News
Wolt, the Helsinki-based online ordering and delivery company that initially focused on restaurants but has since expanded to other verticals, has raised $530 million in new funding. The round was led by Iconiq Growth, with participation from Tiger Global, DST, KKR, Prosus, EQT Growth and Coatue.
Previous backers 83North, Highland Europe, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, EQT Ventures and Vintage Investment Partners also followed on. The new round takes the total amount of financing Wolt has raised to $856 million. Wolt declined to disclose the company’s latest valuation, although we know from the previous D round that the company is one of Europe’s so-called unicorns.
Since launching with 10 restaurants in its home city in 2015, five years on Wolt has expanded to 23 countries and 120 cities, mostly in Europe but also including Japan and Israel. More recently, like others in the restaurant delivery space, Wolt has expanded beyond restaurants and takeout food into the grocery and retail sectors. This, says the company, sees it offer anything from cosmetics to pet food and pharmaceuticals on its platform.
Click here to find out more..
The coronavirus pandemic has caused exceptionally challenging and worrying times for each and every one of us. Where does that leave our tech entrepreneurs? UKTN decided to ask ‘one question’ to some of the most significant founders in the UK tech ecosystem: What are the most effective techniques they were following to manage stress during these COVID-times and what would they suggest to other founders?
Find out what they said here.
Asos says it is in "exclusive" talks to buy Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT brands out of administration.
But the online retailer said it only wanted the brands, not their shops, suggesting any deal would cost jobs.
The current owner of the brands, Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, fell into administration last November putting 13,000 jobs at risk.
Asos said it was "a compelling opportunity" to buy "strong brands that resonate well with its customer base".
Click here to find out more..
Online card retailer Moonpig has confirmed that it plans to go public on the London Stock Exchange in a £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) float next month.
Demand for the company’s cards and gifts has surged during the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. investors BlackRock and Dragoneer have agreed to spend £130 million on Moonpig shares when shares start trading in February.
Click here to find out more..
The U.K.’s largest sports apparel retailer has ramped up its presence in the U.S. sneaker market with the $495 million acquisition of Baltimore-based sportswear company DTLR Villa.
The deal is the third inked in the U.S. by JD Sports as it stakes its claim in the North American market – backed by major brands such as Adidas and Nike - and comes just a few weeks after JD Sports bought California-based Shoe Palace, as it gears up to expand its interests in the north and east of the U.S.
JD Sports also acquired Finish Line of Indianapolis in 2018 and the company opened its first five U.S. stores under the JD brand the same year before launching a spectacular 32,000 sq ft flagship outlet in New York’s Times Square on October 19 last year. At 26%, the U.S. already represents over a quarter of global revenue, matching sales across Europe.
Despite store lockdowns in its domestic market, the sportswear group has maintained its sales performance thanks in part to the growth of the casual leisurewear sector amid multiple lockdowns that have largely kept people at home.
Click here to read more..
According to the report, released today, VC deals in Europe totalled €10.6bn in Q3 2020. That’s one of the strongest quarters on record, bringing year-to-date funding to €29.5bn and meaning it’s on track to eclipse the €37.2bn raised in 2019.
“Despite economies falling into recessions, unemployment rising drastically across numerous different sectors and multiple stimulus measures being announced by pretty much all of the European nations, venture deal value and activity hasn’t really reflected impacts of Covid-19,” Nalin Patel, the lead author of the report, tells Sifted.
However the UK, which accounts for the largest share of VC investments in Europe, saw a quarter-over-quarter drop, from €3.5bn to €2.6bn, likely tied to a decline in the overall number of deals.
Pharma and biotech startups also accounted for four out of the five largest exits in the third quarter of the year, representing a combined value of €5.3bn. That’s on track to beat the annual exit values from software startups for the second consecutive year, according to the report.
Find out more, here.
Esports organiser to grow presence in China and across Asia with new investment. Asia-based esports organiser Versus Programming Network (VSPN) has raised almost US$100 million in a Series B funding round, led by Chinese technology and gaming company Tencent Holdings.
Having been founded in 2016, Shanghai-based VSPN has become one of the continent’s largest esports experience providers which sees it involved with a number of high-profile tournaments, including the Peacekeeper Elite League. The company has also branched out into other businesses such as offline venue operation.
To find out more, click here.
Ordermark, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of online ordering management solutions for restaurants and virtual restaurant concepts, closed its $120M Series C funding round.
The round was led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, joined by returning investor Act One Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand its business reach.
Led by Alex Canter, CEO and Co-Founder, Ordermark provides an online order management technology platform used by thousands of independent and chain restaurants nationwide, consolidates mobile orders across online ordering services and sends them to a single printer — enabling omni-channel ordering and delivery. The company also operates Nextbite, which enables qualifying restaurants to offer popular delivery-only brands out of their existing spaces.
Ordermark’s thousands of customers include small, single-location restaurants and many of the world’s top restaurant chains including Papa John’s, Popeyes, Which Wich, and Yogurtland.
Founded in 2015, PrimaryBid seamlessly connects everyday investors with public companies. Through a long-term agreement with the London Stock Exchange, it ensures that retail investors transact at the same time and at the same price as institutional investors, creating a more democratised access to public markets. To date it has been involved in 90 issuances on London markets, including Compass Group, Ocado, Taylor Wimpey and William Hill.
So far, PrimaryBid has completed over 41 capital raisings for UK listed companies and investment trusts since April 2020, working alongside global investment banks to broaden investor access as companies recapitalised their balance sheets and raised growth capital. Retail investors directly own 13.5% of the UK market, while additionally holding approximately €296.7 billion (£269 billion) in cash ISAs, making them an important constituency in any capital raising activity (sources: ONS, 2018; HMRC, 2020).
Charlie Walker, Head of Equity and Fixed Income, Primary Markets at London Stock Exchange plc said:“This investment builds on our collaboration with PrimaryBid and is part of London Stock Exchange Group’s commitment to broadening retail investor access to public equity markets. Through PrimaryBid’s innovative offering, retail investors have been able to access capital raisings on the same terms as institutional investors, supporting the U.K.’s public companies by providing additional capital and liquidity. PrimaryBid has become an important part of the U.K.’s capital raising ecosystem and we look forward to working with them to further enhance retail investor access to capital markets within the U.K. and globally.”
To read more, click here.
Yuanfudao’s platform offers live courses and provides tutoring options for students. The company, which is based in Beijing, was founded in 2012.
The funding comes as edtech–and the need for edtech–draws more attention. With the COVID-19 pandemic driving much of learning online, the space has drawn increased interest from those in the education community and investors. Yuanfudao is a major player in edtech in China, and will be an official sponsor of the Winter 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
About 3.7 million students use Yuanfudao’s regular-priced courses, according to the company, and it has teaching and research centers across China.
To read more, click here.