UK data trackers Beauhurst recently shared their numbers showing solid growth for early stage companies seeking capital. Their numbers gist with the recent release by London Mayor Boris Johnson depicting rapid growth for London tech sector as over $1 Billion has been raised for 2014. Beauhurst states that “summer was fruitful” for businesses going after equity investment. Although the number of deals fell in the third quarter the total amount funded was up with growth stage companies raising £621 million – a new record for quarterly investment. This big number was driven by 183 deals – down a bit from Q1 and Q2. Note that Q3 is the summertime when things typically slow down so the growth is certainly positive.
Beauhurst highlighted three specific big name deals – each for London based companies:
- A £1.4m seed-stage investment into London-based easyProperty, which has launched an online property lettings platform.
- A £16m growth-stage investment into London-based Qubit, which has developed software that enables web-based adverts to be targeted.
- A $65m growth-stage round for London-based Funding Circle, which has developed an online a peer-to-peer lending platform.
easyProperty raised their funding on investment crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. The company benefited by the association with billionaire of Stelios Haji Ionnou, the founder of easyJet. There was some chatter regarding the steep valuation at over £60 million for a company just being launched.
Peer to peer lender Funding Circle raised a sturdy $65 million from big name investors proving the dramatic interest in innovative financial companies. Funding Circle operates in both the UK and the US and may additional markets in the near future.
