Not In The Guidebooks (NITG) is a travel agency that believes in making tourism sustainable and enjoyable for travellers and local communities. NITG has raised a £250,000 seed funding to build its platform and connect with local partners. It's contracted agent partners include British Airways, Mid counties Co-Op, Spear Travel, and Intele Travel, amongst others. The company is set up as a global collective, ensuring 10% of its profits go to its local partners. NITG has also acquired and integrated Go Learn To, an experiential holiday provider focusing on immersive learning experiences. The company will use the investment to build a team to create content, secure new partnerships, build consumer brand awareness with a strong social media presence, and develop technology with geolocation and live availability to enliven trip itineraries.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£128,899
Planks is a British clothing brand that creates eco-conscious outerwear for skiers. The company is an omni-channel brand that sells Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) via planksclothing.com, through its Val d’Isère store and other retailers. Planks uses 'Bluesign' approved fabrics and incorporates 'REPREVE' recycled yarns into 68% of its products having recycled 1.5 million waste plastic bottles, in the process, so far. The company had a turnover of £1.85 million between May - June 2020. Planks has a growing community of 27,000+ customers that are a part of its Grassroots Tour initiative. Planks's loyalty platform, 'The FUSS', allows the brand's best customers to complete missions, create content and become brand advocates. The company will use the investment to continue international D2C expansion by improving customer experience in target markets via website localisation and digital marketing and sustain Business-to-Business (B2B) growth via digital wholesale accounts and integrated marketplaces.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£847,154
Nuw is a clothes-sharing app and community that aims to empower people to reduce the environmental impact of fashion on the planet. It grew from a community trial at Trinity College, Dublin to an app that is available nationwide across Ireland and the UK. Till date, the company has over 3800 registered users. Nuw has developed a bespoke impact calculator with the London Waste and Recycling Board to accurately measure the carbon, waste and water offset of each share on the app. This information is shared with Nuw members so they understand the positive environmental impact they create by sharing and swapping on Nuw. It has also developed partnerships with UPS and Parcel Motel to offer users a contactless, affordable and convenient delivery option. The company will use 66% of the investment for team salaries, 24% for marketing, 8% for overheads, and 2% for monthly subscriptions.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£131,219
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
Dynamo is an app that enables users to schedule and share luxury events with new and interesting people from the local community, making them available independently and on-demand. The company has developed the iOS application and launched a pilot in Mykonos, Greece. It has also received interest from providers in 20 cities globally. The Dynamo team consists of highly-experienced professionals from Hotels.com and best consulting firm. The company has re-branded as Dynamo and is ready to launch in London.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£172,600
Zapaygo allows consumers to order ahead at coffee shops, food outlets, restaurants, bars, events spaces, stadiums, and many other venues, improving customer experience while increasing venue revenues. The app also has a loyalty program for its users, RewardZ. This blockchain, digital rewards token is a key offering by Zapaygo to chain and individual merchants who can redeem RewardZ Tokens. Using Zaypaygo allows venues to reduce time taking orders by 40% and increase their sales by 30%. The company has developed an innovative technology platform that has identified core venues & corporate partners in the UK as initial target markets and is ready to scale. With the funds received, the company is focused on covering customer/corporate convenience in collecting F&B (Food & Beverage) and experience growth similar to the success experienced by apps like UberEats and Deliveroo. It also aims to offer 'order to delivery' end to end services.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£596,030
Bitstocks is a financial technology application built entirely on blockchain. The company intends to bring to customers the benefits of bitcoin in a simple & accessible personal account format. It asserts that 76% of UK adults use online banking. Its product, Gravity, currently offers BSV, BTC, GBP & EUR pairings, with investment accounts for customers to buy, sell & store bitcoin. The company is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and integrated with Faster Payment System & Single Euro Payments Area provider. Bitstocks has 1,800+ registered customers, with 650+ joining through referrals. It will use the investment to scale & develop the next phase of Gravity, bring forth stablecoin to enable tokenised global micropayments, and introduce personal accounts, debit cards, savings & loans.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£1,105,596
Upside is a financial technology entity that allows its users to earn cashbacks on current purchases so that they can save on their next purchase. The app uses an open-banking-marketing-platform that enables customers to automatically start saving by harvesting upside from their everyday spending and allows retailers to sell more inventory. Upside claims that 11.5 million people in the UK have less than £100 in savings. It aims to solve this problem and become a contender in the cashback segment. Since its incorporation in January 2020, Upside has raised £540,000+ from founders and SEIS Angel Investors. It has also signed-up 700+ consumers as private alpha testers to smoothen the app. The company will use the investment to onboard more retail partners, build out a self-serve retailer platform, build out Upside-as-a-Service Application Programming Interface (API) gateway, and prepare for Seed funding in Q1 of 2021.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£351,047
Trackd is a unique, award-winning music platform where artists create and audiences discover. With more than 261,000 users in 161 countries, this simple and intuitive application enables artists to record, collaborate, inspire, and share their ideas around the world. It has featured artists including Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Valeras, and Blossoms. The app also features a ground-breaking social sharing tools “VirtualVinyl™” and allows video creation directly in the app. Trackd is exploring new and existing partnerships such as Rotor Video and Audio Technica as well as Apple for the next release. The company has already established a stellar team, built a 5-star app and have gained a huge amount of users in the past 3 years. The proceeds will be used for working capital, cash flow requirements, future upgrades, marketing, sponsorship, and events.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£118,950
RightIndem is a white-label insurance software platform designed to deliver fast claims to claimants on its portal. The company develops and sells its own proprietary cloud-based digital claim process management software ‘as a service’ to the global insurance market. Insurtech is a vast market and attracts large amounts of investment, with $4.36 billion invested in the first three quarters of 2019. Till date, it has contracted clients such as Axa XL, Archipelago, NN Belgium, NN Netherlands, and Mapfre, with engagements at various levels of implementation and progress in the UK, Italy, Peru, US, and South Africa. They have also earned regard for automating claims processes form some of the world’s largest insurance organizations allowing for the settlement of low to mid-value claims within hours instead of days or months. With the proceeds, the company will connect operating expenses to the point where client revenues from claim volumes match operating costs.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£200,001
