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
Balkerne is a tech start-up providing software as a service to the property and insurance sector. They have developed SmartResilience, a real-time loss prevention software platform, which helps insurers and the insured understand the value at risk. Insurers spend £1.3bn a year on commercial property claims and £2.3 on domestic property claims, work on squeezed margins and struggle to differentiate with the competition. Balkerne provides customers with pre-emptive, bespoke information and actionable advice, allowing insurers to minimise claims, uninsured losses and improve the customer experience. Moreover, they helped businesses reduce their long term property risk through proactive mitigation and make insurance affordable. Their SmartResilience platform has been developed with the technical ability to integrate with both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure Cloud. The company is registered on the AWS Partner Network and with Microsoft for Startups. Modular functionality is core to the platform, with the ability to seamlessly scale to meet customer requirements.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£150,000
Glug provides a platform for businesses to let customers order from a digital menu and have them served to the table or pick up from the bar. It points out that its system is designed to be user friendly and easy to set up wherein restaurants or bars can upload and digitalise their menu and can be discoverable within 24 hours. Consumers can discover the restaurant, book a table, place an order, and browse for offers and discounts, amongst other features using the company's community app. Glug asserts that more than 16,000 users have ordered food and drinks through its app in less than four months since the company's launch. It intends to become a contender in the UK dining and pub market that is a £40 billion+ industry. Glug argues that more than 20,000 users have downloaded its app from the App Store and Google Playstore. It will use the investment for marketing, hiring, technology development, attract 1.5 million users and onboard 1,000+ venues over the next 12 months.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£73,114
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
Outfts is a fashion marketplace that serves retailers, influencers, and consumers merging the traditional marketplace concept with expanding social features. Users can shop via storefront, creator profiles, shoppable social feed, or search and product listings. Outfts is focused on 'Female First' creators. Outfts claims to bring together a growing collection of more than 55 retailers, combining over 3000 brands and over 1 million products. The company live tested its private beta, with three carefully selected clients namely, H&M, Urban Outfitters and MATCHESFASHION, and multiple influencers. It has acquired over 50 more high-profile clients, including Coach, Kenzo, MANGO, Harvey and many more. Outfts says it will use the investment to hire key personnel, manage operational expenses, manage marketing initiatives, oversee its app development, and expand outside of the European market, beginning with the US.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£198,047
EMERGEiQ is a cloud-based platform targeted towards Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and large corporate organisations. The company plans on having an extensive suite of algorithms that simplifies Data Science (DS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at low cost, across all sectors. EMERGEiQ asserts that its analytics can help businesses improve operational productivity, cut costs, and eventually generate more revenue. It has worked with companies across a variety of sectors such as finance, medicine, stock market, and insurance. The company will use will 30% of the investment for R&D, 25% to purchase software and hardware to improve platform capabilities, 25% to market its new product line, 10% as working capital, and 10% as miscellaneous expenses.
days to go:
Expired
investment:
£150,000
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
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
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
