Mayor’s post-referendum start-up investment tops £5 million

The London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF) – the Mayor of London’s early stage business fund – has allocated more than £5.3 million into 32 high-growth tech companies since the EU referendum.

Cutting-edge tech start-ups – specialising in areas from artificial intelligence to fintech to big data – are among the companies to have benefitted.

Investment into London’s tech sector remains strong since the referendum, attracting £395 million in venture capital investment in the first quarter of 2017*.

Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO of Funding London and co-founder of LCIF, said: “The ultimate objective of LCIF is to empower London’s start-ups to grow into tech giants and we will continue to support them with the same vigour.”

Deputy Mayor for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, said: “Since LCIF was launched in 2015, it has invested £14 million into 88 tech companies, which has attracted almost £98 million in external funding from its co-investment partners.

These investments in LCIF have created more than 600 new jobs and safeguarded a further 250. The Fund aims to invest in at least 20 high-tech companies before the end of 2017.

Companies to have recently received investment include Benivo, BridgeU, VChain and Cognism.Benivohas received approx.£500k from the LCIF Fundandis helping companies provide relocation on a budget by reducing costs by 90%. Benivo has over 50 clients including Google, Microsoft, and Bloomberg, supporting national and international moves.

Founder and CEO, Nitzan Yudan, said: “LCIF support was much more than the funding. John Spindler helped us shape our fundraising strategy in future rounds and to open doors with investors. The LCIF team actively looked for opportunities to add value in the most important areas – hiring, fund raising, mentorship, and regulation”.

ENDS

Notes

* KPMG’s ‘Venture Pulse Q1 2017‚Ä≤ report, which states that investor sentiment remains positive, with more than $1.02 billion raised from UK VC investors in the first three months of 2017.

– For more information on the London Co-Investment Fund, visit http://lcif.co/.