Tag Archives: Funding

E-Commerce, News

Online Underwear Brand, Nudea, Announces Seed Fund Raise To Grow Fit-Centric Inclusive Offering

Fit-Centric online underwear brand NUDEA, today announces a further £600,000 in seed funding, marking the start-up’s second successful round. The win also caps off the brand’s first full year of trading – with more months operating under COVID-19 restrictions than during pre-pandemic months.

The investment comes as more customers seek accessible, size-inclusive, stylish options for bra-shopping online – an activity accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nudea’s mission to help bra-wearers find their true fit has attracted this new pool of investors to support the round, bringing the total raised since inception in late 2019 to £1.1m. Backers include seed-stage firm Cornerstone Partners, and a group of angels led by investor James Eden, with both parties joining Nudea’s Board. Also participating in the raise are the brand’s founders.

Wilfred Fianko, Co Founder of lead investor Cornerstone Partners says of the backing: “Supporting Nudea’s female founders on their entrepreneurship journey is for us a highlight. Their industry expertise and vision for the future of the online underwear space is really inspiring. I’m excited to see them build out their team, sustain and scale the brand’s remarkable year-one success and make further impact in terms of accessibility in self-fitting.”

Priya Downes, CEO and co-founder of Nudea comments: “Having the backing of Cornerstone Partners is an ideal fit for Nudea – particularly their commitment to underrepresented founders and inclusive businesses. As a female-led business whose central ethos is inclusivity, we are pleased to be aligning with a fund that complements our values. We have an absolutely stellar team of product innovators, most notably Sophie, our creative director, who has over 25 years’ experience leading design at renowned underwear brands. We’re really excited to have the backing and support of our investors to grow our business set to an exciting backdrop of a rapidly-changing retail environment.”

Nudea Co-founder and CEO Priya Downes comments: “The pandemic has, in fact, served as a tailwind for us to grow even faster than we could have predicted, given our value proposition of self-fitting, simple online purchasing and hassle-free returns. We have also seen that COVID-19 has accelerated digital change in the shopping space by 3 to 4 years in the space of 6 months. We genuinely believe customer behaviour has permanently shifted too, and the future of bra shopping is virtual, online and from the comfort of your home.

None of this comes as a surprise to Nudea. Of their value system which has sat at the heart of the brand from day one, Priya says: “We make it our business that bra-wearers feel supported and that means accountability when it comes to inclusivity, diversity and accessibility. We’re particularly supportive of those going through bodily change, which is when bra-fitting is essential, but emotions are often high. We saw that the traditional retail environment wasn’t servicing these bra-wearers, so we developed our bespoke Fit Tape product, combined with our Virtual Fit and Online sizing quiz. Those bra-wearers are now coming to NUDEA – to the safe space that we’ve created.”

News

UK charities struggle to reach recipients as two thirds are at risk of administration

Almost two in three (62%) NPOs say they will be less able to reach the recipients who benefit from their services, despite a 25% increase in demand for their services, according to new research from Sage Foundation.

Over two thirds (68%) say they are at risk of going into administration, while four in five (80%) cite a continued lack of funding as the sector’s biggest obstacle. This amounts to 72% of NPOs who say they will be less able to deliver their projects or undertake work in 2021.

Almost a third (31%) of non-profits expect their funding to decrease by as much as half from 2020, a year in which financial support was already heavily depleted due to COVID-19.

Funding across multiple channels, including government and public fundraising, has dramatically dropped. Just 11% received the majority of their funding from public fundraising in 2021, versus 20% of those who received the same in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Similarly, just 12% received the majority of their funding from commissioned services, for example government awarded funds or contracts, versus 21% pre-pandemic.

Some NPOs have identified ways in which they could overcome these challenges and could get access to better funding. Over two thirds (67%) say better skills at pitching for funding, including better organisational financial literacy could improve their funding chances in 2021.

NPOs often lack specific skills such as financial management due to resource constraints, with 65,000 job losses in the sector in 2020 compounding this issue.

In response, Sage Foundation today launches a programme to support non-profits to have confidence for the future by building stronger business and financial planning into their organisations. Sage Foundation NPO Success offers eligible non-profits discounts on Sage Business Cloud product subscriptions, free financial management tools, training opportunities and an online support community.

Paul Struthers, Managing Director, Sage, UK and Ireland said: “It would be another sad legacy of this pandemic if two in three UK charities go into administration, particularly when demand for their services is at an all-time high. Organisational financial literacy is key to supporting NPOs to adapt and build confidence for the future.

“Our NPO Success programme will help non-profit organisations successfully unlock more opportunities by supporting them to save time, reduce costs, eliminate errors, achieve compliance and most importantly be more effective at gaining and managing financial support so they can support their communities.”

Kate Welch OBE DL, Trustee of Acumen Community Buildings and Sage non-profit customer said: “This is the most challenging time I have known as a charity trustee or Chief Executive.

“Having good financial management and forecasting is crucial to our survival as well as our mission to continue to make a difference in our community. We welcome these resources and the help Sage can offer and I know many other charities will be able to make good use of this to help with raising funds and diversifying their income.”

Non-profit organisations can utilise the free information resources and check eligibility for the product offer.

News, Tech

Tribepad Ventures, a new entrepreneurship platform for work tech start-ups, launches in Sheffield

Leading recruitment software provider Tribepad has announced plans to place Sheffield at the centre of work-tech innovation, with the launch of Tribepad Ventures and a new £1m fund.

Based in Sheffield, Tribepad Ventures will serve as an incubator and accelerator for new companies in the HR technology space. As a non-executive Director of Tribepad, Alex Raubitschek joins Tribepad founders Dean Sadler and Dan Kirkland on the board of Tribepad Ventures. Alex is a specialist work tech adviser with over 20 years’ experience and will lead Tribepad Venture’s investment committee, offering strategic oversight to companies within the ecosystem.

Tribepad Ventures aims to attract work tech businesses at the incubator and accelerator stages of their life cycles. Those businesses will receive advice to help refine their ideas, scale the technology and build out business plans. These businesses will also have access to seed capital, technical support, and business coaching. Work tech businesses in the early stage of growth will qualify for Tribepad Ventures’ accelerator support. Here they can access capital, best in class technical support and scaling advice so they can achieve growth outcomes over a defined period.

Tribepad serves some of the UK’s best-known organisations including the BBC, Subway, Sodexo and Tesco. Its award-winning talent acquisition software – including its Applicant Tracking System, Video Interviewing, Onboarding and Contractor Management solutions – helps organisations save time and money in the recruitment process, all while delivering a great user experience.

Despite COVID-19, the UK is still the unicorn capital of Europe. Technology investment soared to over £10bn in 2019, more than Germany and France combined. Furthermore, UK investment in early stage companies is currently £3.9bn across 77 unicorns with three digital tech unicorns in Yorkshire alone.

Work tech businesses keen to apply to Tribepad Ventures’ programme are urged to apply through the website, here.

Commenting on the launch of Tribepad Ventures, Dean Sadler explained: “The UK economy has been hard hit by Covid-19. At the same time, we’ve seen huge changes in the way companies, large and small, operate. We’ve gone from occasional flexible working, to full-time hybrid models. And that’s thrown up huge challenges in how businesses manage and hire people.

“But we’ve hit a problem. Businesses are demanding better solutions to help them cope with these challenges. But investment is hard to come by at a time where the economy has contracted and purses have tightened.

“Through Tribepad Ventures we want to offer budding entrepreneurs our tech expertise, world leading enterprise-level technology, and anonymised data on millions of job applications to create the work-tech of the future. We want to work with new companies to help change the face of business productivity and employee experiences at businesses large and small, while driving and establishing Sheffield at the centre of tech excellence.”

Finance and Banking, News

Omnio Group launches Vox Money to give a voice to those who deserve a new world of financial services

Vox products and services will provide a more flexible and equitable alternative to traditional high street banks

Omnio’s Credit Union business Kesho, has launched Vox Money, a portfolio of financial products and services that deliver greater financial control to those in society that need it the most and that have been unable to access traditional high street banking.

Too often many of the most vulnerable people in society have been excluded from financial advice and planning simply because of their demographic or financial circumstances. In fact, over a million people in the UK do not have a bank account. As a result, these unbanked individuals pay a “poverty premium” of approximately £480 per year as they cannot access the special offers and discounts available to those who use existing banking services[1].

Vox Money will be a significant step towards reducing that exclusion and will allow individuals and families to plan their finances, make informed decisions when managing their money and give them an alternative to mainstream banking. Crucially, Vox Money’s digital bank account will be accessible to everyone, regardless of their financial history.

With no credit checks[2}, a Visa Card[3], budgeting tools, loyalty & rewards as well as 24/7 access to financial services, Vox Money’s app and website makes it easy for customers to manage their money and payments. Using secure and advanced technology to outperform existing banks, Vox Money’s offering is open to anyone over the age of 18 and ensures those people who have been ignored by high street banks or are simply looking for an alternative can have access to an online account too.

By listening too, and working closely with its existing Credit Union client base Vox Money is preparing to roll out the new portfolio of services across the UK and Ireland in 2021 and the move is the beginning of a new phase of Kesho’s growth in the credit union sector as part of the Omnio Group.

In addition Kesho’s recent partnerships with organisations such as Credit Union Financial Analytics (CUFA) and Credit Kudos means those managing and monitoring Vox Money accounts on behalf of their members will have all the data and analysis they need to make informed lending decisions.

Lindsay Ward, Executive Director said: “In this digitally connected world of affordable smartphones there is simply no reason not to have access to financial services. Vox Money has been designed with simplicity, fairness, and ease of use at its core. As a proud member of the Credit Union community in the UK and Ireland, we are here to support those members of society who are entitled to effective financial planning, regardless of their background.

“A key focus for us is to provide our Credit Union partners with a range of digital solutions to empower their members & communities. Kesho has always led technology and product development in the Credit Union sector and with Vox Money we are giving a voice and real choice for those in society who need straightforward and secure personal financial management,” concluded Ward.

Adrian Cannon CEO Omnio Group said: “The launch of Vox Money is an exciting catalyst for Kesho. We have always worked closely with our credit union partners and this new range of products of services gives them a market leading platform to take their businesses even further. It will also help thousands of people get on top of their finances in ways they haven’t had before, and we are proud of that.

“2020 was a period of strategic partnerships and targeted recruitment for Kesho and the Vox Money launch is a real highlight as we prepare for the New Year. We are in now a great position to continue our sustainable growth in 2021,” concluded Cannon.

Finance News, News

EclecticIQ raises €20 million in Series C funding

EclecticIQ, a global threat intelligence, hunting and response technology provider, has raised €20 million ($24 million) in Series C financing, led by Ace Management, Europe’s leading cyber growth investor.

Other contributors to the funding round include Capricorn Digital Growth Fund and Quest for Growth, Invest-NL, Arches Capital and existing investors INKEF Capital, KEEN Venture Partners and KPN ventures. This brings the company’s total funding raised to €47 million over a four-year period, making it among the best funded global cybersecurity scale-ups based in Europe.

Funding will go towards deepening the company’s commitment to government, large enterprises and service providers, expanding its portfolio and increasing the company’s global footprint. With this investment EclecticIQ will accelerate its strategy to transform from a leading threat intelligence platform vendor into an innovative cybersecurity leader across the globe.

As cyber threats continue to evolve rapidly, intelligence-led cybersecurity has become the norm. EclecticIQ’s growing customer base relies on its threat intelligence platform as the single source of truth for cyber threats and incidents. The financing will drive further innovation of the platform with new use cases, enabling governments, large enterprises and service providers to effectively manage threat intelligence, create situational awareness and adopt an intelligence-led cybersecurity approach.

Having mastered threat intelligence technology, the company sees adjacent opportunities in operationalizing threat intelligence, as this is a problem that has not been solved in the market yet. With the recent acquisition of PolyLogyx’s end-point technology, the company is well positioned to develop new solutions that re-imagine how organizations detect, hunt and respond to sophisticated threats.

To accelerate growth, EclecticIQ will use the funding to expand its commercial teams in Europe and the United States, and establish a presence in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Leveraging its experience with governments, and some of the most targeted enterprises globally, the company will expand its focus to new segments and strengthen its global partner ecosystem.

François Lavaste, Partner at Ace Management who will join EclecticIQ’s board of directors, said: “We are convinced that Ace Management’s new investment will help the company to improve and accelerate its solutions that enable the world’s biggest governments and commercial enterprises to identify and protect against the most intense cyber threats.”

Joep Gommers, EclecticIQ’s co-founder and chief executive officer said, “It is exciting to bring in a high-caliber cyber investor like Ace Management, which shares our vision of threat intelligence at the core of cybersecurity, and sees the opportunity to transform the industry by solving massive challenges faced in threat detection, hunting and response. This financial investment will enable EclecticIQ to drive the industry forward and support our clients more effectively facing an ever-evolving threat landscape.”

EclecticIQ has seen impressive growth over the years:
• Growth: In 2019, the company grew its revenue by 84 percent by successfully expanding the company’s market segments from government to larger financial organizations, telecoms and big tech companies.
• Product: EclecticIQ is continuing to push the envelope, with a new intelligence ingestion engine introduced to the EclecticIQ Platform, improving robustness and scalability of the company’s core threat intelligence technology.
• Industry alliances: The company is a sponsor member of OASIS, EclecticIQ joined the Open Cybersecurity Alliance (OCA), along with some of the biggest names in cybersecurity.
• Leadership: The company further strengthened its leadership team, adding Wytse Bouma (ex Rockstart) as CFO, and Ciaran Bradley (ex Adaptive Mobile, Kemp) as CTO.
• Board: Three new members have been appointed to its board: Ben Verwaayen (KEEN Venture Partners, previously CEO of BT Group PLC Alcatel-Lucent, President of KPN Telecom and Vice-Chairman of Lucent Technologies), François Lavaste (Partner, Ace Management) and Katrin Geyskens (Partner, Capricorn Partners). The Board is chaired by Sam van der Feltz (ex Unilever, TNS & EMI).

Bryan, Garnier & Co acted as sole financial advisor and sole placement agent for EclecticIQ.

Food & Drink, News

Lyre’s secures £9m investment to lead global non-alcoholic spirit growth

The world’s most awarded non-alcoholic spirits company, Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Spirit Co. has announced the successful closure of seed round funding, securing a total of £9m in growth capital, the most material investment on record to date for the category.

This significant business injection accelerates Lyre’s vision of changing the way the world drinks and provides ongoing investment for core product growth, category innovation and new market expansion.

18 months since its launch, Lyre’s has moved into a global leadership position in non-alcoholic spirits, pre-empting and responding to changing consumer demand and drinking behaviour.

The non-alcoholic category is rapidly emerging with huge growth experienced globally and in the UK in the last 12 months driven by health, lifestyle and responsibility factors across all age groups.

Despite a challenging 2020, Lyre’s has focused on the direct-to-consumer segment and delivered over 400% monthly recurring revenue growth since January 2020, exceeding all forecasts the company had previously set.

The fast-growing category is being matched by fast-paced innovation with Lyre’s creating 13 products since launch and many more slated for the next six months.

Mark Livings, Lyre’s CEO and Co-founder said: “This growth positions the Lyre’s brand for continued success and leadership with high quality non-alcoholic alternatives in one of the fastest-growth consumer brand categories in the world”.

“Our business anticipates and matches the trends of the consumer and culture and our current product innovation is being developed to match alcohol spirit flavours and styles. Lyre’s was created to shake up the drinks category and put the choice back into the consumer’s social occasion to drink freely. The recognition from the multiple, respected, international award competitions shows we clearly have something that is resonating,” says Livings.

“The next year demarcates our business evolution from a start-up to a true multi-national beverage company, with manufacturing in multiple, global locations, compliance for new markets and continued recruitment firmly at the top of our task list. We’ll need all aspects of our plan to come together, delivered by a great team of people with the Lyre’s esprit de corps to grow our leadership position in the non-alcoholic spirits category.”

The seed round was structured to be completed in three tranches over the course of an initial twelve-month trading period, a necessary process to ensure the business was sufficiently capitalised to support what Livings describes as ‘planned, lightning- fast growth with controlled capital consumption’.

Major participants in the seed round include VRD Investment, Doehler Ventures, DLF Venture and Maropost Ventures with a number of European, American and Australasian family offices and HNWI also participating.

Fellow Co-founder Carl Hartmann builds on this: “The investors we’ve brought into this business see value well beyond the short to medium-term impacts of the pandemic and will bring significantly more value beyond their participation from a capital perspective. Good companies with strong fundamentals and a truly unique market offering can always raise money, even in challenging times.”

An Australian-developed brand, Lyre’s is arguably the most widely distributed non-alcoholic spirit in the world available in more than 30 markets, with increased presence in both on and off-prem venues.

The brand is heading for a strong 2021of non-alcohol spirits innovation with the launch of a Ready-To-Drink range to expand the opportunity for people to enjoy a Lyre’s with increased convenience.

“Lyre’s is a black swan emergence of an entirely new consumer products category,” Livings adds. “I can’t wait to see what we can do in our next 12 months.”

Business Investment, Midlands News

Exclusive British watch brand announces record-breaking funding results

Midlands-based timepiece start-up, Hagley West, has announced the record-breaking results of its latest funding round. In January, the British brand secured more than £360,000 in crowdfunding to realise its ambitions of taking effortless style and exceptional design to the global marketplace.

Renowned to be the fastest-ever fully-funded quartz fashion watch business, the company’s December funding round also broke the record for the largest ever crowdfunding raise by a watch manufacturer.

Tim Hayden, CEO of Hagley West Watches, commented:

“When we founded Hagley West, our ambition was simple – to provide discerning customers worldwide with high-quality, eye-catching British timepieces without the unnecessary, over-inflated ‘big brand’ mark-up.

“Our range blends style, functionality and practicality, providing the perfect model for almost every occasion. Undertaking a second round of crowdfunding has enabled us to facilitate ambitious international growth plans and, in the future, will help us to further expand our range with a number of stylish new designs.”

Highly popular among the domestic and international cricketing community, Hagley West has secured backing from some of the world’s best-known players including JP Duminy, Carols Braithwaite and Tino Best. The company, which is co-owned by West Indies legend Chris Gayle, prides itself on these links and is committed to supporting the next generation.

Hayden added:

“With almost 20 first-class county and professional cricketers having invested in the business, we wanted to give something back to the sport. By supporting the grass-roots level, we aim to inspire and support the talented players of tomorrow.”

The Hagley West range is available to order online at www.hagleywest.com. For more information, visit the website or follow the brand’s latest updates on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Business Investment, European News, Research

Invest but have no input – the best way for government funding to be a success

Governments that invest in businesses, but then have no say on any decisions made by company managers, are much more likely to see their investments be a success, according to new research by Vlerick Business School.

Professor of Corporate Finance, Sophie Manigart, and post-doctoral researcher, Thomas Standaert, found that governments that invested but had no input were more successful in stimulating growth in companies and providing more resources to the private risk capital market.

Whereas, the researchers found that governments that invest directly in a company and have complete control of all of the decisions tend to yield the poorest results. Businesses that raised funding this way did not grow faster than companies that raised no funding at all.

The research findings came from a previous study on both literature on government investments, but also from a dataset of 345 Venture Capital funds established between 1996-2017. The researchers analysed how a number of European companies developed after receiving venture capital through four different models, ranging from full government control, to government investment, but independent decision-making. The researchers compared the performances of each firm, up to five years after the initial VC investment.

The four key investment models that the researchers analysed were:
1. Direct and solitary – where a government invests directly in a target company and all decisions are made by the government
2. Direct but in partnership – the government invests directly in target companies, but in partnership with private investment funds
3. A passive government role – the government co-invests in target companies with private players who take all decisions. The government plays a passive role and is hands-off when it comes to most investment decisions; the government merely follows the private sector.
4. A government invests in a fund-of-fund and does not mingle in investment decisions – this goes a step further than the third model by having governments invest in private funds that are managed entirely by equally private fund managers.

Professor Manigart says,
“Government intervention in the risk capital market is needed in Europe and worldwide, but governments should respect the role of private players and not become dominant decision makers. Governments who simply provide this funding, but let the firm work independently and autonomously are much more likely to see growth, which can only be a benefit for investors, the firm, and customers alike”.

The researchers state that governments need to apply the fourth method more often in order for the target companies to be more innovative and successful. A good example of this model being implemented successfully is the Canadian government, who pioneered this model with the launch of the Venture Capital Action Plan, which has resulted in over $900 million in private investor capital being added to the ecosystem.

Government aid is genuinely effective for businesses, even companies like Apple and Tesla would not have survived without government funding. If there’s no financial help, then it could be argued that there would be no high-tech developments and innovations in society. Therefore, it is important that governments look to invest in the most effective way possible for growth in these companies, so that high-tech, social projects and high-employment companies have the greatest chance of growth and survival.