In this episode of United Kingdom Tech - Weekly Deals Roundup: United Kingdom Tech saw 11 companies including Cazoo, GoCardless etc raised over $1 billion from investors such as Viking Global Investors, Willoughby Capital Mubadala among others.
Welcome back to United Kingdom Tech Weekly Deals Roundup, a weekly podcast by Tracxn for key startup deals in United Kingdom from last week.
In this edition, we will cover funding rounds of Cazoo, GoCardless, ThinCats, and more. In exits, we will cover the acquisition of TV Squared by Innovid, among others.
Starting with our deep dive into funding rounds, tech companies in United Kingdom raised around $1 billion funding across 11 funding rounds during this week.
In a major funding round event, Auto Tech startup, Cazoo, raised $630 million in a Series E funding round led by Viking Global Investors, and Willoughby Capital with participation from Mubadala. Cazoo achieved unicorn status on 22nd June 2020 when it raised $31 million of funding from Molten Ventures and others. Cazoo is an online dealer of second-hand cars. Cazoo enables buyers to search for cars, purchase them through the platform and have them delivered home. Cazoo also enables them to view the vehicle specifications, photos, service history, and prices, and avail car financing solutions. Founded in 2018, London-based Cazoo has raised $1 billion till date.
London-based FinTech startup, GoCardless, raised $312 million in a Series G funding round led by Permira with participation from BlackRock Private Equity Partners. With this funding round, GoCardless achieved unicorn status on 8th February, 2022. GoCardless is a provider of direct debit-based recurring payment solutions for businesses. GoCardless offers a solution for enterprises to accept payments with features like operational cost and conversion risk reduction, cash flow management, payment tracking, subscription management, as well as an API for international payment collection. Founded in 2011 by University of Oxford alumni, GoCardless has raised $539 million till date.
FinTech startup, ThinCats, raised $135 million in a Series D funding round led by Insight Investment. ThinCats is an online platform providing business loans. ThinCats offers various loans such as working capital, acquisition, growth finance, refinance, and asset purchase loans. ThinCats uses PRISM data models to indicate credit appetite and offers loans on the basis of credit scores, turnovers, and more. Founded in 2010, Staffordshire-based ThinCats has raised $361 million till date.
In another funding round, FinTech startup, Vitesse, raised $26 million in a Series B funding round led by Prime Venture Partners with participation from Hannover Digital Investments, Octopus Ventures, Shane Happach, and others. Vitesse is a cloud-based cross-border remittance solution for businesses. Vitesse enables enterprises to perform cross-border payments to customers, employees, and other companies. Vitesse uses APIs for real-time integrations with payment tracking, and provides services to multiple industries including insurance, payroll, financial services, corporate, and e-commerce sectors. Founded in 2014, Vitesse has raised $34 million till date.
This was all from the funding updates, moving on to the exits. United Kingdom Tech observed 11 exits during the week of 13 Feb 2022.
Edinburgh-based AdTech startup, TV Squared, was acquired by Innovid for $160 million. TV Squared is a provider of cross-platform TV ad measurement solutions. TV Squared enables users to analyse TV advertising in order to determine the impact on sales, by collecting cross-channel response data. TV Squared also offers solutions for advertisers to optimise television-based campaigns. Founded in 2012, TVSquared has raised $34 million till date from Westcoast capital, Scottish Capital, and others.
Sheffield-based Ed-Tech startup, IN-PART, was acquired by Inova. IN-PART offers a platform for universities to share early-stage technologies and ideas with industry. IN-PART allows universities to post ideas on the platform for industry users to review, provide feedback, and contact them regarding these opportunities. Founded in 2013, IN-PART has raised $1 million till date from Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, and Mercia.
Fintech startup, DNA Payments, was acquired by Alchemy Partners. DNA Payments offers payment solutions for online and POS businesses. DNA Payments offers an intelligent payment ecosystem with multiple solutions from card readers to integrated payments, as well as POS solutions for offline businesses, omnichannel solutions, and retailers. Founded in 2018, London-based DNA Payments has raised $141 million till date from Alchemy Partners.
Wakefield-based 365 Response, a Road Transport Tech startup, was acquired by RLDatix. 365 Response is a provider of cloud-enabled transportation management software for schools and paratransit. 365 Response offers end-to-end solutions to manage transportation booking, scheduling, tracking, invoicing, and reporting. 365 Response includes features like in-platform messaging and integrated governance. Founded in 2012, 365 Response has raised $3 million till date from Business Growth Fund.
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.