10 London Tech Startups To Watch Out For In 2021
CEO Ram Tumuluri “The tech industry in London is booming. London tech companies raised a near-record investment in 2020, accounting for more than a quarter of all European venture capital investment. The top London tech businesses this year include a diverse mix of hyper-growth scaleups, small creative firms, and everything in-between”.
Ram Tumuluri “If 2020 was a record-breaking year for European tech funding, London was at the epicentre of the financing action.”
Proxymity
Proxymity provides a platform that connects shareholders and related parties, enabling electronic proxy voting and investor communications. It was founded in 2020 and currently employs roughly 35 people. In May, the company raised £16.5 million in equity in exchange for a 50% stake, moving it into consortium ownership. Going forward, Proxymity will use the funds to expand its platform offerings and explore a wider range of geographic markets in the future.
Primer
Primer is a software firm that creates payment infrastructure for third-party payment providers. This fintech firm was founded in 2019 by ex-PayPal workers and has raised £17.8 million in two rounds—the first in May for £3.80 million and the second in November 2020 for £14.0 million. The funds raised in 2020 will be used to expand Primer’s international footprint, scale operations, and hire more employees.
H4
H4 creates software to help with financial and legal document management and analysis. In June 2020, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm received a £21.2 million equity investment from Barclays Ventures, Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investment, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Linklaters. H4 plans to grow its customer base and use cases with the investment.
Omnio
Founded in 2018, Omnio creates a cloud-based digital banking platform that allows banks to run their financial services instead of using traditional systems. In January 2020, the Westminster-based company raised £12.7 million in equity funding. Its most recent round of funding will be used to expand the sales force, improve the product offering, and provide operating capital.
Griffin
Griffin develops software for finance companies that provides online infrastructure. The company began operations in 2017 and is currently working on its platform. Griffin raised £3 million in January 2020, followed by £6.45 million in November. Griffin plans to use the funds to expand product development, recruit more developers, and complete the bank authorisation process, which will allow them to give consumers full bank accounts with FSCS-insured deposits.
AGORA
AGORA offers an app that allows people to review and buy cosmetics. Agora, which launched in January 2019, is a social commerce network that combines sharing, discovering, and shopping. Lakestar, Draper Esprit, and Angel Capital Management invested £5 million in the company in December 2020. AGORA is focusing its new funding on expanding its e-commerce platform with new technology.
eConsult
eConsult creates an online gateway that can be incorporated into medical practice websites, allowing users to check up on their symptoms and get medical advice via the internet. In October 2020, the digital healthcare startup, which was founded in 2011, received its first-ever equity investment from Gresham House Ventures. This funding will be used by eConsult to support product development and further expansion.
Wagestream
Wagestream is a service that allows users to obtain the amount of their pay that they have already worked for. Wagestream already has around 300,000 employees and serves a number of high-profile companies such as Brewdog, Honest Burgers, Rentokil, and five NHS trusts.
Radix
Radix is a software firm that specializes in decentralized finance, tokens, and cryptocurrencies. It promotes itself as a scalable blockchain alternative. In July 2020, the King’s Cross-based startup raised £3.25 in its first-ever financing. The funds will be utilized to hire new employees and bring Radix’s product to market.
Contingent
Contingent is an intelligence platform launched in 2019 to help procurement, compliance, and operational resilience executives proactively predict, manage, and monitor third-party and supplier risk. The seed funding will allow the firm to speed up product development, increase the number of key supply chain risk factors in the assessment process, provide analytic tools to measure supply chain fragility and resilience for clients, and better integration with enterprise systems.
Uncapped
Uncapped is a Warsaw-based firm that offers European businesses growth capital as a third option for a flat cost as low as 6%. In order to speed data verification from the client’s bank accounts and improve the funding process, the company recently teamed with Salt Edge, a leader in open banking solutions.