Black Young Professionals (BYP) Network is a company that empowers black professionals around the world to solve the problems they face through economic empowerment and connectivity. The company has grown from side hustle to a 6-figure revenue-generating company with over 40,000 members. BYP allows both members and corporate partners to avail a variety of offerings including webinars/events, blogs, newsletters, podcasts, a social networking app, and job board alerts. The company has about 60 corporate partners including Accenture, Facebook and Soho House. It has featured in publications including BBC, Roc Nation, and Forbes. BYP Network has won the Maserati Top 100 Most Innovative Companies and a place on The Mayor of London’s International Business Programme and London Stock Exchange Elite Program. The company will use the investment to have a user base of over 500,000 black professionals with 2% on its premium model in the next 18 months through marketing, scale its leadership, sales, and content teams, and improve its current technology platform to make it more intuitive.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£853,982
Currensea is a new way to spend and save money abroad. In July 2018, the concept was accepted into the FCA innovate program. In November 2018, it partnered with Mastercard to build a market-changing Open Banking based Debit card. Currensea makes money through Forex, Interchange and plans to open revenue streams through products complementary to Currensea. They plan to devide the investment 27% of the proceeds will be used for marketing, 20% for Card Platform, 18% for Compliance and Operations, 18% for Engineering, 12% for Infrastructure, and 5% for Professional Services.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£930,778
Rnwl is aiming to be the first ever over-the-top insurance platform. The company asserts that conventional insurance companies rely on a lead generation business model that is archaic and inefficient. These result in a customer's insurance options becoming an expensive and time-consuming affair. Rnwl is endeavouring to simplify this. Users can enter their credentials and requirements on the Rnwl website. The company will analyse the market and suggest the best deals for the user. Rnwl has been accepted into the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA's) Innovation Hub. It will use 74% of the investment in human resource, 14% in marketing, and 12% as operational costs.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£450,366
FounderTribes helps budding entrepreneurs get access to advice, connections, and capital from established founders via its educational app. It argues that around 581 million people will never gain access to Venture Capital (VC) funding or avail meaningful entrepreneurial education. FounderTribes intends to change that and become a contender in the Education Technology (EdTech) market worth $5 trillion. Users can use the app to get personalised feedback from FounderTribes's community of seasoned entrepreneurs and investors, get actionable tips from industry-specific networks to work on problem areas, and avail alternative financing to start and scale their business. FounderTribes has raised £700,000+ as part of this round, onboarded over 400 investors and 500 mentors on its portal, and signed its first paying customer, Capital Enterprise, with £20,000 worth of subscriptions. It will use 76% of the investment for HR costs, 10% towards video content creation, 3% towards IT expenses, 2% towards marketing expenses, and 8% for general operations.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£805,960
The SidebySide Partnership is a London based Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) Venture Capital (VC) firm. Its purpose is to finance and control the management teams of its investee companies enabling them to become a developed corporate entity. The SidebySide Partnership's focus is on fast-growing technology businesses with £1 - 10 million in revenue. It provides 100% EIS relief on investment with zero initial/ongoing fees charged to investors. The SidebySide Partnership's investment experience of 20+ corporate acquisitions totalling more than $200 million, 20+ private investments, and a rate of interest of 12x over the last 35 years has enabled it to become a dependable platform for upcoming tech businesses. It will use the investment to grow its business across different verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,500,000
Qardus is an ethical and Sharia-compliant financing platform for social impact Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and investors. Qardus asserts that the 3.8 million Muslim community in the UK, and 25 million in Europe, is massively underserved when it comes to accessing interest-free (Sharia-compliant) structures. It intends to change this. Qardus offers up to £200,000 in innovative interest-free business financing to eligible SMEs for tenors of up to 24 months and is Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approved. Qardus points out that it has provided over £250,000 in financing to some high social impact SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic, maintained a 100% track record with a 0% default rate to date, and featured in media entities like Sifted, Islamic Finance News, Peer-to-Peer Finance News, and Fintech Futures amongst others. It will use 30% of the investment on marketing costs for acquiring SMEs and investors on its platform, 60% on growing its team, and 10% on obtaining additional licenses to expand its services.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£313,009
Themis is a regulatory technology company that helps organisations mitigate the risk and impact of all forms of financial crime such as money laundering, bribery, corruption, cybercrime, theft, slavery/human trafficking, and fraud. The platform is designed to provide insights and intelligence on the latest threats, trends, and criminal techniques whilst helping clients complete due diligence on their clients, staff, and supply chains. Themis works alongside the Themis Charitable Trust to ensure the reduction of financial crime. The company also supports the UN Global Compact taking into account the fundamental responsibilities of business in the areas of human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption. Themis will use the investment to grow its business across different verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,300,000
GymBuddy is an online platform that enables consumers to find, book, and attend a gym location, services, or products offered and operated by fitness studios, gyms, trainers, venues, or other third parties. Users can easily, through filtered searches on the app, view descriptions, and contact information of specialists within the fitness industry such as personal trainers, nutritionists, and physiotherapists. The UK fitness industry alone is currently worth over £5 billion. Based on recent statistics, the average gym membership in the UK costs members £40 a month, which often ties them into lengthy contracts. The GymBuddy app will enter the Health & Fitness club sector as a multi-gym membership feature that gives users access to gyms and various fitness plans, without the need for bricks-and-mortar locations under its brand. The company is seeking an investment of £400,000 to expand its brand identity and bring more users to its ecosystem to generate profits.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
Withheld
Quotall is a specialist insurance technology software entity that helps large, high profile enterprises to enter the insurance market. The company claims that to date, brands have struggled to extend into insurance due to significant up-front costs, regulatory concerns, legacy technology in the insurance sector and a lack of in-house expertise. Quotall claims that its insurance ecosystem service aims to remove these barriers and enable rapid market entry. The company asserts that it can arrange regulatory approval for the client and link the latter's customers through to its fully client-branded, quote, buy and self-service insurance platform. Quotall's earned revenues in 2020 reached close to £500,000 and it has raised £4 million to date. It states it will use the investment to resource the implementation, development, and servicing of new client accounts as they are contracted.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£708,805
Pocket App are the largest independent app development company in the UK. They have had a number of high value clients such as Coca Cola, Samsung and Adidas. Pocket App are also starting to do work in partnership with the likes of Microsoft and IBM.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£837,115
