x - and the engine driving this growth is the Go To Market Team.

The Go To Market team is led by sales experts, such as Multiverse President Jeremy Duggan, who’ve taken three other startups to billion-dollar valuations. Account Executives work from a world-class playbook.

The company will recruit more than 500 new staff in the next 12 months, with many roles in the Go To Market team currently available. It’s the perfect place for anyone looking to turbocharge a career in sales, offering best in class coaching and development.

Check out all their open roles here and a featured role for an Enterprise Account Executive.

If you’re interested, please reach out to Ryan who manages all hiring within the GTM team at Multiverse.

Got something worth shining a spotlight on? Message me on LinkedIn, and we’ll get you scheduled in for an upcoming newsletter!

Top News

8-Bit Capital, co-led by Jonathan Abrams, has closed its first fund with $40 million, more here
Gorillas founder talks of “terminating” employee attempting to unionise, according to leaked internal Slack, more here
FoundersHK, created to strengthen Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem, holds its first demo day, more here
Cazoo-backer Eight Roads launches $450m fund for European scaleups, more here
Geely’s Volvo Cars will file for IPO on Stockholm’s Nasdaq, more here
The list: September’s hottest European seed investments, more here
Facebook whistleblower reveals identity, says company ‘chooses profits over safety’, more here
Neurodiversity and the software design dilemma, more here
Klarna and Revolut backer GP Bullhound closes Fund V at £257M, more here
Revolut leadership under pressure from staff to address stark pay gap, more here

UK Funding Rounds

Cardiff fintech Sonovate exceeds £2B funding milestone as contract working soars post pandemic, more here
London-based Reachdesk raises £31.75M funding to propel corporate gifting, more here
London-based electric truck pioneer Tevva secures £4.2M funding for long-range production, more here
Early investors in Revolut back London-based fintech Crezco in £3M funding, more here
Jeff Bezos invests in London’s digital supply chain and freight platform Beacon, more here
London automated crypto trading platform Coinrule bags $2.2M from Twitch and Fitbit founders, more here
UK-founded security unicorn snags $75M for digital transformation, more here
Cambridge-based confidential computing startup Profian secures $5M funding for cloud native development, more here
UK-based virtual dentistry app Toothfairy raises £3M seed funding, more here
China’s NetEase pours $120M funding in London-based game developer Kepler Interactive, more here
Money transfer fintech TransferGo nabs $50M to pursue accelerated programme of digital payments transformation, more here
Lifebit, London startup bags £44.3M to democratise access to global biomedical data, more here
London healthtech Heydoc raises £6.1M for developing integrated clinical system managing patients efficiently, more here
Al Gore’s Generation takes $600M stake in Octopus Energy to drive sustainability and fight against climate change in the UK, more here

International Highlights

Britain’s BP Ventures enters India, leads $25M funding in EV ride-hailing startup BluSmart, more here
Lawpath gets $7.5M AUD to become the Asia Pacific’s LegalZoom, more here
YC grad Wasp lands $1.5M seed to help developers build web apps faster, more here
Elevate launches its approach to managing pre-tax benefits with $12M Series A, more here