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Based out of Manchester, Orka provides smart, tech-based solutions for shift workers accounting for 85% of the global workforce and their employers. The company makes their lives easier and removes barriers by providing tech solutions for shift workers with products, including labour-as-a-service platform Orka Works and earned wage access solution Orka Pay.

Focuses on growth of Orka Pay

In a recent development, Orka Technology Group raised £29M funding. This round was a mixture of debt financing from Sonovate and equity funding involving the British Business Bank Future Fund and existing investors, including former UK CEO of Adecco Peter Searle. With this, the overall funding raised by the company totals £31.5M.

Orka will use the capital to fuel the rapid growth of its earned wage access product Orka Pay. Furthermore, the company will focus on doubling its headcount to 50 in 2021 and invest in its full portfolio of tech solutions for shift workers, including its flagship product – Orka Works.

The funding round comes soon Orka was named in Tech Nation’s Upscale 6.0 programme, which is reserved for the leading scaleups in the UK.

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Vivacity Labs a London-based company aiming to make cities smarter, safer, and more sustainable through AI, has secured £5 million funding in Series A round. The round was led by Mobeus, with additional funding from existing investors Downing Ventures and London Co-Investment Fund.

How will the funding be used?

The investment will be used to expand Vivacity Labs’ AI-based traffic signal system, which reduces congestion and allows cities to prioritise sustainable modes of transport, such as cyclists and buses. 

The company is also planning to double its headcount and expand into Northern Europe and Australian markets. 

As part of its expansion plans, Vivacity Labs has recently appointed Rob Stait as UK Sales Director, previously of AppyWay, and 20 years’ experience in growing technology businesses.

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Interplay, an Austin, Texas-based startup developing a 3D and virtual reality platform for trade workers, today announced that it raised $18 million. The company says it’ll use the proceeds to move into new markets and further develop its existing products.

According to an ABI Research report, before the pandemic, the virtual reality market was forecasted to grow at a 45.7% compound annual rate, surpassing $24.5 billion in revenue by 2024. But even amid the health crisis, virtual reality is booming. A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey predicts that nearly 23.5 million jobs worldwide will use augmented and virtual reality by 2030 for training, work meetings, or customer service.

Founded in 2016 by Doug Donovan and Steve Quirk, Interplay provides online and virtual reality training for a range of skilled trades. Its digital learning simulations span HVAC, plumbing, electrical, facilities maintenance, and solar subject matter, letting customers practice hands-on learning and train to be job-ready.

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Ride hailing taxi app firm Uber must classify its drivers as workers rather than self-employed, the UK's Supreme Court has ruled.

The decision means tens of thousands of Uber drivers are set to be entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay.

The ruling could leave Uber facing a hefty compensation bill, and have wider consequences for the gig economy.

In a long-running legal battle, Uber had appealed to the Supreme Court after losing three earlier rounds.

'Massive achievement'

Former Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam, who originally won an employment tribunal against the ride hailing app giant in October 2016, told the BBC they were "thrilled and relieved" by the ruling.

"I think it's a massive achievement in a way that we were able to stand up against a giant," said Mr Aslam, president of the App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU).

"We didn't give up and we were consistent - no matter what we went through emotionally or physically or financially, we stood our ground."

Uber appealed against the employment tribunal decision but the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the ruling in November 2017.

The ride hailing taxi app firm then took the case to the High Court, which upheld the ruling again in December 2018.

The ruling on Friday was Uber's last appeal, as the Supreme Court is Britain's highest court, and it has the final say on legal matters.

'Drivers are struggling'

A key point in the Supreme Court's ruling is that Uber has to consider its drivers "workers" from the time they log on to the app, until they log off.

Uber drivers typically spend time waiting for people to book rides on the app. Previously, the firm had said that if drivers were found to be workers, then it would only count the time during journeys when a passenger is in the car.

"This is a win-win-win for drivers, passengers and cities. It means Uber now has the correct economic incentives not to oversupply the market with too many vehicles and too many drivers," said James Farrar, ADCU's general secretary.

"The upshot of that oversupply has been poverty, pollution and congestion."

However, questions still remain about how the new classification will work, and how it affects gig economy workers who work not only for Uber, but also for other competing apps.

Mr Aslam, who claims Uber's practices forced him to leave the trade as he couldn't make ends meet, is considering becoming a driver for the app again. But he is upset that it took so long.

"It took us six years to establish what we should have got in 2015. Someone somewhere, in the government or the regulator, massively let down these workers, many of whom are in a precarious position," he said.

Mr Farrar points out that with fares down 80% due to the pandemic, many drivers have been struggling financially and feel trapped in Uber's system.

"We're seeing many of our members earning £30 gross a day right now," he said, explaining that the self-employment grants issued by the government only cover 80% of a driver's profits, which isn't even enough to pay for their costs.

"If we had these rights today, those drivers could at least earn a minimum wage to live on."

Battery Ventures, a global technology-focused investment firm, closed its latest vehicle, at $400m.

Battery Ventures Select Fund I is a vehicle designed to deliver additional capital to a small subset of the firm’s later-stage companies.

Founded in 1983, Battery continues to make new investments across stages, from seed-stage to buyout, in core sectors including business software; enterprise IT, including cloud computing, data, DevOps and cybersecurity; online consumer marketplaces; financial technology; healthcare-IT; and industrial technology.

The firm also will continue to execute its differentiated strategy of backing companies at all stages of development.

The firm invests globally from six strategic locations: Boston; San Francisco and Menlo Park, Calif.; Herzliya, Israel; London; and New York.

London-based digital asset platform Blockchain.com has secured $120 million (approx £86.5 million) funding. The investment was led by a lineup of macro investors including, Moore Strategic Ventures (Louis Bacon), Kyle Bass, Access Industries, Rovida Advisors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV (aka Google Ventures), Lakestar, Eldridge, and more.

Raised £136M to date

The UK-based company didn’t disclose the valuation at which the funds were raised; however, the company has raised $190 million (approx £136 million) in funding. The funding will be used to accelerate the platform’s growing Institutional Markets business. 

Blockchain.com said about 28% of all Bitcoin transactions since 2012 have occurred through its platform, representing billions in transaction volume.

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Leaf Grow, a New Castle-based company that provides end-to-end performance marketing services for eCommerce businesses, has secured £1.75 million funding led by Maven Capital Partners. 

The company secured funding of £1 million through the North East Development Fund, supported by the European Regional Development, and £750,000 through The Future Fund, a government scheme backed by the British Business Bank.

Maven Capital Partners is a private equity firm that provides a range of funding options to dynamic SMEs & attractive investment opportunities.

The funding will enable the company to invest in its engineering and data science teams, sales & marketing activities and expand its Newcastle operations, whilst continuing to roll out several product enhancements.

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The £4 billion stock market floatation of Darktrace has been dealt an early blow after Swiss bank UBS reportedly pulled out due to the firm's ties to British entrepreneur Mike Lynch.  

The decision came from the bank's compliance department and is related to a 'Suspicious Activity Report' (SAR) regarding Lynch's current legal battles with US and UK authorities, according to Sky News. 

A SAR is a regulatory requirement for banks that must be made if there is any suspicious legal activity in a transaction. UBS was appointed alongside US multinational Jefferies to lead Darktrace's listing in November, but the firm has reportedly said it cannot continue on behalf of the UK firm due to Lynch's proposed extradition to the US to stand trial,

Lynch was one of the first investors in Darktrace through his VC firm Invoke Capital, but it is his previous ventures that have led to UBS pulling out and also his potential extradition to America. 

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The Post Office has announced plans to launch a free-to-use app that will use biometrics to authenticate customers and prevent fraud.

The new app will be based on software supplied by London-based company Yoti, which launched in 2014 and specialises in digital identity technology. It will take advantage of biometric-face matching and liveness detection in order to ensure the privacy of Post Office customers and prevent potential imposters from obtaining sensitive information.

The app could help to ensure social distancing by enabling customers to be identified for passport and driving licence renewals from the safety of their homes, without the need to attend a post office in-person.

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The IPO gave the Austin, Texas-based company a market capitalization of more than $7 billion. Bumble sold 50 million shares after raising its share offering several times, previously aiming to sell 45 million shares at a target price range $37-$39.

Some dating apps like Bumble have flourished even under COVID-19-related social distancing, as people who stay at home turn to instant messaging to seek romance.

Bumble, which also owns the Badoo dating app, said it expects to record up to $541.5 million in revenue between January and December 2020, up 11% from the prior year driven by growth in paying customers.

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