Notes is a well-established coffee shop and wine bar concept with nine locations in central London. They pride themselves in being able to source and roast at their own roastery in Canning Town which provides over 1.4m cups of coffee a year. By serving high volumes of their single-origin speciality coffee, Notes have doubled their revenue to almost £5m by just opening shops in four locations since 2015.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,194,330
Rogue produces indulgent preserves by using traditional cooking methods to make luxury preserves with a provocative twist. Their aim is to be the UK's best-selling and most popular preserve brand. Rogue started working with a SALSA accredited manufacturer, that can produce the products at scale and delivers stock to their first major UK distributor. They have featured on BBC Radio Wales following a successful Royal Welsh Agricultural Show. With the proceeds, they are going to spend on marketing, scaling up their business, and planning to build a strong management team.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£29,224
Launched in October 2016, Big Drop Brewing is a world-leading alcohol-free craft brewer. The company brews beer naturally by using specialist brewing methods to ensure the alcohol never exceeds 0.5%. The beer is not only Alcohol-Free, but is also gluten-free and many are low in sugar. Their award-winning lager is vegan-friendly. The company does not have a brewery of its own but partners with reputable breweries around the world, who share their brewing values to produce the beer. Big Drop Brewing has secured private funding already and meaningful distribution in the UK and 12 overseas markets. They have also secured off-trade listings in Tesco, Morrisons and Ocado. Half of the investment will be used for Sales & Marketing, 30% for new branding launch and related marketing, 10% for production costs and the remaining 10% for product development.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£617,566
Vercida aims to be Europe's largest diversity and inclusion-focused careers website. Vercida's AI integrated system offers candidates with more reliable search results and job matches based on what they truly want from a workplace. The company has drawn 2 million+ visits from 136 countries, has strong comeback rates from high profile clients like Virgin and Home Office, and has won multiple awards. Vercida is driving innovation backed by technology to set new standards to attract, progress, and retain the best candidates for the job.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£315,220
Zoom 1hr is a hyperlocal last-mile delivery service delivering food, convenience and retail goods within one hour. The company is currently operating in West Midlands, Wales, and bordering English counties. It aims to become a contender in the online food delivery market that is projected to reach over £5 billion in 2021. Zoom 1hr has witnessed 70,000 app downloads, processed over 280,000 orders through its platform, and gained an annual turnover of £665,000 in 2019-2020 at an order growth rate of 108%. Zoom 1hr argues that its list of partners consists of local, national and international stores including Subway and KFC. It has also secured a contract with Co-Op to be its third national last-mile delivery partner, currently servicing 61 stores. The company will use the investment for New Area Mobilisation (NAM), product and website development, key hires, and team expansion.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£595,084
DMD has made its digital content distribution enterprise in the last two years. Along with that, it has developed a global cinema TVOD (Transactional Video On Demand product). The company has built a long-term distribution partnership with OTT companies, telephone/IPTV and major cable that lead the wealthiest portion of the Pay TV market, providing service to 17 million two-way homes in 19 nations in Latin America. DMD's revenue has increased by 93% YoY 2017-2018, which will help the company in reaching EBITDA breakeven in Q3 of 2019. DMD has established relationships with distributors and leading sales agents in Europe and the USA. With the proceeds, the company will acquire bigger commercial films, increase its global footprint by launching the company in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and supplement its current output with classic titles.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£145,000
My Beauty Squad is a technology platform having a team of 120 mobile beauticians across four cities. It aims to be the number one beauty platform for women to book mobile-beautician appointments, watch tutorials, get advice on beauty products, and be part of a beauty community. The My Beauty Squad app consists of features like an online booking medium for mobile beauticians, promotional apps for big brands, and blogger apps with product information. The company has completed over 5800 bookings since launching its application. It won the 2019 'Best Mobile Beauty Specialists' Award by SME News. The company will use the investment to improve its technology, operations and marketing in London and other major cities. It also plans to launch its proprietary beauty product lines, including lash collection (October 2020) and beauty tools set (February 2021).
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£60,451
Peckwater Brands (PB) is a company engaged in the growing cloud kitchen/delivery business that runs virtual restaurant brands from the kitchens of existing restaurants. It argues that restaurants need to pay high street rents and staff wages no matter how many diners visit. Nearly 5,000 restaurants have closed in the UK since 2015 due to not being able to fulfil these tasks. PB aims to change this scenario. It helps restaurant partners use their existing staff and kitchen capacity better, and help keep struggling businesses running. The company received more than 10,000 customer orders through Deliveroo and Uber Eats. It witnessed more than £250,000 in customer sales since June 2020 and is spread across London, Manchester, Leeds, and Coventry. PB has launched four brands with four more in the pipeline. It will use the investment to get more partners, launch more brands, and acquire more customers.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£232,208
MusicGurus is an e-learning platform that offers video courses, interactive sheet music and online tests/exams. The company argues that conventional music learning is archaic consisting of lessons in either paper or PDF formats. MusicGurus aims to change this. Its portal features celebrity artists and pro musicians teaching all instruments and styles allowing users to avail the scrolling sheet music option and even "Play with a live band". MusicGurus asserts that it has 40,000+ users worldwide. It aims to become a contender in the $18 billion music learning industry. The company has raised £700,000+ to date from Venture Capitalist’s (VCs) such as Ascension Ventures and business angels such as the founder of Caffè Nero. MusicGurus has also partnered with music establishments such as Rockschool, Sony ATV, Hal Leonard, and Schott, amongst others. It will use the investment to develop new celebrity and partner courses, increase its sales, and prepare for a Series A round in 2021.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£176,336
StanMe aims to be the first community marketplace to enable collaboration and co-selling between independent creators. It asserts that the majority of creators have to continuously learn techniques to market themselves, adapt to social platforms’ ever-changing algorithms, and grow and maintain a large community to generate a sufficient amount of sales. StanMe claims that not all can do so and intends to address this situation with its services. It launched its public beta in July 2020 with more than 1,000 users and has processed over 130 transactions since its beta launch. StanMe claims it has more than 1,900 pre-registered users on its waiting list and aspires to become a contender in the creator economy valued at $11 billion in 2019. It will use the investment to accelerate its growth, invest in technology, and boost marketing initiatives.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£164,080
