SECRET ESCAPES
Industry/sector: Travel
Founded: 2010
Founders: Tom Valentine, Alex Saint
Head of legal: Christine Cordon
Heralded as one of the UK’s runaway tech success stories, members-only British travel company Secret Escapes has made its mark in the travel industry selling heavily discounted luxury hotel stays and trips through its website and mobile app.
Established in 2010 by digital entrepreneurs Tom Valentine (pictured, above left) and Alex Saint (pictured, above right), within three years the company had doubled its UK membership to 3.2 million and revenue to £75m. Recent accounts show the company has generated £449m in total revenues since creation, while its customer base grew to 32 million in 2016. The company reported average year-on-year growth of 230% and sold more than four million room nights across the world.
Working towards a £1bn turnover target by 2019, the company is striving to expand its UK business and last year moved into new territories including France, where it is called Evasions Secrètes, as well as Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Its Eastern European title is Travelist.
The business also rolled out new holiday flash sales in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. Despite significantly growing its international reach, the business is run entirely from London and employs over 400 people.
Investor appetite has substantially helped; in 2015 the company secured $60m in funding from Octopus Investments as well as Google Ventures, the search engine giant’s capital arm, to fund further expansion. It also acquired UK business mycityvenue, a deal which added 1,200 venues and an additional 1.4 million members to its portfolio.
Finance lawyer Christine Cordon currently heads the legal division at Secret Escapes, having joined from financial services group Osper in July 2016, where she served as general counsel. The Ashurst-trained Cordon also previously served as executive director for the securities division at Goldman Sachs, and was vice president for legal at Barclays’ investment arm.
GETT
Industry/sector: Transport
Founded: 2010
Founders: Shahar Waiser, Roi More
Head of legal: Shana Hook
Gett, the Israeli taxi-hailing app company founded by entrepreneurs Shahar Waiser and Roi More, has been dubbed Uber’s rival after becoming Europe’s largest taxi-hailing app.
Having signed up 100,000 cars globally, including more than 11,000 in London, Gett currently operates in Israel, the US and Russia, and is available in other UK cities including, Manchester, Edinburgh and Leeds.
Gett’s selling point is that it uses only established fleets and drivers, such as black cabs in London, while its technology also extends to logistics and deliveries. Initially, called GetTaxi, the company rebranded in 2014 after branching out into delivery services, where customers can use the service to order anything from food to flowers.
Dubbed Uber’s rival after becoming Europe’s largest taxi-hailing app.
Total funds raised by the company stand at over $640m. The rise of mobility service providers in recent years has created fears in the auto industry over the decline in personal car ownership – carmakers are increasingly investing their own capital into growth companies. Volkswagen (VW) injected $300m into Gett on the same day Toyota announced an undisclosed investment in Uber last May, just months after General Motors put $500m into US transport app, Lyft. German carmaker VW formed a strategic partnership to work on future projects with Gett and offer on-demand ride services to business customers. The deal will also provide Gett drivers with discounts on VW cars to use as taxis.
Waiser, Gett’s founder and chief executive, told the Financial Times that the investment would allow the company to expand its business in New York and move into more cities.
Other strategic initiatives include its acquisition of rival firm Radio Taxis for an undisclosed sum to help it compete with Uber.
Israeli-based lawyer Shana Hook currently serves as the company’s general counsel (GC). She joined from energy group Paradigm in 2015, where she served as assistant GC and managed the company’s IP litigation, software licensing, procurement and general compliance issues.
SUN BETS
Industry/sector: Gambling entertainment
Founded: 2016
Founder: Tabcorp Holdings and News UK
Launched in August 2016, online gambling venture Sun Bets was formed from a strategic joint venture between Australian-listed gambling giant Tabcorp and News UK.
Dubbed the biggest international commercial initiative undertaken in Tabcorp’s history, the company aims to compete against UK legacy operators within the competitive UK online betting sector, a marketplace estimated to be three times the size of Tabcorp’s Australian home.
The company aims to leverage a mass audience generated from The Sun.
The start-up utilises Tabcorp’s existing fixed-odds and customer-wallet technology, as well as integrated Playtech Casino software for bingo and gaming content.
Tabcorp has invested an estimated £12.2m on Sun Bet’s software development. The company aims to leverage a mass audience generated from News UK’s high-profile newspaper, The Sun.
Although Tabcorp aims to see returns on its investment in Sun Bets over the next five years, its recent financial performance saw a 28% drop in net profit due to costs associated with the UK startup.
Sun Bets is nevertheless forging ahead with establishing an operational framework, and has created a near 200-strong team to develop the business. And where players in the gambling sector face an increasingly tough regulatory and compliance landscape, Sun Bets has already installed its first in-house lawyer with the hire of Jane Pieterse, who previously worked as legal counsel at Sportingbet and Sport England.
Pieterse is tasked with drafting and negotiating contracts, including IT service agreements, online terms and conditions, privacy statements, core game supplier agreements, and advising on the UK Gambling Commission’s regulations as well as any ad hoc commercial advice.
Industry/sector: Clothing retail
Founded: 2008
Founder: José Neves
General counsel: James Maynard
Touted by The Economist in 2013 as a company that ’emphasises its bricks-and-mortar roots, allowing independent retailers to keep their identity while boosting their position in the market’, Farfetch is a fashion website that stocks products from almost 500 boutiques around the world.
Operating bespoke, local language websites for international markets, including English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Mandarin, it further improves the efficiency levels of its clients’ back office operations through innovative data use.
Founded in 2008 by Portuguese entrepreneur José Neves (pictured) and located at Old Street roundabout, the fulcrum for London’s tech community, the company’s client list includes more than 1,600 luxury designers, among them Valentino, Saint Laurent, Givenchy and Comme des Garçons.
‘An exciting company – very fast growth.’
Initially, the business secured $4.5m from Advent Venture Partners in 2010 to help expand its presence into Brazilian, North American and European markets. The business gained further momentum in March 2015 after gaining a further $86m from an additional investment group, including Advent Venture Partners, Condé Nast International, Index Ventures, Novel TMT, e.ventures and Vitruvian Partners.
The company has since been valued at around $1.5bn following a fundraising last year from existing and new investors, including France’s Eurazeo, Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and China’s IDG Capital. In late 2016, Neves said an initial public offering was in the pipeline over the next three years.
Farfetch, whose website gets over 10 million hits a month and ships garments to more than 190 countries, is redressing the power balance in clothes retailing in favour of small businesses by enabling them to have the economies of scale enjoyed by multinationals. In November 2016 it appointed Stephanie Phair from the Net-A-Porter Group as its first chief strategy officer to lead its corporate development and transactional activity.
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) corporate head Jonathan Morris highlights the company as a pioneer: ‘Farfetch is an exciting company – very fast growth, and seen as very successful, expanding internationally and it looks like it will float at some point in the future.’
The company’s legal division is headed up by general counsel James Maynard, who trained at BLP and specialised in corporate work until 2005.
Maynard’s first stint in-house was in the gambling industry, taking a role as legal counsel at Sportingbet for nearly five years before joining Sky in 2010 as senior legal counsel. He assumed his first legal chief appointment at online gambling company Bwin.Party and was then recruited by Farfetch in 2014.
MADE.COM
Industry/sector: Online furniture retail
Founded: 2010
Founders: Ning Li, Julien Callede, Chloe Macintosh
Head of legal: Lisa Gan Tomlins
Digital furniture store Made.com is lauded for its speedy ascension from small venture set up by French entrepreneur Ning Li in Notting Hill seven years ago, to becoming one of the fastest-growing retailers in the UK with a burgeoning European presence.
Founder Ning Li emigrated China for boarding school in Normandy as a teenager and went on to work for the French arm of Rothschild investment bank. He first dabbled in business start-ups with furniture flash sales internet company MyFab, before establishing Made.com with £2.5m funding alongside Julien Callede, a former investment manager at GCE Capital, and Chloe Macintosh in 2010.
Has ambitions to become a major rival to IKEA.
Collaborating with interior designers, the company rebalances the dominance enjoyed by major retailers by showcasing the work of selected designers on its website. It then allows the public to purchase products they will not find on the high street. To keep overheads down, it does not own any factories but instead commissions suppliers to meet consumer demand.
Selected in 2013 as one of 25 new UK businesses for the government’s Future Fifty programme, an initiative supporting high-growth technology companies, the company has embarked on major European expansion with launches in France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
As sales grew 44% to £61.6m in 2015, management had considered floating on the stock market but instead opted for a private fundraising and has ambitions to become a major rival to IKEA.
It recruited its first in-house lawyer, Lisa Gan Tomlins, from Just Eat in 2014. In her first six months on the job, Tomlins was instrumental in securing the furniture giant’s third and largest-ever financing round of £40m. She further carried out a strategic review of Made.com’s intellectual property rights portfolio to ‘ensure that it caters for independent designers represented on the website’ according to one referee.
With the in-house community ascending the corporate hierarchy in recent years, Tomlins took the initiative to establish a group called Disruptive GCs alongside Uber’s UK legal chief Matt Wilson, a network that connects GCs at fast-growing early-stage businesses.
CITYMAPPER
Industry/sector: Transport and navigation app
Founded: 2011
Founder: Azmat Yusuf
General counsel: Alice Hou
Speaking on stage at a recent TechCrunch Disrupt event in London, Citymapper chief executive Azmat Yusuf told his audience: ‘You’re going to see us in 2017 actually start making a business out of this.’
Established six years ago by Pakistani-born Yusuf, a former Google employee, Citymapper serves as an urban navigation app which has grown to cover more than 30 cities – despite having yet to make any revenue.
Having launched as an app exclusively for Londoners, Citymapper has become a major competitor to Google and Apple’s navigation services, and was bolstered by a £28m funding round in early 2016. Leading investors included venture capital firms Index Ventures and Benchmark Capital and pushed Citymapper’s valuation to over £250m, just two years after its first fundraising of $10m from Balderton Capital.
‘You’re going to see us in 2017 actually start making a business out of this.’
Citymapper’s algorithm uses vast amounts of data to provide users with a multitude of transport options, including bus, train, metro and Uber, and presents journey times and prices. Used in cities across the world, including Birmingham, Manchester, Brussels, Hamburg, Barcelona and Madrid, the company is cited as a potential acquisition target for a major technology company following Google’s $1bn acquisition of Israeli navigation app Waze in 2013.
The company aims to make further investments through improving real-time navigation and providing better data, while further expanding into more cities, particularly in developing countries where public transport is less reliable.
Helping to navigate the legal challenges of such growth is the company’s general counsel, Alice Hou, who joined from digital marketing giant Sapient in 2016. A former lawyer at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, Hou spent ten years at Sapient advising its UK arm on commercial negotiations, employment matters, data privacy, licensing, procurement, and disputes.
DELIVEROO
Industry/sector: Online food delivery
Founded: 2013
Founder: Will Shu, Greg Orlowski
General counsel: Sam Harper
London-based food delivery group Deliveroo has become one of Europe’s best-funded start-ups against increased competition in the takeaway sector from rivals including Just Eat, hungryhouse and, most recently, Uber.
Receiving its fifth and biggest funding round of $275m from private equity firm Bridgepoint in August 2016, Deliveroo has raised over $470m in investment, bringing its valuation in line with ‘unicorns’ in Europe with valuations of more than $1bn.
With operations in 84 cities in 12 countries, Deliveroo services restaurants that do not have couriers. With big-name restaurant chains including PizzaExpress and Gourmet Burger Kitchen on the books, its current network comprises 20,000 self-employed cyclists who deliver food for more than 16,000 restaurants. Although the company declines to publish revenue and recorded a hefty £18.1m loss in 2015 according to accounts filed at companies house, last year it reported a six-fold rise in takeaway orders. It also stated it had seen a 25% month-on-month order growth since inception while daily orders had grown tenfold since January 2015.
Has seen a 25% month-on-month order growth since inception.
Founded by Will Shu, an American who previously worked at Morgan Stanley, and computer programmer Greg Orlowski, who departed in 2016, the company announced plans in January to create 300 UK tech jobs when it opens its London arm later this year. With 1,000 already employed full time, Deliveroo’s latest recruitment drive will focus on areas such as software engineering, behavioural economics, and algorithm development and staff will be located at its new Cannon Street office.
Its legal division is headed by general counsel Sam Harper, who joined from global tech business Lumata in January 2016. Trained at Baker McKenzie, Harper was charged with building Lumata’s global legal function, and previously held a senior legal role at US-listed Interpublic Group.
High-profile assignments for Harper since taking the role have included handling legal challenges brought about after cyclists delivering food in the UK held a series of demonstrations against a new payment structure. A proportion of cyclists also demanded union recognition and workers’ rights from the company.
ALLBRIGHT
Industry/sector: Funding
Founded: 2016
Founder: Debbie Wosskow, Anna Jones
Created in response to the ‘funding gap between female-led and male-led businesses’, AllBright joins the ranks of a growing number of female-driven funds. Co-founded by business leaders Debbie Wosskow (pictured), chief executive at digital business Love Home Swap, and Anna Jones, chief executive at Hearst Magazines UK, the company offers angel investment, crowdfunding and support services for the next generation of female business leaders.
With stats from ‘The CrunchBase Women in Venture Report’ published in 2016 showing 90% of venture capital funds globally was pocketed by male-led businesses in the last five years, AllBright aims to level the playing field with investment into female-led businesses.
The fund is already active, with £10m raised for investment, while initiatives to encourage support include tax relief for investors, who will earn 30% back on every pound invested.
AllBright’s business model is backed by a nine-strong advisory board comprising senior business leaders, including Ann Roughead of investment firm Columbia Threadneedle and Lulu founder Alexandra Chong, alongside major technology names, including Unruly co-founder Sarah Wood and investor Sherry Coutu, who campaigns for fast-growth businesses. AllBright has also launched an academy programme to help business entrepreneurs with mentoring, resources, and building the right contact base.
While female-focused funds is clearly a growing trend, notably it remains a US phenomenon. High-profile names include Female Founders Fund, Plum Alley, iFundWomen, BBG Ventures, and StarVest Partners, a majority female-led fund based in the US, which has been investing in businesses for nearly 20 years.
GRAZE
Industry/sector: Postal snack company
Founded: 2008
Founder: Graham Bosher
With consumer sales for healthy snacks growing by 40% since 2011, to a retail value of $140bn, many upstarts have emerged to cater to new tastes, with Graze becoming a major contender to big food groups in recent years.
Graze was founded in the UK by a group of seven tech-savvy friends, the co-founders of film rental company LoveFilm, and launched the same day Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008. A year later, current chief executive Anthony Fletcher joined from smoothie-maker Innocent Drinks, and US private equity house The Carlyle Group invested and became the majority owner.
Today the British healthy snacks maker offers over 200 snack combinations through subscription boxes, online, and retailers. The business uses an algorithm to customise snack boxes based on subscribers’ preferences entered on the site and develops its own recipes free from genetically engineered ingredients, artificial colours or trans fats.
Graze has become a major contender to big food groups in recent years.
Having generated £68m in revenue by the end of 2014, Graze bolstered its product line with snack products to UK retailers in more than 5,000 stores, including Sainsbury’s, Boots and WHSmith in 2015. Its success was helped by the UK government’s decision to clamp down on supermarkets selling confectionery in prominent positions next to tills to tackle childhood obesity. It expanded its presence to the US in 2013, launching snacks into retailers in 2016, and moved into more than 3,500 US stores on the back of UK growth.
Last year saw the group establish an online shop for one-off purchases separate to its snack subscription business model while revenue grew by 3.2% as of late February 2016 to £70.3m.
The company’s current in-house lawyer is Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer-trained Anna Cosgrave, who joined from Addleshaw Goddard in 2016 and also previously served roles at K&L Gates, security and investigations business Olive Group, and Clifford Chance.
PROPERTY PARTNER
Industry/sector: Real estate
Founded: 2014
Founder: Daniel Gandesha
Head of legal: Justin Hubble
Changing the landscape in UK real estate is residential property crowdfunding platform Property Partner, which lists properties in London and the South-East of England that investors can trade among each other and choose the proportion of holdings they would like to own. Investors are given the option to sell at market value after five years.
Launched in 2015 by accountant Daniel Gandesha, previously head of commercial development and start-up investments at Sky, properties are selected by the group’s director of property, Robert Weaver, The Royal Bank of Scotland’s former global director of residential investment, who previously ran a £500m residential property fund.
To date, more than 1,000 people have invested sums ranging from £50 to £50,000 in homes through Property Partner’s crowdfunding platform, with the average investment size rising continually since its inception.
In March 2015 the venture announced it had secured £5.2m in fundraising to enable the way ‘people invest in the residential property market’. Led by Index Ventures, the investment bolstered Property Partner to create a ‘global stock exchange’ for residential property across the UK.
Index Ventures, whose portfolio in fintech pioneers includes TransferWise, Funding Circle and Wealthfront, joined Property Partner’s existing investors Octopus Ventures, backers of Zoopla, Seedcamp, and Ed Wray, the co-founder of Betfair.
Following the chancellor’s announcement about housing and infrastructure in the 2016 Autumn Statement, the business takes a keen focus on the government’s efforts to tackle the lack of affordable housing. It also lobbies to encourage recognition of the private rental sector and increasing investor confidence to enter the property market. Ventures such as Property Partner serve as increasingly viable options for prospective home owners considering borrowing rates, steady demand from buyers and a shortage of available homes continued to push house prices up across the UK.
Managing the business’s legal division is current general counsel (GC) Justin Hubble, who has held a variety of managerial roles in-house. Hubble joined Betfair as legal chief from Ashurst in 2003 and handled its legal challenges as a public company. He was then recruited by Wonga in 2014 as senior vice president for GC and international regulatory, where he was responsible for non-UK strategy and the legal function, before moving to Property Partner in 2015.