Sterling Grychowski

2024 is no better than 2023. UK Tech investment landscape surely can't get any gloomier than this, could it? Up to date data from https://deallite.uk Please note we only cover UK Tech Companies. #techinvestment #venturecapital #vc #privateequity #equityinvestment #equity #tech #uktech #techcelerate #deallite #deals #techdeals #funding #techfunding #investment #seed #seriesA #preseed #growthcapital

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It was interesting speaking on a #TechUK panel yesterday for SMEs looking at government grant funding. Key messages: 1. It's a good option given how hard it is to raise from VCs in the UK at the moment 2. It's incredibly competitive, time consuming, 70% reimbursement only so think hard about going down this road 3. The process forces you to think in detail about your product so, at the least, you are future proofing your business Good luck to all the #founders out there. As Ed Bevan says, it's the journey not the arrival Research Innovate and Emerge (RIEm) at Brunel, techUK, Michael Joseph PhD, Geoff Rodgers

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In other HUGE Monzo Bank news, they working with Google Cloud to create AND shape a data analytics hub that can help it grow with its customers 📈 ☁ 🏦 Monzo are multi-cloud and Google Cloud has been INTEGRAL in building its data analysis hub helping to provide them with data that can empower ALL of its teams to get the insights that can drive better business decisions. 🤖 🔎 As Monzo continue to grow, they are using ML to develop its NEW experimental customer demand forecasting system and has ALREADY completed early experiments for predicting outcomes related to customer experience and auto-complete search queries. To train its ML models, the bank analyzes data sets like its support help articles on BigQuery using Vertex AI as this way they can test, build, AND monitor ML models as it continues to refine and iterate on them. 👨‍💻 “We generate a lot of data on our back end and also on our front end, from our systems, services, and our customers using the app,” says Suhail Patel Senior Staff Engineer at Monzo. “We use that in a multitude of ways, for example, to provide better customer support by sharing insights with customers about how they’re spending their money.” “With BigQuery we can have all the data we need to effectively make business-critical decisions, and analyze the impact of complex incidents when something goes wrong. For us, this is like having a superpower,” “We empower all of our engineers and all of our technical staff with BigQuery data across the organization,” says Patel. “We leverage BigQuery’s scale and capabilities to run complex pipelines and data modeling to surface detailed customer and business insights.” “As Google Cloud team operates both within the UK and across other markets, their geographical reach is a key strategic advantage which aligns with our global ambition” Read more on the link below! 👇 Irina Sukhikh TS Anil AJ Coyne Fernando Fanton Matej Pfajfar Kirby Mosenthal David Brewerton #monzo #googlecloud #cloudbanking #dataanalytics #digitalbank #customerexperience #multicloud #bigquery #machinelearning

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🎉 Exciting News! ThirdRetail has secured SEIS advance assurance within 24 hours of self-application! 🚀 🔍 What is SEIS? The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is a UK government initiative designed to encourage investment in early-stage startups. It offers tax reliefs to investors, making it easier for young companies like ours to raise capital. 👋 Who are we? ThirdRetail is revolutionizing offline distribution for D2C brands! 🏪 We're the Airbnb of retail shelves, making it affordable and accessible for direct-to-consumer brands to scale their physical presence. Our AI-powered platform removes cross-channel blindspots, providing seamless integration between online and offline retail. 💡 Our mission: - Empower D2C brands to expand offline - Optimize retail space utilization - Bridge the gap between digital and physical retail 🤝 Calling SEIS Funds! Are you interested in being part of the third channel of retail sales? We're currently raising our pre-seed round and would love to chat with SEIS funds looking for exciting investment opportunities. Let's connect and explore how we can shape the future of retail together! 📈 Anil Junagal #RetailTech #SEIS #SEISFUNDS #Startup #D2C #Retail #Marketplace #B2B #SaaS

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Earlier this week, I had the joy of launching the Scaleup Institute’s 2024 annual review, 10 years after the report I was commissioned to write on how to stimulate UK economic growth. Amongst other things, we were convened to celebrate the UK's move from 13th in the global scaleup league table to 3rd. Thank you to ScaleUp Institute and Irene Graham OBE for your incredible work in this area. Since then, I've had several occasions to reflect on the fact that scaleup progress is in no small part due to the university sector encouraging students to work for scaleup companies alongside their academic studies. Amongst other reflections, I am drawn to celebrate the extraordinary Goldsmith's University Alum, Noshin Begum, whom F4S wrote about in their annual report—just a few of the 2 million career encounters brokered between students and scaleups. Noshin had no less than 8 internships with scaleup companies during her studies - how cool is that? From her first internship in August 2020 at The Barber Shop to PoC developer at Octopus Energy a few months later, to software engineer at Alpidata, Ux at Sticks Research Agency, UX designer at R3 to ... Read more about Noshin on page 30 of the F4S annual report https://lnkd.in/e-CpME8y Join me in congratulating Goldsmiths, University of London, for encouraging students like Noshin Begum to consider the scaleup ecosystem worthy of their skills and ambitions. Encouraging university students to work on internships at scaleups develops critical thinking, problem-solving & communications skills, which complement the more academic skills found in lecture theatres; this combination boosts the growth of scaleup companies that are the engines of economic growth. Developing individual superpowers and scaleup superpowers simultaneously boosts our economic growth. Worth doing!

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🚀 FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENT - $3.4M! Tranched are really looking to disrupt the UK's financial sector! The London-based fintech has secured $3.4 million in seed funding led by Speedinvest. Here’s what they’re all about: 🎯 Mission: Empowering businesses with a tech-driven alternative to traditional banking products, offering faster, smarter access to capital. 💡 Innovation: Tranched provides flexible credit solutions using cutting-edge financial technology, designed to be more adaptive and transparent compared to established banks. 🌍 Impact: Set to disrupt the lending landscape, Tranched aims to offer businesses more control and better financing options, ultimately increasing accessibility for under-served companies. A key player to watch in the fintech space as it evolves. 👏 #Funding #Fintech #SaaS #Innovation

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Pension funds enjoy a very material tax exemption privilege. I wonder if some element of that privilege should be linked to commitment to the sector, increased over time to stop a wall of money, where for example a vehicle like Adam proposes and/or direct investment would qualify. Pension funds free not to participate, might have a size threshold, but if they do not they pay some tax. Link that to whatever regulatory tweaks needed to ensure funds are not penalized for investing a portion in growth - rationally 4% has to be a perverse allocation, someone has got the rules wrong. It feels like it is not in their investors' interests, aside from the societal point of the need to support growth, the no.1 claimed objective of the incoming government.

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I really do not know where they have pulled this data from but it is in stark contrast to hundreds of small to medium sized business owners I have spoken to over the past 18 months Many small businesses, particularly in technology recruitment, have faced significant hurdles despite so called supportive measures such as the British Business Bank's Recovery Loan Scheme. The third iteration of the RLS, aimed to provide nearly £1.4 billion, however, the benefits of this scheme have not been uniformly felt across all sectors. The claims made in this article seem beyond ridiculous, based on my own experience and the anecdotal evidence I have collated from other business owners and finance brokers. This is something that could really swing the upcoming election, adressing the availability of growth capital to small business, particularly in the services sector, will be vital to the UK's recovery. Hs anyone experienced the reticence of the lenders to support businesses with the RLS? #recruitment #SME #growthcapital #RLS https://lnkd.in/gpgKbXRN

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Only 7 days left to, depending on your drive: - Support Jointflows, - Get your hands on some discounted early-days shares of Jointflows. This is how we are currently getting VC intros 🤯: Jointflows allows sales teams to control, accelerate, and win non-linear sales cycles: a $233 billion problem/opportunity just in B2B SaaS. Hockey-stick ARR growth, highly sticky, generating money from expansions, and operating profitably. https://lnkd.in/eQTnKAqE Required legal disclaimer:𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩-𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

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🚀 AI and automation are proving to be game-changers for the UK fintech sector. Over the past five years, despite challenges like Brexit and Covid-19, these technologies have driven incredible innovation. They’re enhancing customer experiences, streamlining operations, and bolstering security. As fintech evolves, leveraging AI and automation is crucial for staying competitive and meeting the digital demands of consumers. I feel this can only be seen as a positive in the UK fintech space the sector is set to be a key driver in boosting the UK economy over the next 5 years! I'd love to know others insights into what AI and automation trends are happening in fintech? 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e_C_H6M9 #fintech #AI #automation #innovation #digitaltransformation #UKbusiness #Brexit #COVID19 #cybersecurity #investment

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MONEY SPENT ON PRODUCT TALENT = GREATER LEVELS OF OUTCOMES? I missed the ProductTank where David Cox spoke but have read his blog post on Mind The Product website on the same subject Organisations starving on a diet of low-hanging fruit (link to post in comments) It's really interesting and the crux of the article focuses on the idea of marginal gains and the concept doesn't really apply in Product Because people can waste too much time on marginal improvements in areas that don't have much of an impact The piece discusses the marginal gains culture at British Cycling that led to improves Medal hauls at major championships That yes, it was part of the story, but the biggest factor was increase financial investment Which ties into a question I posed a Product leader last week........ Regardless of the Product itself, the most successful Product teams: are they successful because they are paying the best, so attract the best leaders and the best talent? My reasoning was that the best leaders and the best talent ask the difficult questions, know how to say 'no' and recognise that commercial outcomes are fundamentally linked to every task that you are committing to sprint-to-sprint. As such, that Product talent develop better track records and command better money. It's a lot like Dave's British British Cycling analogy or a Football Team: those that spend the most on talent, achieve the better outcomes. Except Manchester United of course 😂 But thinking locally to the better paying firms that invest not only in good wage levels to attract & retain, but also in their wider culture. They think about how to refine their hiring processes to weed out the mediocre talent that is invariably attracted by the money, rather the broader opportunity. Those businesses tend to perform really well, even if they weren't the first Product of their type, to go to market Cheaping out on talent rarely ends in outstanding outcomes!

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Why I love recruiting for the financial services … still the UKs biggest export and continuing to boost the economy with innovative solutions. Did you know Open Banking is used by over 10m users and contributes close to 4bn to the economy ?! Neither did I. But that is HUGE. A great article on smart data and how it allows access to information for everyone, levelling up the playing field for SMEs. What’s even better? It has the consumers interests at heart ♥️ and it’s all positive outcomes …. Thousands of jobs that will be created and better control over personal data to name a few. A real chance for the UK to become global leaders and an opportunity to deliver growth into the economy.

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The UK's banking landscape is on the brink of a significant transformation with the scaling of Confirmation of Payee, aiming to reduce payment fraud drastically. If your organisation is set to navigate this journey, Bottomline's Erez Nounou provides essential insights on key changes, timelines, and what it means for Group 2 onboarding.

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My imposter syndrome was strong last week… I spoke to Forbes about government support for startups in the run-up to the UK’s general election. I’m from Stockholm and until recently didn’t have much interest in politics. But I’ve always had an interest (some call it an obsession 🤔) in how startups access financial support. And I've worked in the UK for years. First in VC and now with Mimo. It's a challenging market for startups right now. High interest rates. A tight funding environment. An ongoing correction from 2021. Wouldn't it be good to review the support to offset these challenges, to maintain the UK's strong position in tech? Government-backed loans. Tax incentives. Simplified option schemes (esp beyond EMI). If the government could also do something about ‘founder imposter syndrome’...that’d be great too 🙃 https://lnkd.in/ddkJJT5x

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Are you a SeedLegals customer? Get 20% off Profyle Card as part of our great partnership with the UK's leading platform for startups Read more about our partnership and how together we're levelling up startup networking here https://lnkd.in/d5M9An4M #startups #discounts #profylecard #seedlegals #entrepreneurs #networking #leadgen

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Calling fellow startup founders based in or around London... this is a great event that we (adeus) have attended a few times. It's not your typical start up pitch event. It's the opportunity to intro your business to a really friendly room of business people who are open to sharing ideas and providing advice to founders early in their journeys. ___ Join VOCASOs next MIC NIGHT event in London, near London Bridge on Tuesday 5th November from 6pm. Up to 15 founders each do a 1-minute elevator pitch to our member community of seasoned executives, sharing their company's tale and toughest business hurdle ahead. It's not a pitch for money but an opportunity to gain the insights desired for that next stage of growth. A great chance to connect with potential perfect match mentors or advisors within the community who have the expertise or connections you relish. Spaces are limited. Learn more about the event and RSVP or add your name to wait list here: https://lnkd.in/e3iRy9Uf     VOCASO, a fee-free community of founders and advisors. An ecosystem that brings its members, all senior executives aspiring to become Mentors, Advisors and NEDs together with growth companies seeking wisdom and door opening connections to drive growth. VOCASO kick-starts board careers today to impact the economy of tomorrow.

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Every tech founder want cash (nothing new here) 😂 Cash comes in many ways: - Revenues - the best form - Equity finance - Debt - Grants I (https://deallite.uk) sit on investor data with relationships built over a long time. Whilst I (Deal Lite) share this data through monthly subscriptions, I avoid investor introductions at all cost due to a number of reasons. I'm currently evaluating a light weight approach of investor introductions for Techcelerate members. Deal Lite also has the ability to include live fundraisers. Just wondering whether there is sufficient demand for us to create a product related service. It could look like below (not finalised - very early research): Product: - Listing on https://deallite.uk (company needs to keep us up to date so the data remain live) - Pitch deck sent to us for a quick review and inclusion with above. Service: For personal introductions, you would need to follow additional process: - Join Techcelerate as a Member. - Build credibility and trust within our community - Sign an agreement on light weight fundraising - Make introductions Of course, I would chat with Stuart Scott-Goldstone to understand legal ramifications. Whatever decided, it has to be a very light weight product related solution to ensure a decent quality of service. No decision has been taken. Just researching at present. I bet David John William Bailey might have some views on this. #fundraising #investment #DealLite

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Pre-election thoughts on tax and startups: - Growing numbers of responsible businesses are in a corner and only surviving through money they owe to HMRC. Tax debt in March 2023 was up more than 10% year on year and stood at £43.9 billion (I haven't stats for March 2024, but I expect it to be higher). The majority of tax debt is owed by small and medium-sized businesses. This is helping to prop up the economy and to keep people employed. Most businesses are not in the "won't pay" camp, it's a case of "can't pay". Aggressive collection could push them over the edge. Solving this isn't primarily a tax admin problem, it's a growth problem. - We have backed the startup manifesto from from the Startup Coalition. It includes the opportunity that government has to fix procurement, to unleash the value from innovative startups, and to help them succeed through the revenue this brings them. - While disrupters can succeed on their own, how about policies that encourage big businesses that want to work with innovators, not to take their ideas or article them through drawn out processes?

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