The Sports Edit (TSE) is one of the UK’s fastest-growing eCommerce retailers that sells activewear brands and products, as well as, produces content and events, centred around inspiring movement and mindfulness. It is among Europe’s foremost curators of premium activewear, partnering with 50+ leading brands. The company aims to become a major contender in the womenswear market, forecast to grow 7.7% per annum to $216 billion, by 2024. The company has >45,000 social media followers, a leading gym retail partnership, and seen its online revenues grow over 145% in the first five months of 2020 Year-Over-Year (YoY). For its timely response to customers' queries, TSE was validated by the Feefo Gold Service Award 2020 & garnered a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72. The company will use the investment to widen its brand & product range, hire staff for marketing and merchandising, ensure customer acquisition & retention, and launch its deal with Nike in the third quarter of 2020.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£930,307
Legal Connection (LC) is on a mission to democratise the $1 trillion legal profession, and enabling networks of legal professionals to compete with large partnership firms. The company asserts that the UK leads the world in being a friendly regulatory environment for freelance lawyers and virtual firms. LC aims to capture this sentiment and provide the aforementioned lawyers with the right technology so that they can group to provide a comparable service to large firms at a fraction of the price. LC argues that its product looks like a social networking tool but functions as a legal case and practise management suite wherein all the work takes place in secure chat rooms. Lawyers are also allowed to leverage third-party managed accounts to hold client money and execute transactions. LC was selected by Antler Venture Capital and given a pre-seed investment of £120,000. LC will use the investment to grow its user base, continue product development, and use technology to power the future of law.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£211,874
FinOptix is an innovative FinTech company that solves real business problems. FinOptix’s objective is to become a significant player in a rapidly growing FinTech market by developing systems that provide financial clarity to decision-makers. FinOptix has a well-established user base, as well as a sales pipeline that covers multiple geographies and sectors. Their verification and validation procedures applied during the development process and operational trials have led to engagement with commercial partners. With the proceeds, they will design an Evaluator for the future, apply AI techniques to solve complex problems, develop their skill set and framework and hire a team of data scientists based on the assessment.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£125,000
Smartlands is a blockchain-based digital finance and investment ecosystem. It allows asset owners to turn an ownership right to a share of any asset, into a tradable digital token attributing it almost unlimited liquidity. In the UK, Smartlands is the first platform for crowdfunding investments that allows investors to use digital currencies alongside fiat currencies to raise capital. The platform boasts of a 16,000 strong community following with over 11,000 wallets opened since its inception. It has a reputed list of partners including Colliers International, CMS, Archax, UK Sotheby’s, and many more. They have been awarded the 'Best Crowdfunding Platform' at the 2020 FinTech Breakthrough Awards and have been featured in Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Coindesk, Benzinga, and Investors Chronicle to name a few. With the investment, the company will grow its internal engineering team and obtain the necessary licenses to move its business forward across Europe.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£379,183
QFinds is a purpose-built hiring tool that enables employers to easily and efficiently pre-screen candidates, conduct interviews and generate employment contracts. The company asserts that it is a UK government vetted 'Kickstart Scheme' representative and can get small businesses grants to hire interns having already processed over 100 job applications. QFinds claims that its app has been downloaded 2 million+ times garnering 24,000 reviews averaging 4.8/5 stars. QFinds also points out that bad hirings cost the UK up to £6.7 billion in turnover, productivity, and training. It seeks to change this and disrupt the £39 billion recruitment market. The company has partnered with notable entities like University College London, Kings College London and Brunel University London, intending to use them as strategic partners to increase job seekers signing up to and using its app. QFinds will use the investment to grow its business across different verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£222,866
Ziglu is a financial technology entity that allows a user to access both Forex and digital currencies seamlessly. The company permits a user to use any currency via its Mastercard debit card and protects the user's digital currency up to £50,000 against cyber-attacks. Ziglu is authorised by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and is one of the first companies involved with digital currencies to be registered under the UK’s Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (AMLR). The company has achieved a 94% rating on TrustPilot, offers customers the option to send money via cryptocurrency, and previously raised £5.25 million in seed funding. Ziglu has featured in media entities like Coindesk and Yahoo Finance. It will use 30% of the investment in product development, 60% on user acquisition, and 10% on international expansion initiatives.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£3,041,878
The Park Brewery (TPB) is a beer manufacturer. The company raised over £300,000 in its crowdfunding campaign in 2018. It has also managed to increase its sales from 100 pubs to 200. The company's beer is distributed around the UK via eight wholesalers. It also has onboarded notable clients like The Hilton, Honest Burgers, Fullers, and many more. TPB argues that it performed well despite Covid-19. It set up an e-commerce site and sold its products Direct-to-Customers (DTC), having completed around 2,000 home deliveries and gained over 1,700 new customers in 2020 throughout the lockdown. It will use the investment to develop its marketing strategy, increase direct sales, enhance its range, create more employment, and purchase additional tank space to meet demand.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£229,999
The Cheeky Panda is a manufacturer of sustainable bamboo tissue and hygiene products which are available across Europe, the Middle East and on the aisles of some of the world's top retailers including Boots, EkoPlaza, Monoprix and Carrefour. Its innovation and stress on sustainable hygiene has led to the mass-adoption of its products. The company has been rewarded with hundreds of 5-star reviews across multiple platforms including Amazon, Morrisons, and Ocado. Its proprietary Baby wipes was ranked the highest-selling new product launch of 2019 by the Grocer and Nielsen Data, and its monthly sales exceeded £500,000 for the first time in 2020 in just four years of the company's inception. Keeping in mind its drive to deliver sustainable products, the company supports the Charity patroned by Sir David Attenborough: World Land Trust. With the funds received, the company aims to channelise that into working capital to support the purchasing of ever-larger quantities of products to get sales to £20m a year and enhancing its brand identity.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£2,434,752
Recap is a cryptocurrency portfolio tracking, analytics and tax reporting platform. The company claims that market participants engaging in cryptocurrency have to deal with complex issues such as tracking all of their transactions, valuing cryptocurrency transactions in their tax currency and understanding capital gains tax legislation laws. Recap aims to solve this issue by enabling said participants to calculate any tax they owe on their cryptocurrency trading activity in a matter of seconds on its portal. The company has plans to launch a mobile application enabling investors to track their portfolio on the move. It also intends to come up with a Business-to-business (B2B) offering which Recap asserts will enable crypto native companies to account for their cryptocurrency activity with automatic accounts reconciliation to accounting software like Xero and Quickbooks. The company’s exit strategy is a trade sale within 3-5 years to a cryptocurrency exchange or accounting software provider.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£120,472
PLAYin CHOC is an ethical UK manufacturer that makes chocolate and plastic-free toys sustainably. The company asserts that it currently has a range of 19 products that are plastic-free, organic, vegan certified, and free from 14 allergens. It aspires to become a contender in the global chocolate with toy market segment that is worth 4 billion USD per annum. PLAYin CHOC claims that its distributors have access to over 600,000 shops across 30 countries. PLAYin CHOC points out that it is listed with 3 global companies, Sysco, Ocado and Gategroup, and is in early-stage conversations with 'Top 5' supermarkets in the UK. The company has also won 18 multi-national awards and exports its products to 30 countries. It argues that its UK factory has the capacity to produce 33,000 bars in 8 hours. PLAYin CHOC will use the investment to scale its business across different verticals.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£364,495
