In just a few days, we will be bidding farewell to what has been a fantastic year for Startup Funding Club. With more investments closed than ever, 2019 has also brought successful exits, the announcement of SFC’s UK-China partnership, and some great industry recognition.
This year, we have welcomed thirty-five new companies into our portfolio, all coming from across the UK and all representative of the great diversity of the SFC Alumni Network. From travel subscription service BeRightBack to personalised cancer therapeutics company My Personal Therapeutics, we are immensely proud of the quality and diversity of our portfolio, and are positive that our entrepreneurs are on the path to success!
Our intense activity has lead to SFC’s efforts being recognised by Pitchbook Data, which named the company as 2018’s and Q2 2019’s Most Active Seed investor in the UK – and fifth in the World! We have achieved a 50% growth rate in investments in 2019, so we very much hope to maintain our position in Pitchbook Data’s upcoming Global League Tables – and to keep up the activity rate in 2020.
In 2019 we have also seen some major achievements coming out of our current portfolio. Most notably, the successful acquisition of MyFutureNow by Legal & General, the $10m Series B round of Cognism, the $5m Seed round of Humanising Autonomy, and the exceptional growth of Transcend Packaging, which won the Welsh Startup Business of the Year award. There are some very exciting things cooking at the moment and we look forward to sharing more achievements of SFC Alumni companies in 2020.
This year we have also experienced great progress in our Chinese collaborations. Startup Funding Club's CEO Stephen Page travelled to Beijing and Shenzhen in October to speak at the ZGC Forum and strengthen the firm’s partnerships with two leading Chinese investment firms - Linrun Intelligent Valley and Tsingbay. This alliance has already resulted in several co-investments made in SFC companies.
Last but not least, our team is in the final stages of securing a major institutional investment that is due to boost SFC’s investment programme throughout the UK. We cannot wait to announce this exciting news in January, so make sure to stay tuned!