Caldera is a heat battery company that seeks to institutionalise zero-carbon energy solutions for the masses. Its patented breakthrough, Warmstone heat battery, can store 100kWh of heat for a standard home for 24 hours. Caldera asserts that it takes renewable energy using a flexible green tariff with prices as low as 5p/kWh and stores it as heat, providing carbon-free hot water and heating via Warmstone. The company has raised over £1.5 million through grants and investment to date, installed its first pilot Warmstone product in a family home, established a manufacturing and R&D base, and acquired the support of an energy think tank, Energy Systems Catapult. It aspires to become a contender in the estimated £3.5 billion renewable energy storage market in the European Union (EU). The company is working with König Metall to build and sell Warmstone units via approved UK installers. Caldera will use the investment to install a small number of pilot units in trial homes in 2021 before a full commercial rollout in 2022.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,572,524
Learned.Live is an interactive learning platform for adults offering live, online classes taught via Zoom with a unique range of subjects. The company claims that it was born during the first UK lockdown of 2020 to answer a need for useful online classes for adults. Learned.Live provides organisations and their teams with cost-effective ways to acquire new skills, train, engage and unite outside traditional settings with an easily scalable, remote model. It aims to become a contender in the global e-learning market that is predicted to touch $375 billion by 2027. Learned.Live has received press coverage, including a regular column, and a feature interview on ITV Meridien News since January 2021. It claims to have a 95% increase in followers across social media channels year to date. The company will use 30% of the investment towards B2B and B2C Sales and Marketing, 30% towards technology and product innovation, 20% towards teacher recruitment and partnerships, and 20% towards operations.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£146,376
Pass the Keys is a leading short-let tech platform operating in 20 cities across the UK. Till date, the company has hosted 30,000+ guests and earned £15 million for its hosts. The company lists a landlord's property on appropriate portals, finds relevant guests for an event or function, looks after their needs, and even takes care of cleaning up the venue after an event. The company's end-to-end technology automates the majority of the tasks such as job scheduling, invoicing, calendar syncing, and pricing with reliable support staff ready to assist with any eventuality. The company has achieved good ratings on Google reviews, Trustpilot and Glassdoor. The company will use 50% of the investment to expand its franchise, 30% for product development, and 20% for training personnel and supporting infrastructure.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,069,632
Yodomo is a platform for creative experiences offering 100+ high-quality courses, live experiences from creative artists, and kits of materials. Backed by more than 200 investors and live experience partners including The Sunday Times, Yodomo has built a marketplace creating new revenue streams for artists via numerous courses. These include bookbinding, drawing, sewing, botany, and weaving. Its corporate clients include Innocent, Fora, and Ticketmaster. Moreover, Yodomo was nominated for Seedrs ‘Seedling of the Year’ award in 2019. With the proceeds, the company will focus on customer and revenue growth.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£100,778
Perspective Pictures is a creative, digital-first video production company based in North London. The company asserts that existing video production companies produce good TV advertisements and long-form pieces for brands but fail to find an engaged online audience. PP asserts that its team of employees with an average age of 25, and in-house production crew and creatives allow it to produce a variety of video ads from a short snappy, subtitled Facebook ad to a long-form 22 minute YouTube series drawing in the target audience. The company sold over £200,000 worth of video content in the first 60 days of 2020. It has featured in news publications like The Evening Standard, Forbes, BA BusinessLife, Moneyweek, and Shortlist. PP will use the investment to make £2 million worth of video content per year, invest in team training and education to ensure that it can offer the best service/product to its clients, and help manage cash flow and unexpected situations.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£108,046
Sophia Technologies is an Education Technology (EdTech) company that has launched an on-demand mobile application for hiring private tutors. All tutors on the portal are scrutinised by Sophia's education team as per industry standards to ensure quality teaching. Sophia allows clients to book sessions via its app and avail online classes at any location the client finds convenient. The company is working towards getting accreditation with the U.K. Department of Education (DOE). It has also received press coverage from organisations such as Telegraph, iNews, TechRound, OpenGov, and Just Entrepreneurs. In April 2020, the company launched SophiaX, a learning feature where parents can book classes focusing on extra-curricular activities for their kids. The company will use the investment raised to focus on technological development, and support customer acquisition & retention.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£571,581
SaigolEd is a subscription-based Education Technology (EdTech) company that aims to make quality teaching available to millions of 7-18-year-olds across the UK at an affordable price. It is developing an app to combine immersive videos with charismatic teachers from leading schools, rich visual effects, leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) and tests to inspire learning. The company points out that its teaching courses will be available to students wherever or whenever they wish to access them. SaigolEd also intends to cover the full student curriculum to enable its users to excel in their exams once the company's app development is complete. The company argues that there is no dominant UK EdTech player in a multi-billion pound market. It aspires to fulfil that gap. SaigolEd will use the investment to build a prototype that would be overseen by its team including a star teacher from a top UK school, initiate rigorous user group testing, and target General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSEs) as its core market.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£271,975
Feed is a platform that automates digital advertising for musicians and creators by enabling them to grow an audience and build their businesses. The creator needs to connect their social media accounts to the Feed portal and set a budget. The portal will then create ads that reach new people and convert engaged audiences into loyal fans over time. The company asserts that existing ad generation platforms are too complex, time-consuming and expensive for creators. Feed argues that its portal caters to a variety of budgets, requires no marketing knowledge and takes minutes to get started. The beta platform is integrated with Facebook's & Instagram's ad network and has 500 creators on board. The company will use the investment to launch the paid version of Feed in Q4 2020.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£146,117
planarTECH is an engineering company founded in 2014 as a provider of process equipment for the growth and characterisation of graphene and other emerging 2D materials. Its core product line is the planarGROW Chemical Vapor (CVD) system. The company has the ability to deliver scalable production systems that allow lower-cost production of graphene in comparison to other options currently available in the market. Moreover, from 2014 to 2019, the company’s cumulative revenues exceeded £5 million. The company's products have been installed and used by faculties and students at prestigious universities like Stanford University (USA), IIT- Bombay (India), Deakin University (Australia), and many others. From the investment, the company will utilise 45% as working capital, 30% in Capital Expenditures (CAPEX), 15% in R&D and 10% in hiring additional staff.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£425,061
YurOn is a video platform that cultivates authentic interaction between prominent personalities and their fans. The portal allows people from different walks of life–drag queens, mountaineers, activists–thirty seconds to ignite a conversation, start an Ask Me Anything or co-create a skit. YurOn shuns away filters, anonymous commenting, vanity metrics or validation-driven algorithms and endeavours to bring to the public an unadulterated conversation between stars and their fans. The portal soft-launched in Q2 of 2020 and has seen over 5000 downloads, 2000 active users, and 32% of users retaining over a month. The company will use 80% of the investment to grow its tech team and cloud infrastructure, and 20% towards marketing and partnerships to accelerate growth.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£222,110
