automated fundraising - delivery tech - fashion chain
- footwear brand - mini-golf –
cancer tests

London :: Manchester :: Oxfordshire :: Edinburgh :: Surrey :: Nottingham

Seedlegals | Sorted Group | Karen Millen £161.9m | Hunter £113.8m | Adventure Experience £1.6m | Oncimmune £0.24m

News about 6 UK growth companies and/or accelerators + turnover in the GRID marketplace 26th May – 8th June 2019:

SEEDLEGALS: automated fundraising - London

Facebook-backer Index Ventures leads $4m series A for UK legal startup | Emily Nicolle, City A.M. 28 May 2019
DZ profile: Seedlegals Ltd
Business: helps UK startups automate the fundraising process. Seedlegals fully manages the automation of the startup funding process from start to finish, including all negotiation, legal documents and shareholder agreements. It claims around eight per cent of the UK's early-stage investment deals are closed via its platform, with an average of 2-3 funding rounds being completed every day.
Launched: 2017
Location: Holborn, London
Founders: Anthony Rose, CEO, ‘The man behind BBC iPlayer’; Laurent Laffy, Exec Chairman, ‘Serial angel investor and VC’; Anthony Drogon, CTO.
Staff: 25
Investment: has secured $4m (£3.2m) series A funding led by San Francisco and London-based INDEX VENTURES (backer of FACEBOOK, JUST EAT and SLACK), with KIMA VENTURES, THE FAMILY and existing investor SEEDCAMP.
News: Around 8% of all early-stage UK funding rounds are now done on SeedLegals. Last year UK companies created over 27,000 contracts on SeedLegals, saving an estimated £4.5M in legal costs

SORTED GROUP: delivery tech - Manchester

Sorted Group lands £15 million Series B investment led by NVM Private Equity to accelerate the growth of the retail delivery platform | UKTechNews. 31 May 209.
DZ profile: Sorted Group Limited
Business: retail delivery tech company that supplies “agile and data-driven delivery software – powering dynamic checkouts, delivery management and delivery tracking around the world.” … now live in 9 countries. Customers include MISSGUIDED, FOOTASYLUM, FEELUNIQUE and LUSH
Launched: 2014
Location: Manchester
Founder: David Grimes, CEO who started My Parcel Delivery from his parents’ kitchen table back in 2009
Investment: has secured £15m in funding round led by PRAETURA VENTURES and NVM PRIVATE EQUITY LLP bringing Sorted’s funding to a total of £22m over the last four years.
News:
1. the funding will enable Sorted to enhance its existing technology …. support strategic hires across the business – from developers to sales, marketing and finance functions. Over the past 12 months employee headcount in Manchester has doubled to over 100 staff, with plans to hire an additional 50 seats in the next 12 months. Sorted has also invested heavily in its office space, Sorted House
2. achieving over 400% growth in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in the last year alone. The also has plans to accelerate growth in ARR over the next 12 months on the back of winning a number of marquee retail clients. The company now counts major brands, such as, amongst its growing client base.

KAREN MILLEN: fashion chain - Oxfordshire

Kaupthing puts Karen Millen chain on the block | Liam Kelly, The Sunday Times. June 2 2019
DZ profile: Karen Millen Fashions Limited
Business: high street fashion chain with 57 shops and many concessions
Launched: 1981
Location: Witney, Oxfordshire
Founders: Karen Millen with her husband, Kevin Stanford
Staff: about 1,700
Financials: made a pre-tax loss of £9.5m on sales of £161.9m in the year ending February 2018.
Investment: sold business to Oasis for nearly £100m in 2004. Current owner - Icelandic bank KAUPTHING
News: Kaupthing has appointed accountancy firm Deloitte to explore a sale, after receiving unsolicited offers to buy the business. Any sale of Karen Millen would include Coast, the label it bought from administration last year. Kaupthing also owns fashion chains OASIS and WAREHOUSE.

HUNTER: footwear brand - Edinburgh

Hunter wellies firm fills its boots | Liam Kelly The Sunday Times. June 2 2019
DZ profile: Hunter Boot Limited
Business: luxury rubber Wellington boot and footwear brand, which also sells bags, socks, and other accessories. Established as North British Rubber Company to work a patent of Charles Goodyear for the manufacture of India-rubber overshoes and boots. It later made tyres, conveyor belts, combs, golf balls, hot water bottles and rubber flooring. Holds several Royal Warrants by Appointment as suppliers of waterproof footwear.
Launched: in 1856
Location: headquartered in Edinburgh with offices in London, New York and Düsseldorf.
Founders: Americans Henry Lee Norris and his friend and partner Spencer Thomas Parmelee, on Scottish soil.
Financials: made record sales of £113.8m last year, boosted by growth in America and a Mary Poppins-themed range to coincide with the latest Disney film. Pre-tax profits of £6.3m compare with a £5.3m loss in 2017
Investment: went into administration in 2006, but a consortium led by Lord Marland and backed by Speedo owner PENTLAND BRANDS rescued the business, which paid out a £7m dividend last year. In 2012, SEARCHLIGHT CAPITAL PARTNERS became the new controlling shareholder.

ADVENTURE EXPERIENCE: mini-golf - Surrey

Weston family’s £4m mini-golf putt | Sabah Meddings The Sunday Times. June 2 2019
DZ profile: The Adventure Experience Limited
Business: mini-golf operator with four themed Florida-style Adventure Golf sites based around London and the South East, including at the Bluewater shopping centre, Kent and an 18-hole Jurassic-themed park in New Malden, Surrey. A further two are in development.
Launched: 2010
Location: New Malden, Surrey
Financials: Sales are expected to reach £1.6m this year
Investment: Shareholders include WITTINGTON INVESTMENTS, the British investment arm of Canada’s Weston family, which is the majority owner of PRIMARK.
News: … has hired advisers from CHRISTIE & CO to sell the business for about £4m.

ONCIMMUNE: cancer tests - Nottingham

UK biotechs seek to speed up cancer detection | Sarah Neville, FT. June 7, 2019
DZ profile: Oncimmune Holdings Plc
Business: biotechnology business that has developed a patented technology that can detect through a blood test when the body is starting to fight a tumour. The company said this approach could allow cancer to be detected four or more years before standard clinical diagnoses.
Launched: 2012
Location: Nottingham UK, Germany, USA, China
Staff: Adam Hill, chief executive
Financials: generated £121,000 in revenue in the six months to November 2018, its most recent set of results. Results to 31-May-18: Revenue £0.24m (£0.22m); Pre-Tax -£6.34m (-£5.32m)
Investment: Listed on AIM in May 2016.
News: This week reported that using its technology in combination with X-rays and scans reduced the incidence of patients presenting with late-stage lung cancer, compared with standard clinical practice. Sais that 80 per cent of lung cancers were picked up at a late stage, with 40 per cent only spotted when the person turned up at an emergency department with symptoms. Yet if treated at stage one, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer was more than 90 per cent, compared with 6 or 7 per cent at stage four.