This Week in London Startups

By London Startup Club

This Week in London Startups - Issue #26, 26th October 2021

#26・ Oct 26, 2021

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This Week in London Startups - Issue #26, 26th October 2021

By London Startup Club • Issue #26 • View online

When’s the last time you attended an in-person conference?

…..

Yep, it’s been that long for us too. We’re excited that next week the London Startup Club team will be at WebSummit in Lisbon. Come say hi if you are attending 👋

It has been a tough 18+ months for the events industry and all those involved. Overnight all in-person events were stopped, we then saw the rise of virtual events (full disclosure: I’m an early employee @ Hopin) that saw us be able to engage others from home like we never thought we could before.

Now we move into this next phase for the events industry where some events will remain virtual as it makes sense and is more cost-effective, some events will go back to in-person as that’s an important component to the events success and some organisers are going down the fairly untrodden path of Hybrid events. The innovation in this space is exciting though and how we share experiences will continue to evolve.

As for WebSummit - I’m excited to be back after a few years to listen and network with some of the best leaders and innovators in Europe. We’ll also be enjoying the beautiful city of Lisbon.

Aydan Al-Saad, Occasional Contributor & Founder @ London Startup Club

Top News

How ACF Investors fund has backed 100 high-growth companies in less than 10 years, more here
London digital bank Zopa becomes a unicorn, hits £220M funding, more here
Babylon goes public, read founder Ali Parsa’s note to shareholders here
Amazon is building a Clubhouse competitor that turns hosts into DJs, more here
Europe’s biggest climate VC just came out of stealth with a €350m fund, more here
Europe needs to grow startups faster, warns ex-Cisco boss, more here
Facebook is spending at least $10 billion this year on its metaverse division, more here
Adobe’s Behance adds support for NFTs and paid subscriptions, more here
Your startup isn’t ready for Europe’s privacy shake-up — but here’s how it can be, more here

UK Funding Rounds

UK-based VC Balderton Capital participates in £19M funding round of travel expenses AI startup Yokoy, more here
London-based ethical data pioneer CitizenMe raises £1.5M to grow globally, more here
London-based biotech Leucid Bio raises £11.5M funding for hard-to-treat cancers, more here
Carbon footprint tracker Cogo raises $20M ahead of COP26 UN climate summit, more here
UK fintech TransferGo announces new customer experience head post $50M funding, more here
London-based Flexciton picks up £15M funding in the times of global chip shortage, more here
Customer data platform from UK, Distil.ai secures £400K funding to grow further, more here
London’s networking platform Guild raises $2.7M to take on Linkedin and Whatsapp, more here
London fintech Updraft wants to lend £200M to UK users in 2022; raises £72M funding, more here
UK’s first online clinic for women Naytal bags £300K funding, launches after beta period, more here
British satellite scale-up Satellite Vu raises £15M in oversubscribed funding, more here
Eyeing to support first time home buyers in UK, Proportunity raises over £100M equity funding, more here
Materials Market attracts £1.5M funding from Fuel Ventures to scaleup its digital solution, more here
UK’s events tech scaleup HeadBox closes £2M to accelerate global expansion, more here
UK fintech founded by ex-PayPal workers, disruptor hits $425M valuation with $50M funding, more here

International Highlights

TIER wants to change mobility for good; raises $200M funding, more here
Rossum raises $100m in one of eastern Europe’s largest Series A rounds, more here
Australian QuintessenceLabs grabs $25M to scale quantum-safe cybersecurity solutions, more here
Cyabra gets $5.6M Series A to launch news disinformation detection analysis tools, more here
Medable reaches $2.1B valuation as Tiger, Blackstone, GSR pump new capital into clinical trials management company, more here
SoftBank bets big on Pipefy, which just raised $75M for its ‘low-code’ workflow management tool, more here
Market demand for cybersecurity products helps Devo raise $250M at unicorn valuation, more here