In this episode of United Kingdom Tech - Weekly Deals Roundup: United Kingdom Tech saw 28 companies including Insider, Payhawk, and WeFlex raised over $511 million from investors such as Qatar Investment Authority, Wamda Capital Sequoia Capital 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 Insider, Payhawk, WeFlex, and more. In exits, we will cover the acquisition of The Floow by Otonomo among others.
Starting with our deep dive into funding rounds, tech companies in the United Kingdom raised around $511 million of funding across 28 funding rounds during this week.
In a major funding round event, E-commerce startup, Insider, raised $121 million in a Series D funding round led by Qatar Investment Authority with participation from Wamda Capital, Sequoia Capital, Riverwood Capital, and others. Insider is a provider of AI-based marketing solutions for businesses. Insider’s features include user data management, user activity tracking, customer habit tracking, automated real-time notifications, and more. Insider uses proprietary predictive algorithms to determine the likelihood of purchase. Founded in 2012, London-based Insider has raised $166 million till date.
London-based FinTech startup, Payhawk, raised $100 million in a Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from HubSpot, Greenoaks, QED Investors, and others. With this funding round, Payhawk achieved unicorn status. Payhawk is a provider of corporate credit cards and expense management software for businesses. Payhawk’s features include real-time expense tracking, automated notifications and reminders to employees, setting spending limits, data extraction, budget tracking, accounting integration, and more. Payhawk was founded in 2018 and has raised $239 million till date.
London-based Auto Tech startup, WeFlex, raised $80 million in a Series C funding round. WeFlex provides cars for rent to Uber drivers. WeFlex helps ride-hailing drivers possess their own electric cars with Rent-To-Buy Schemes. WeFlex's fleet contains both new and used cars, and it provides car finance and vehicle rental services to Uber, Ola, Bolt, and Freenow drivers. Founded in 2015, WeFlex has raised $80 million till date.
Chemicals and Materials startup, Paragraf, raised $60 million in a Series B funding round led by New Science Ventures with participation from Amadeus Capital, Breakthrough Energy, In-Q-Tel, and others. Paragraf is a provider of graphene-based magnetic sensors. Paragraf develops graphene solutions using its proprietary two-dimensional material manufacturing process. Paragraf's product portfolio includes graphene-based hall-effect sensors, biosensors, and solid-state devices. Founded in 2015, Peterborough-based Paragraf has raised $84 million till date.
London-based Life Sciences startup, Epsilogen, raised $41 million in a Series B funding round led by Novartis Venture Fund with participation from ALSA Ventures, Schroders, 3B Future Health Fund, and others. Epsilogen is a developer of immunoglobulin antibodies for the treatment of cancer. Epsilogen has developed antibodies that help in the treatment of solid tumors. Epsilogen's lead product candidate, is an IgE for folate receptor alpha positive cancer patients. Epsilogen's other products include EPS 201 for breast cancer and gastric problems. Founded in 2016, Epsilogen has raised $47 million till date.
Enterprise Tech startup, Satellite Vu, raised $26 million in a Series A funding round led by Seraphim Capital. Satellite Vu is a developer of satellite-based imaging systems. Satellite Vu provides satellite technology for Earth observation applications. The satellite has been designed to monitor plastic and pollution from space. Satellite Vu's data processing system allows the measurement of floating litter in real-time, enabling governments and other organizations to locate, track and quantify plastic in the maritime environment. Founded in 1996, London-based Satellite Vu has raised $52 million till date.
This was all from the funding updates, moving on to the exits. United Kingdom Tech observed 12 exits during the week of 06 Mar 2022.
Sheffield-based InsurTech startup, The Floow, was acquired by Otonomo for $69 million. The Floow provides telematics technology focused on innovating insurance models. The Floow provides motor insurers, car makers, and fleet operators with actionable insights to increase customer loyalty and ROI. The Floow offers White Box - a self-installed device and application for Android and Apple platforms, which are fully compatible with any telematics data source. Founded in 2012 by Stanford University alumni, The Floow has raised $16 million till date from Fosun, and Direct Line Insurance.
London-based E-commerce startup, Swogo, was acquired by 1WorldSync. Swogo is an automated bundle solution for E-commerce retailers. Swogo’s technology creates the most relevant bundles based on compatibility and purpose for all product categories, from technology bundles to outfitting in fashion. Swogo's machine learning algorithms take into account profit margins, availability, customer behavior, and more. Swogo was founded in 2012.
This was all for today, we will be back next Monday with more updates. You can subscribe to our podcast on Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Apple Podcast 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.