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September 26 · Issue #64 · View online
Steve's In The Know: Thoughts from a European tech insider.
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Despite VCs penning memos emotionally pressurising founders to āget back to the officeā - in a verse straight out of Conservative Party HQ and with the R rate rising and just before test and trace imploded - Iām still shielding in a self imposed lockdown. As ITK readers will be aware of, if I catch COVID-19 Iām fairly likely to have an exit of my own. I know what youāre thinking, who then will cover the latest European venture capital firm fund launch or investment? To which I say, please remember to clap for the VCs.Ā Talking of VCs, Iāve reported on four new venture fund launches in the past month as Europe continues to recharge its deployable capital. They include Point Nine, Kindred Capital, Crista Galli Ventures, and Santanderās new āindependentā fund Mouro Capital (see āThings I wrote recentlyā below). I also conducted several VC interviews that are worth reading, including an as live video interview with Hussein Kanji of Hoxton Ventures as part of TechCrunchās first all virtual Disrupt conference.Ā Iāve always thought Kanji was slightly misunderstood, sometimes coming across via his Twitter account as a free market zealot when in actual fact his views on a range of issues are far more nuanced. We delved into some of the things heās learned by backing three unicorns - Deliveroo, Babylon and Darktrace - and I got his take on how founders and VCs should approach ethical scaling and if real disruption always brings about unintended consequences.Ā
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āAI-poweredā fitness app Freeletics scores $25M Series B
FUNDING: Freeletics, the āAI-poweredā fitness coaching app, has closed $25 million in Series B funding. Leading the round is U.S.-based JAZZ Venture Partners and Causeway Media Partners, with support from KKCG.
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Uncapped picks up another $26M to offer revenue-based finance to European entrepreneurs
FUNDING: Uncapped, the London-headquartered and Warsaw-based startup that offers ārevenue-basedā finance to European businesses so that founders donāt have to give up equity stipulated by venture capital, has raised $26 million in new funding.
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Caura, an app to take the hassle out of car ownership, launches from Echo co-founder Sai Lakshmi
LAUNCH: Caura, a new U.K. startup that aims to take the hassle out of car ownership, is breaking cover today. Founded by Sai Lakshmi, who previously co-founded Echo, the medication management service acquired by LloydsPharmacy owner McKesson, Caura is an iOS app designed to manage all of the vehicle-related admin that car owners endure.
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Europeās Point Nine outs new ~ā¬100M fund to back early-stage SaaS and digital marketplaces
VENTURE: Point Nine, the pan-European early-stage VC focused on SaaS and digital marketplaces, has raised its fifth fund, totalling just short of ā¬100 million (in fact, āP9 Vā is a ā¬99,999,999 fund ā get it?). Despite its Berlin, Germany roots, the VC has always operated fairly remotely and invests globally.
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Kindred Capital closes Ā£81M second fund to back early-stage European startups
VENTURE: Kindred Capital, the London-based VC that backs early-stage founders in Europe, has closed its second seed fund at Ā£81 million. Thatās only a tad larger than the firmās first fund, which invested in 29 companies and was raised in 2018.
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VCs have to train themselves to āask the stupid questions,ā says Hoxton Venturesā Hussein Kanji
VENTURE: If venture capitalists could predict the future, why wouldnāt they just start companies themselves? Thatās the question Hussein Kanji, founding partner at Hoxton Ventures, asked rhetorically at Disrupt 2020.
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Does early-stage health tech need more āpatientā capital?
INTERVIEW: Crista Galli Ventures, a new early-stage health tech fund in Europe, officially launched last week. The firm offers āpatient capitalā ā with only a single LP (the Danish family office IPQ Capital) ā and promises to provide portfolio companies with deep healthcare expertise and the extra runway needed to get over regulatory and efficacy hurdles.
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Infarm raises $170M in equity and debt to continue building its āvertical farmingā network
FUNDING: Infarm, the vertical farming company that has built a network of urban farms to grow fresh food closer to consumers, has raised $170 million in new investment in a āfirst closeā of a Series C.
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Kbox picks up Ā£12M additional funding to let underused commercial kitchens do takeout for delivery
FUNDING: Kbox Global, the U.K. startup that turns underused commercial kitchen space into takeout delivery hubs ā therefore helping existing kitchens generate much-needed revenue ā has raised Ā£12 million in new funding.
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Outfunnel picks up ā¬1.1M pre-seed to bridge the gap between marketing and sales
FUNDING: Outfunnel, a startup that has built software to help companies ābridge the gap between marketing and sales functions,ā has quietly raised ā¬1.1 million in funding. The pre-seed round was led by Paua Ventures and byFounders, with participation from Lemonade Stand, Omnisend and various angel investors.
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Gravity Sketch scores $3.7M seed for its VR-based product design and collaboration platform
FUNDING: Gravity Sketch, the London-based product design and collaboration platform that utilises virtual reality, has raised $3.7 million in funding. The seed round was led by Kindred Capital, with participation from Point Nine Capital and previous investor Forward Partners.
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Crista Galli Ventures outs āevergreenā fund to back European health tech startups at seed and Series A
VENTURE: Crista Galli Ventures, an early-stage health tech fund in Europe, has officially launched.
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Spotawheel raises ā¬10M debt and equity for its āend-to-endā used car buying platform
FUNDING: Spotawheel, the āend-to-endā digital platform for buying a used car in Poland and Greece, has raised ā¬10 million in debt and equity funding, as it sees a bounce-back from the slowdown witnessed as the coronavirus crisis took hold.
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Virtual healthcare provider Medefer raises Ā£10M to digitise the outpatient journey
FUNDING: Medefer, the U.K.-based virtual healthcare provider that, in its own words, is āreimaginingā the outpatient system, is disclosing Ā£10 million in new funding.
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Santander spins out its $400M fintech venture capital arm, now called Mouro Capital
VENTURE: Santander, the Spanish multinational banking giant, is announcing that its fintech venture arm is to be spun out and will be managed more autonomously going forward. Previously known as Santander InnoVentures and established in 2014, the VC is being re-branded to Mouro Capital.
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Coinbase UX teardown: 5 fails and how to fix them
PRODUCT: Digital currency exchange Coinbase has probably done more than most to push cryptocurrencies closer to the mainstream, earning an $8 billion valuation by private investors along the way.
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Curio, the curated audio platform for journalism, has closed $9M Series A funding
FUNDING: Curio, the burgeoning audio platform that offers a curated library of āexpertā journalism, has closed $9 million in Series A round funding. The round is led by Earlybird, with participation from Draper Esprit, Cherry Ventures and Horizons Ventures.
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Swyg raises $1.2M pre-seed to use peer-interviewers and AI to reduce bias in recruitment
FUNDING: Swyg, a Dublin-based startup that believes it can reduce bias in recruitment by combining a peer-interview process with its own AI, has picked up $1.2 million in pre-seed funding.
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Skin Analytics raises Ā£4M Series A to use AI for skin cancer screening
FUNDING: Skin Analytics, a U.K.-based startup that has developed a skin cancer screening service that uses artificial intelligence, has raised Ā£4 million in Series A funding.
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Revolut loses its head of regulatory compliance, hires two former Amazon execs
SCOOP: More personnel changes at Revolut are in motion, as a key member of the leadership team leaves for Barclays, and two former Amazon staffers join the London-headquartered neobank, including a new chief operating officer. TechCrunch understands that Chris Sing, Revolutās head of regulatory compliance is leaving to take up the position at Barclays.
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Itās nearly that time of the year again for the UK tech awards, and I was pleased to learn this week that Iāve been shortlisted for ātech journalist of the yearā award again. In what Iāve dubbed the group of death, the competition is especially tough, including Dan McCrum, the journalist responsible for breaking the Wirecard scandal. In other words, Iām not expecting to win, even though Iāve had a particularly strong year of scoops and ecosystem coverage. On the other hand, presuming I do lose, at least I wonāt need to change my Twitter bio :-) Wish me luck and be kind to each other, Steve
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Have feedback or something to say? Hit reply. I answer every single ITK email (as long as it isnāt a pitch).
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