DFW #3: Mobility, Climate Tech, Dev Tools, Gig Economy, HR Tech
This week features mobility, climate tech, advertising, marketplaces, gig economy, HR tech, dev tools, circular economy and blockchain coming from companies based in 3 countries at seed stage. Enjoy.
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012 Honeycomb Network 🇬🇧🏢🌿
Mobility, Infrastructure, Cleantech, Micromobility, Female Founders, Underrepresented Founders, Social Impact, ✓SEIS/EIS
Honeycomb Network (HCN) is working to decarbonise urban transport, by empowering a modal shift from cars to private micromobility. HCN is establishing a network of universal, smart-charging locker 'pods' for private e-scooters, with IoT-connected pods accessed via the mobile app.
Market: Businesses: offices, universities, shopping centres, etc.
Problem: No safe, public storage and charging for private e-scooters
Solution: Universal, smart-charging pod network for private e-scooters
Traction: Funding: £156k grants, £127k pre-seed; B2B sales lined up
Team: 4 (🇬🇧) Gabriel Yoong, CEO; Cameron Brown, CTO; William Cox, CFO; Maysa Abadi, COO
Backed by: SFC Capital, Niche Vehicle Network, Department for Transport and Connected Places Catapult, Greenhouse accelerator (European Regional Development Fund, Geovation, EIT E+Mobility
Based in: London, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £600k (GBP) (5% committed)
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013 Bulla Co 🇬🇧🏢🌿
Advertising Platforms, B2B, B2C, B2B2C, Brand, Content, Digital Marketing, Marketplace, SaaS, Social Media Advertising, Universities, ✓SEIS/EIS
Bulla Co, a student/business marketplace driven by data and creativity, we humanise brands, and give them a trusted voice that’s heard amongst the most hard-to-reach groups of students, through creatively led student influencer UGC content, predominantly across Instagram and TikTok.
Market: Brands, Students and Gen Z
Problem: Brands struggle to get genuine interest and conversation across campuses all over the UK
Solution: Our SaaS platform to cut through the noise, placing brands at the forefront of the student market through socially savvy and creative campaigns
Traction: 9000+ student creators, £100k+ revenue today (60% this month)
Team: 10 (🇬🇧) Joshua Roche, Euan Wardrop, James Upson
Backed by: Robert Berkeley, CEO Inifox Capital
Based in: London, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £750k (GBP) (20% committed)
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014 Webel 🇪🇸🏢🌿
Marketplace, Consumer Services, Gig Economy, At-home Services
Webel is the app that brings any service (cleaning, beauty, dog grooming…) to your doorstep.
Market: Consumers; at-home service practitioners (cleaning, beauty, dog grooming, etc)
Problem: Current solutions are opaque, slow and expensive
Solution: We are affordable (25% cheaper), transparent and fast
Traction: €50K GMV, +28% client repetition, €5k MRR, growing 30% MoM, LTV/CAC=5
Team: 9 (🇪🇸) Nacho, CEO; Guillermo, COO; Javier, CTO; Carlos, CPO
Backed by: Hugo Arevalo, founder of ThePowerMBA and investor in the 5 Spanish unicorns (Glovo, Cabify, Colvin, Job&Talent & Playtomic); Bas
Based in: Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸
Raising: €500k (Euro)
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015 Barback 🇬🇧🏢🌿
Future of Work, SaaS, Staffing, HR Tech, Blockchain, Tech for Good, AI, FinTech, Female Founders, Underrepresented Founders, Social Impact, ✓SEIS/EIS
Barback is on a mission to solve the labour crisis in hospitality through its new concept of staffing platform which acts as a labour ecosystem, empowering workers and businesses alike. We also have a strong social mission aimed at solving the other issues hospitality faces.
Market: Hospitality; Full Time Staff; University Students,
Problem: The labour crisis and mental health crisis in hospitality.
Solution: Labour infrastructure platform
Traction: 120 venues, 300 freelancers signed up and partner contracts
Team: 4 (🇬🇧) Ewan Moran, CEO; Abi Yee, CMO
Backed by: Bernard Yee, President AT&T Canada& Asia Pacific; Aaron Levy - Global Director, Aldi; Dan Harding - Co-Founder, Fianchetto
Based in: London, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £2m (GBP)
ℹ️ More info
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016 Fyne Labs 🏴🌍🌿
Dev tools, Enterprise SaaS, Deep Tech, Mobile, Desktop, ✓SEIS/EIS
Automation of build and delivery for platform agnostic native graphical applications - mobile desktop and beyond.
Market: Developers targeting multiple platforms, starting in FinTech
Problem: Duplication and manual effort wasting software engineer time
Solution: SaaS automating the build and deploy process to all devices
Traction: First paid customers, Engaged audience: underlying open source project is growing fast, passing 18200 GitHub stars and 120 contributors; letter of interest
Team: 5 (🏴🇨🇦) Andrew Williams, Cedric Bail
Backed by: Gareth Williams (Founder, SkyScanner), Rob Dobson
Based in: Edinburgh, UK 🏴
Raising: £1.25m (GBP) (10% committed)
ℹ️ More info
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017 Cauli 🇬🇧🏢🌿
ClimateTech, FoodTech, B2B, CircularEconomy, Female Founder, Underrepresented Founders, Social Impact, ✓SEIS/EIS
Cauli is a London-based food/climate tech startup disrupting single-use food and drink packaging, by powering the sourcing and tracking of smart circular packaging, with customers including Compass Group, Elior, and the NHS etc.
Market: Onsite catering (canteens & events)
Problem: 11B pieces of single-use packaging in the UK every year
Solution: Tech-enabled circular packaging solution
Traction: 100% trials converted, £150K ARR
Team: 5 (🇬🇧) Josephine Liang, Co-founder; Ming Zhao, Co-founder
Backed by: SFC Captial
Based in: London, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £1.8m (GBP) (Lead secured)
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Key: 🌱=Pre-seed 🌿=Seed 🪴=Series A/B 🏢= Not remote 🌍 = Remote
Missed the previous issues? Here they are!
Issue #2
006 E-Nano 🇬🇧🏢🌿
AI, SportsTech, Agtech, RaaS, ✓SEIS/EIS
E-Nano is a robotics and AI startup working on optimising maintenance and improving the playability of sports surfaces to enhance athletes' performance.
Market: Grounds managers, Sports organisations - football, golf, etc.
Problem: Lack of data to effectively maintain sports surfaces
Solution: Autonomous data collection platform & AI for analytics
Traction: Early adopters including Premier League football clubs, FIFA
Team: 6 (🇦🇷🇫🇷🇮🇹🇭🇺🇬🇧) Alan Jurnet Berteloot, CTO Christian von Scheidt, CEO Erwann Lompech-Leneveu, COO, Gabor Zichy, CDO
Backed by: SFC Capital (VC) and STRI Group (Strategic partner from the sports industry)
Based in: London, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £1.2m (GBP)
ℹ️ More Info
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007 Class-ify 🇬🇧🌍🌿
SaaS, Subscription, Wellness, ✓SEIS/EIS
Our hypothesis is simple: Personal Trainers are all looking for ways to grow their revenue. We provide business management software, plus support services to help PT's to acquire customers and grow their revenue. We provides everything a PT needs for a monthly subscription
Market: Independent Personal Trainers (67k in UK alone)
Problem: PT Qualifications aren’t enough to grow a successful PT business
Solution: Software, plus sales and marketing support services
Traction: 250 customers in 18 countries, £42k MRR (+20% MoM)
Team: 15 (🇬🇧🇪🇸🇬🇭🇳🇿🇵🇭) Daniel Stott, CEO, Tristan Rushworth, COO
Backed by: Former CDO, CFO, CTO, Just Eat; CEO, Rapid Spike; CEO, Talentful; CEO, Xempus AG; CDO, Catispay, MD, Jaeger; MD, Job and Talent
Based in: London, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £500k (GBP)
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008 Ae’Kimi 🇦🇪🌍🌿
HRTech, ERP, SaaS, Mobile, Fintech, Underrepresented Founders, Social Impact,
A single multi-country unified SaaS HCM platform (Think of WeChat, Grab, Careem super-apps but for HR).
Market: SMEs & MNCs
Problem: HR Data is Siloed or Scattered across platforms & vendors
Solution: Unified SaaS HRTech Platform
Traction: $10k MRR
Team: 15 (🇦🇪🇮🇳), Leong Cheah, CEO, Karthik Kannan, Partner - Operations, Samuel Appadoo, Partner - Fintech, Arun Varghese, Partner - CTO
Based in: Dubai, UAE 🇦🇪
Raising: $750k (USD)
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009 aisle 3 🇬🇧🇮🇳🌍🌿
Fintech, Marketplaces, Ecommerce, DeepTech, ✓SEIS/EIS
aisle 3 is a product aggregator for Shoppers that has built Cloud Basket™ so you can buy from multiple retailers in one-click, in one transaction through, one platform and earn cashback on every purchase.
Market: Shoppers used to navigating the 70% of ecommerce off Amazon
Problem: That time you remember opening lots of sites just to shop!
Solution: Our AI matches products together without any IDs or barcodes
Traction: 1000 registered shoppers, £30k orders (GMV)
Team: 12 (🇬🇧🇮🇳🌍), Thomas J. Vosper, Ex-Amazon/Tesco
Backed by: FJ Labs, Exited Founders of Catch, SVP Snap, GM Big Commerce, Exited Founder ZigZag, Exited Founder Pentagon, Exited Founder Carsnip, Founder Aero, GM MoneySupermarket
Based in: 🇬🇧&🇮🇳
Raising: £1m (GBP)
****ℹ️ More info
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010 Urbs Travel 🇬🇧🌍🌱
Travel-tech, Consumer App, ✓SEIS/EIS
Urbs is a mobile app that enriches the way people experience cities. It’s Lonely Planet for millennials, with audio content and ticket booking.
Market: City travellers; Podcast listeners.
Problem: No app to discover + learn about places and book experiences
Solution: Booking platform with navigation and quality audio content.
Traction: >15k downloads; >$7k in ticket sales; Featured in Vogue
Team: 6 (🇬🇧🇫🇮🇺🇦🇵🇱), Will von Behr (CEO), Luke Smyth-Osbourne (CTO)
Backed by: William Frewen (150+ angel investments including Lumio and Urban Jungle); Chris Curry (Chairman & Managing Partner of Piper Private Equity
Based in: London, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £250k (GBP)
****ℹ️ More info
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011 Collabed 🇬🇧🌍🌱
Saas, Construction, Recruitment, Social Network, ✓SEIS/EIS
Collabed is a recruitment platform for the construction industry. We connect candidates to jobs throughout the construction industry
Market: Employers and professionals in the construction industry
Problem: Skill shortage within the industry
Solution: We make it easier for companies to find candidates
Traction: 14,000 users, over-raising on Seedrs
Team: 1 (🇬🇧) Alex Ramsden
Backed by: Alex Dyce, Linda Acumen, Carol Massay
Based in: UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £130k (GBP) (85% committed, 111% of original goal; overfunding crowdfund)
ℹ️ More Info
Issue #1
01 WONDR 🇬🇧🌍🌿
Edtech, Sustainability, SaaS, Social Learning, Cohort-learning tech, Social Impact, ✓SEIS/EIS
WONDR is a social learning platform of mentors & learners sharing knowledge through cohort-based learning experiences across 200+ topics. A community of 10,000+ learners with a membership to constantly upskill for the future of work - tackling environmental and social challenges.
Market: Professionals & entrepreneurs building green skills
Problem: Online learning is rigid, costly and lonely
Solution: We make it social, fluid and hyper-relevant to individuals
Traction: 10,000+ learners, 50+ mentors and growing subscribers, post-revenue
Team: 7 (🇬🇧) Sam Reader, CEO, Simon Jones, COO, Mark Jones, Director & Acting CFO; Former BDO LLP equity partner. Supported $10-$150M ARR businesses
Based in: Birmingham, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £700k (GBP)
****ℹ️ More info 📆 Meet with the founder
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02 BuddyUp 🇬🇧🌍🌿
SportsTech, Fittech, Social Networking, Health, Fitness, Underrepresented Founders, ✓SEIS/EIS
BuddyUp helps you find, like and connect with the perfect running partners near you. Whether you're searching for a marathon partner or a running buddy on a hungover Sunday, we make it easy to find that person.
Market: Social runners all the way marathon runners
Problem: Runners want a easy way of finding new training partners
Solution: A matchmaking app & algorithm that matches runners
Traction: 6500 downloads, 3500 runners matched - all in London
Team: 7 (🇬🇧🇺🇸🇳🇴), John Haakon Chen, CEO, Joey Hext, CGO, Tawheed Abdul-Raheem, CTO, Ellis Lynas, CMO
Based in: London, UK 🇬🇧
Raising: £350k (GBP)
ℹ️ More info
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03 Pawprint 🏴🌍🌿
Climate Tech, Sustainability Tech, B2B SAAS, Enterprise SAAS, HR Tech, Social Impact, ✓SEIS/EIS
Pawprint is a Climate Action Platform that allows companies to accelerate their journey to net zero and align other business goals by engaging their employees.
Market: 500+ 90%+ white collar employee companies globally
Problem: Companies aren't engaging stakeholders in climate action
Solution: A managed SAAS platform that support science-based action
Traction: £500k ARR, 50 clients inc abrdn, Vodafone, innocent drinks
Team: 28 (🏴), Christian Arno, Julia Sunderland, Richard Amos, Ross MacNay
Backed by: Andrin Bachmann of Piton Capital; Gareth Williams Founder/CEO of Skyscanner; Leela Srinivasan - former CMO of SurveyMonkey and now Checkout.com; Julia Sunderland (Google Payments; Emerging Products; Next Billion Users); Martin Gilbert, Founder of Aberdeen Asset Management now abrdn; James Watt, BrewDog Captain; Ian Marchant (ex CEO SSE)
Based in: Edinburgh, UK 🏴
Raising: £2-3m, min cheque £50k (GBP)
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04 Ghosti 🇨🇦🌍🌱
Gaming, NFT, Web3, Mobile, Female Founder
Mobile NFT pet collection game brining back nostalgia from the age of Tamagotchi. Bring your pets wherever you go and truly own each one you hatch! Decorate the island and housing to your liking. Even play with friends online!
Market: Ages 0-25 All Genders
Problem: Web3 isn't accessible for all
Solution: Hybrid wallet login, no initial investment to play, removing entry barriers to web3
Traction: Discord server with ~1,000 people
Team: 2 (🇨🇦) Sebastian Maj - Software Engineer (11 years experience; successfully launched game on Steam in 2016), Kimmily Qin - Illustrator graduate from Ringling College in Florida.
Based in: Windsor, ON, Canada 🇨🇦
Raising: $150,000 (CAD)
ℹ️ More info
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05 Mighty Slice 🇬🇧🌍🌱
B2B, D2C, CPG, Female Founders, Social Impact Business, ✓SEIS/EIS
There’s 1.8 bn views on TikTok for #proteindessert, but no way to have these unless you make from scratch. We’ve taken the macros of a protein bar and turned this into individually packaged slices of dessert (think Biscoff Cheesecake, with 16g of protein and low sugar).
Market: Protein bar consumers, time short, health conscious foodies
Problem: Why can we get only get cheesecake FLAVOURED protein bars?
Solution: Individually packaged dessert slices containing 16g protein
Traction: Secured trial listings in ASDA (1 of the Big 4 UK supermarkets) & 1st anchor account
Team: 3 (🇬🇧🇺🇸), https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-tout-9a9846148/
Based in: London, UK (🇬🇧)
Raising: £250k (GBP)
****ℹ️ More info 📆 Meet with the founder
What did you think of these companies? 👍 👎
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Key: 🌱=Pre-seed 🌿=Seed 🪴=Series A/B 🏢= Not remote 🌍 = Remote