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
Howbout is a millennial-focused social calendar and planning application. The app allows a group of individuals to instantly find when they’re all free, easily organise any social plan & quickly manage what they’ve got on. The company soft-launched in December 2019 and after strong early traction raised £100,000 – co-led by mobile heavyweight Claire Valoti – to refine the product ahead of its full launch in July 2020. Howbout argues that its app downloads have grown >500% since then. The company has been featured 3x by Apple and >75,000 events have been organised by users in >100 countries, despite 100% UK marketing focus. Howbout was also named in TechRound’s 2020 list of top 100 startups. Howbout sees a socialising boom waiting to happen and believes itself uniquely positioned to capitalise on overdue drinks, catchups and holidays in a post-pandemic world. It will use the investment to focus on company growth and begin monetising.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£505,010
Cuckoo is an internet broadband provider. The company claims that incumbent internet providers treat customers with poor customer service, high prices, and complicated contracts. Cuckoo aims to change this by providing users with fair and transparent prices, simple contracts, high-quality routers, and responsive customer service. The company is currently developing its website and billing engine ahead of launching with its first customers in the second quarter of 2020. Cuckoo's business is in the pre-revenue stage. It expects to start generating revenue in May/June 2020 when they launch their broadband service. Cuckoo will use 50% of the investment towards paying salaries to staff, 25% as technology development fees, 10% as professional fees, 5% as rent, and 10% as AOB. Cuckoo's exit strategy is via a trade sale or listing in the United Kingdom.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£69,622
SafeToNet is a cyber-safety company that safeguards children around the world from online threats such as bullying, grooming, abuse and aggression. The company's Artificial Intelligence (AI) system is trained to look for patterns of behaviour that can suggest a child may be at risk. Its smart keyboard detects risks in real-time and steers children away from trouble by filtering harmful outgoing messages before they can be sent and any damage can be done. SafeToNet has sold more than 550,000 licences of its AI-based safeguarding solution in 2020 and is operational in 109 countries. It has featured in The Daily Mail, The Independent, and The Times, to name a few. It has raised £2.52 million to invest in its growth and is offering secondary shares to investors.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£183,606
TiPJAR is a cashless and contactless tipping platform that allows guests to tip workers in under 8 seconds via their phones, with no app required. TiPJAR's distribution engine empowers staff to control and share their tips and takes the admin burden and risk away from business owners. The company estimates the global tipping market to be worth a combined $100 billion per year, and it aims to be the worlds first multi-currency, scalable solution in this segment. The company's clients include Honest Burger, Yard Sale Pizza, and BrewDog. TiPJAR will use the investment to have live clients by November 2020 and expand across Europe and Australia.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£699,748
Magnetto intends to challenge the traditional retail business by automating the checkout process and eliminating long queues via its app. The company allows shoppers to scan and pay for goods with their smartphones and skip queues using smart gates. The app also claims to facilitate indoor navigation with product locators and allows users to avail loyalty schemes. Magnetto asserts that the commercial rollout of its app has begun with the company planning to develop fully automated stores for one customer with its hardware partner, Modern Expo. Magnetto was nominated for an award at the London Smart Retail Tech Expo. The company intends to become a contender in the retail automation market that is projected to reach $23.58 billion by 2026. Magnetto aspires to connect fully with retail giants like Amazon and Sainsbury's and help them experience automated retail sales seamlessly. The company state it will use the investment to develop new features, grow its team and acquire more customers.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£220,431
innerworks is a behavioural analysis technology company that aims to capture and verify the true nature of people to build happier and more productive workforces. innerworks crowdsources anonymous opinions about people over time. The company argues that this verification model leverages objective, credible data, making its profiles more unique. Its mission is to empower users with their behavioural data. The company is backed by Ex-Microsoft and Ex-Groupon managers as part of this crwodfunding round. It has been featured in TechRound and Startups Magazine. innerworks will use the investment to finance product development and initial client traction ahead of its Q3 2021 seed round.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£231,386
Lux is a premium alternative that rewards high-spending customers, without devaluing restaurants’ brands. Powered by the latest card-linking technology, LUX offers premium reward schemes that give users up to 10% of their restaurant spend back as luxury rewards. So far, Lux has attracted more than 50 restaurants including JKS & Mews of Mayfair and Browns. Moreover, accountants, banks, law firms and consulting firms have accepted to distribute LUX. The company will use the funds to grow the customer base and the business.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£241,580
Brickowner aims to become the leading service provider for property developers and asset managers, ensuring benefits for both parties. The company undertakes background checks of investors on its portal for the benefit of asset managers. It also ensures that investors can easily navigate its portal and find deals that suit their financial appetite. Brickowner successfully exited five investment rounds despite two investments happening in the wake of COVID-19. The platform has over 3,000 investors registered with over 700 active investors. It has overseen £14 million worth of investment on its portal to date. Brickowner will use the investment towards technology up-gradation, hire strategic personnel to expand marketing, and increase its marketing spend.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£132,528
Publisher Discovery, using AI & Machine Learning technologies, provides recommendations to Advertisers of highly relevant Publishers in the affiliate marketing sector. The company has built a uniquely curated database of over 2 million publishers and 330,000 advertisers, which are then analysed, compared, and matched to make recommendations in ranked lists, matching the best publishers with each advertiser. The affiliate publishing market is worth 16 billion dollars per year but is still largely dominated by human-based agencies and is uniquely suited for automation. Publisher Discovery aims to capitalise on this aspect and establish itself as the market leader. The company has signed up over 50 publishers and is negotiating contracts with two large distribution partners. It is currently raising £1 million investment with £675,000 committed so far, to grow sales and operations and reach over £2m Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in the following 12 months.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£800,000
