In this episode of United Kingdom Tech - Weekly Deals Roundup: United Kingdom Tech saw 33 companies including Jobandtalent, Motorway, etc raised over $1 billion from investors such as Kinnevik, Index Ventures and Amber Group, among others.
Welcome back to United Kingdom Tech Weekly Deals Roundup, a weekly podcast by Tracxn for key startup deals in the United Kingdom from last week.
In this edition, we will cover funding rounds of Jobandtalent, Motorway, 1inch, and more. In exits, we will cover the acquisition of Seedrs by Republic.
Starting with our deep dive into funding rounds, tech companies in the United Kingdom raised around $1 billion of funding across 33 funding rounds during this week.
In a major funding event, Jobandtalent raised $500 million in a Series E funding round led by Kinnevik and SoftBank Vision Fund with participation from DN Capital, Quadrille Capital, Atomico, and others. With this funding round, Jobandtalent has joined the coveted Unicorn Club in 2021. Jobandtalent was founded in 2009 by an ex-McKinsey employee and is based out of London. Jobandtalent is an on-demand staffing platform. Jobandtalent allows employers to post jobs, and find eligible candidate matches using screening criteria. Jobandtalent enables candidates to create professional profiles on the platform and to list job preferences. Jobandtalent facilitates search across job boards in order to find suitable job matches and notifies candidates each time a job matches their professional profile. Jobandtalent uses a matching algorithm to identify and recognise linguistic patterns within the structure and phrasing of job adverts and CVs.
London-based Auto Tech startup, Motorway, raised $190 million in a Series C funding round led by Index Ventures and ICONIQ Growth with participation from Unbound, Latitude and BMW i Ventures. Motorway is an online C2B auction-based marketplace for used cars. Motorway allows users to enter their vehicle registration number in order to receive a free online valuation. Motorway then provides users with offers from various car-buying sites based on the information provided and the initial valuation, with features like offer comparison, deal selection, and a free vehicle collection service for sellers. Founded in 2016 by University College London alumni, Motorway has raised $276 million till date.
FinTech startup 1inch raised $175 million in a Series B funding round and joined the Unicorn club. The funding round was led by Amber Group with participation from Jane Street, VanEck, Nexo, and others. 1inch is an online exchange and swapping platform for cryptocurrency. 1inch features a protocol that facilitates atomic transactions by utilising a range of protocols and performing argument validation and execution verification. 1inch provides an automated market maker that protects users from front-running attacks and offers capital efficiency to liquidity providers. 1inch provides a platform for users to exchange and swap digital assets and tokens. Founded in 2020, Tortola-based 1inch has raised $175 million till date.
In a major funding round, Quell, a Life Sciences startup, raised $156 million in a Series B funding round led by Ridgeback Capital Management, SV Health Investors, Fidelity Investments, Syncona and Jeito with participation from Monashee Investment Management, Tekla Capital Management, Janus Henderson Investors, and others. Quell is a developer of regulatory T cell therapies for immunological diseases. Quell develops regulatory T cell therapies that downregulate the immune system and can be used for disease management and treatment of multiple immunological conditions such as solid organ transplant rejection, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Founded in 2019, London-based Quell has raised $218 million till date.
HiiROC, an Energy Tech startup, raised $34 million in a Series A funding round from Kia Motors, Wintershall Dea, Hyundai Motor Company, and others. HiiROC is a provider of solutions for hydrogen generation and storage. HiiROC produces hydrogen through a plasma process that transforms methane into hydrogen and solid carbon, by splitting the hydrogen from the carbon in natural gas without combustion or oxygen. Founded in 2019, Hessle-based HiiROC has raised $34 million till date.
This was all from the funding updates, moving on to the exits. United Kingdom Tech observed 10 exits during the week of 05 Dec 2021.
London-based Investment Tech startup, Seedrs, was acquired by Republic for $100 million. Seedrs is an equity-based crowdfunding platform focused on startups. Seedrs allows users to invest in tech and traditional sectors in exchange for shares of the company. Seedrs offers training sessions and guidelines to assist in investment decisions. Founded in 2012, Seedrs has raised $39 million till date from Augmentum, State Street, Woodford Investment Management, and others.
This was all for today, we will be back next Monday with more updates. You can subscribe to our podcast on Google Podcasts to stay updated. If you have any feedback, please reachout to us at podcast@tracxn.com. Thank you for tuning in today, see you next week.