35 early-stage companies received investments of over £5m from the London Co-investment Fund
Launched in December 2014, the London Co-investment Fund (LCIF) completes a year and is ready to take a look back at the achievements and learnings.
· Over £5m invested 35 London based high growth tech companies
· Over £25m of further capital leveraged from the private sector
· 70 full jobs created and 51 jobs safeguarded
· Investments in diverse sectors- BioTech, MADTech, FinTech, EdTech, SaaS, Digital & more
· Within six months of launch, recognised as one of the most active investors *
The £26m fund, backed by the Mayor of London, is an initiative by Maggie Rodriguez-Piza of Funding London and John Spindler of Capital Enterprise, to bridge the funding gap for London based high growth tech companies. Funding London manages and leads the investment activity of the fund and Capital Enterprise helps in building a healthy pipeline of investment ready early stage companies through the Green Light Programme.
With a strong cohort of 10 co-investment partners the fund helps the portfolio companies secure the funding runway they require to take their businesses to the next level. The fund’s first investment completed in early January 2015 and since then the portfolio companies have achieved key milestones on their growth path.
Dojo, a popular London discovery app, was the first company we supported and within a few months, the company was able to go global and launch the app in Paris. What started as a group of 5 is now a 20 member team. The potent combination of Dojo’s team, track record and product, which impressed us in the first place, has led us to believe in their vision and we are delighted to be supporting them with a follow-on investment. Read the full story herehttp://fundinglondon.co.uk/success-stories/the-dojo-app/
Urban Massage, the Uber of massage services, joined the SVC2UK 100 club, an initiate that recognises start-ups who are likely to scale to £100m in the next three to five years
Captive Media, guaranteeing engagement of Millennial Men, won the best digital out-of-home content award for their work with Anthony Nolan at The Drum Content Awards 2015
FlatClub, a platform to find medium term accommodation for students and professionals is also one of our fast-growing portfolio companies. Their aggressive growth strategy coupled with our investment support achieved an exponential rise in their listings. They started 2015 with 25,000 listings and now they have over 1, 00,000 properties listed on their portal. They are constantly upgrading their technology and enhancing the services offered to their users. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson recently launched their innovative feature called LiveDemand. It allows the host to make an offer to their guest and at the moment this service is only offered by FlatClub. Read the full story http://thrive.london/interviews/flatclub/
Commenting on the progress report of LCIF backed companies, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said "London’s tech and science sector is flourishing and the city is a hotbed of talented and ambitious people buzzing with exciting ideas who are setting up new companies in their droves. I am delighted that the London Co Investment Fund is helping companies make their ideas a reality and deliver jobs and growth for the capital. "
An analysis of the fund’s investment activity has revealed that on average, angel investors make up well over 50% of the funding rounds that LCIF participates in and often LCIF is the only institutional investor. This trend aligns with LCIF’s core remit to empower high growth tech companies to optimize their funding rounds and enable them to concentrate on rapid development.
On completing the first year of investment activity, Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO of Funding London and co-founder of LCIF said "We are proud to be able to catalyse investment rounds alongside an extensive list of investors including angels and venture capital funds and help the companies accomplish their growth plans. The ultimate objective of LCIF is to empower London’s start-ups to grow into tech giants and in the New Year we will continue to support them with the same vigour. "
Since the launch in December last year, LCIF has received applications from almost 1000 tech start-ups and scale-up stage businesses. All applications and enquiries are carefully reviewed, not only for the purpose of investment but also to provide appropriate guidance on qualifying for such investments. The market response to the fund has been positive and it is for all the above reasons that within 6 months of the launch LCIF received the recognition of being one of the most active investors in the ecosystem.
John Spindler, CEO of Capital Enterprise and a co-founder of LCIF added "Demand and the quality of demand for seed stage investment has never been higher. We are meeting some of this demand and as such our fund in partnership with our co-investment partners and the wider London investment community are making London the place in Europe to start and scale a world beating tech business."
To apply for London Co-Investment Fund investment and to receive support and guidance, London based Tech Start-ups are advised to visit www.lcif.co