The Mayor of London’s post-referendum start-up investment fund has now delivered over £5.3 million to 32 high growth tech companies since the EU referendum pushed the UK to back away from continental Europe.
The London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF) has reportedly invested in early stage companies specialising in areas from artificial intelligence (AI) to Fintech to big data. The Mayor’s office reports that investment into London’s tech sector remains strong since the referendum, attracting £395 million in venture capital investment in the first quarter of 2017.
Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO of Funding London and co-founder of LCIF, commented on the announcement;
“The ultimate objective of LCIF is to empower London’s start-ups to grow into tech giants and we will continue to support them with the same vigour.”
Deputy Mayor for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, said that since LCIF launched in 2015 a total of £14 million has been invested into 88 different tech companies that attracted approximately £98 million in outside investment from the Fund’s partners. This represents a meaningful boost to the UK startup ecosystem and a boost to the UK economy.
“These investments in LCIF have created more than 600 new jobs and safeguarded a further 250. The Fund aims to invest in at least 20 high-tech companies before the end of 2017,” said Agrawal.
Companies having recently received investment include Benivo, BridgeU, VChain and Cognism
Benivo has received approximately £500,000 from the LCIF Fund. Benivo is helping companies provide relocation on a budget by reducing costs by 90%. Benivo is said to have over 50 clients including Google, Microsoft, and Bloomberg, supporting national and international moves.
“LCIF support was much more than the funding. John Spindler helped us shape our fundraising strategy in future rounds and to open doors with investors,”explained founder and CEO, Nitzan Yudan. “The LCIF team actively looked for opportunities to add value in the most important areas – hiring, fund raising, mentorship, and regulation”.
London and the UK in general has been aggressively pursuing a strategy that supports entrepreneurship and Fintech specifically. The UK remains one of the top Fintech hubs in the world.