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‘Our $55 million company went bust overnight’
Married couple Radha Vyas and Lee Thompson built up their travel business, Flash Pack, from scratch in 2014, bootstrapping it from bedroom startup to a multinational enterprise with 55 staff and a £20 million turnover. Then Covid hit. At their lowest point the family had £200 left in their bank account and a one-year-old baby but they re-built the company. Here’s what happened.
Christmas sales surge at Deliveroo as Amazon tie up boosts growth
Deliveroo struck a deal to offer its Silver Plus subscription service free to Amazon Prime customers in September
Amazon abandons plans for Visa credit card ban
The ban on using the cards to pay for goods on its UK site was due to take effect on 19 January
London tech start-ups to watch in 2022: Screenloop, AudioMob and more
London’s biggest VCs and investors tell the Standard which of the brightest start-ups they are watching this year
London fintech Checkout.com hits blockbuster $40 billion valuation
Checkout.com is now Europe’s second most valuable private startup and the third most valuable private fintech in the world after raising $1 billion
Mental health ‘coaching’ startup Sanctus raises £4.25 million
Sanctus was founded by James Routledge in 2016 after battling with his own mental health issues
Uber rival Bolt valued at £6 billion as it raises £524 million
Bolt has raised the fresh funds from Silicon Valley VC giant Sequoia Capital and retirement investor Fidelity
From web3 to climate tech: The tech trends to watch in 2022
After a year dominated by crypto, NFTs and the metaverse, what can we expect from tech in 2022?
THG shares jump as The Analyst pulls short recommendation
THG’s share price has sunk over 65% since September amid concerns about governance and transparency
LadBible’s two 30-year-old founders bank £53 million from IPO
The pair, both 30, founded LadBible while studying at university in 2012
Amazon’s London grocery shop expansion continues with three new sites
Amazon Fresh has launched three more grocery stores in London, bringing its estate in the capital to 15 branches
Female investor, 29, to spearhead Europe expansion for US VC Sapphire
Annalise Dragic, 29, is now one of the youngest female venture capital partners in Europe
Government ‘monitoring’ BT as Patrick Drahi’s Altice ups stake to 18%
Altice UK, a group owned by French telecoms billionaire Patrick Drahi, bought another 585 million shares in BT worth just over £1 billion
Patrick Drahi: The secretive French billionaire stalking BT
Drahi is well known for corporate swashbuckling and is now free to start targeting BT: 10 December marks the expiry of a six month, no-bid clause triggered when Drahi spent £2.2 billion snapping up 12.1% of BT in June
Pento: London payroll startup led by 28-year-old raises $35 million
The news came as the latest annual “State of European Tech” report revealed investment in the sector is set to exceed $100 billion a year
Startup Showpiece sells £1m of stakes in ‘Mona Lisa of stamps’
Showpiece, which was spun out of rare stamp specialists Stanley Gibbons, lets people buy a digital slice of rare stamps, similar to NFT investments
Huge film studio from Troubadour Theatres to open in Brent Cross
The company counts Netflix among its clients
ITV ups drama output in streaming wars with Netflix and Disney
The broadcaster plans to double the amount of high-end scripted dramas it produces each year by 2026 and wants to make a quarter of its revenue from streaming by then
As BenevolentAI goes Dutch, is London at risk of becoming a bone yard?
Money manager Paul Marshall has warned that London is at risk of becoming a “Jurassic Park” — a graveyard for legacy businesses
The London pair taking on Peloton with homegrown bike Apex Rides
Simon Cook and Charlie Lucas knew nothing about the fitness market before they launched Peloton competitor Apex Rides last year but the startup has grown rapidly
Crypto.com buys two exchanges from IG for $216 million
Crypto.com recently paid a reported $700 million for the naming rights of the Los Angeles Lakers stadium
NHS automation firm Blue Prism backs new £1.24bn takeover bid
US tech business SS&C has made a £1.24 billion bid for Blue Prism, trumping private equity firm Vista Partner’s £1.22 billion bid