The state of UK businesses can be described as healthy as almost 700,000 new firms were launched in the UK last year, as growing high-tech firms snapped up more than £10bn in venture capital investment

Last year 681,704 new businesses were launched in Britain, a 2.8 per cent rise compared to a year ago, according to information gathered by LearnBonds.

The record number of start-ups in 2019 is noteworthy considering the UK was in its third year of prolonged Brexit negotiations, which has hit business investment and confidence.

UK tech firms attracted £10.1bn from private equity firms last year, a 44 per cent jump compared to a year ago which broke the industry’s all-time high set in 2017.

This UK figure topped global digital new business funding, including in the US and China, where investment fell 20 per cent and 65 per cent respectively, according to research this week from UK digital lobby group Tech Nation and data body Dealroom.

Top ten UK business regions – by new firms registered in 2019

Greater London – 221,373

Birmingham  – 14,509

Manchester – 9,064

Leeds – 7,492

Glasgow – 6,733

Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch – 5,627

Bromsgrove – 5,522

Liverpool – 5,421

Edinburgh – 5,155

Leicester – 5,060

Across Europe, the UK picked up a third of Europe’s £30.4bn total tech funding. It attracted more cash than Germany and France combined, which came in second and third place at £5.4bn and £3.4bn across the region.

More widely in the UK, new firms were launched in over 700 different industries, according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs’ research. This included ten companies which registered their main activity as raising llamas and alpacas, as well as the formation of 429 driving schools in 2019.

“It is encouraging that despite a politically turbulent year in which business confidence hit new lows, business formations continued to set records,” said Matt Smith, director of policy and research at the Centre for Entrepreneurs.

Britain’s 5.9 million small firms employed 16.6 million workers at the start of 2019, turning over £2.2trn in annual sales, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.

LearnBonds news editor Roger Baird said: “The rate of new firms starting up in the UK is remarkable, considering how global trade tensions and Brexit have knocked business confidence. Napoleon once dismissed the British as a nation of shopkeepers. France now longs for the same level of entrepreneurial zeal that drives Britons to be their own boss.”

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

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Rapid user growth in seven countries has led high net worth investors to back UENI for the fourth time. The London-based website and online tech company has now raised $30m in total, is valued at $100M and is throwing the gauntlet down before the tech giants.

UENI, whose mission is to ‘make all of the world’s businesses visible online’, has gained $12M from high net worth investors and entrepreneurs. Following its most recent round of investment, UENI’s value is now deemed to be worth approximately $100M by investors. This is reflected in their investments and equivalent equity stakes.

The company was founded by husband and wife team Christine Telyan – UENI’s CEO – and Anh Pham Vu, after the couple struggled to find a dentist online. The pair set out to tackle a lack of online visibility for small businesses and UENI now provides a free website and Google My Business listing to small businesses, following a five-minute sign-up.

Since launching its ‘freemium’ model in August 2018, which makes revenue through paid services such as a custom domain name, professional email address and enhanced search engine optimisation, it has attracted over 350,000 users. UENI’s product offering is growing to include ecommerce and curated third-party services that small businesses need to grow, such as business bank accounts, insurance, and payment processing.

UENI’s latest funding round, completed in October 2019, involved 36 private investors, with 95 percent of the money coming from 10 backers.

Among the named investors are Michael Hartweg, co-founder of Leonteq Securities AG, a Financial Services and Fintech company listed on the Swiss Exchange and entrepreneur Thierry Manni, former chairman of Novares Group (Mecaplast Group) and founder of Stajvelo, a high end electric bicycle producer in Monaco.

“This is a massive endorsement from our angel investors. Our existing investors have been impressed by our growth and are backing us to do more,” says CEO Christine Telyan.

Telyan points out that the company has not had the need for institutional investment so far. However, with very ambitious growth plans to bring millions of small businesses online in the next few years, institutional investment could be on the horizon, she says.

“Our growth has been more like a consumer app rather than a service for businesses and entrepreneurs,” she continued. “We expect to have 600,000 users by the close of 2019 and two million by the end of 2020.”

UENI is currently signing up over 3000 businesses every day, with substantial demand in markets such as Mexico, India and Brazil.

“There’s a lot of demand for what we do. Growing markets such as India, Brazil and Mexico are fuelling our growth. The US is also a very exciting market with over 500 businesses joining every day,” says Telyan.

“Internet search is still dominated by major brands and we want that to change. Meanwhile, well known website builders aren’t that effective as most users abandon the process part way through. We know our customers aren’t techies or designers, they just want something that works. So we’ve created something super simple for them which ensures they complete the journey and actually setup a website.”

UENI currently operates in the United States, Canada, UK, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and India. The majority of its 60-plus staff are based at its headquarters in Hammersmith, London. UENI also has offices in Prague, Czech Republic as well as Dnipro and Kiev in Ukraine.

The latest funding round of $12m means UENI has raised $30m to date from business angels. The company gained its first investment of $1.95m from business angels in 2015. In September 2016 it raised $10.1m, a funding round in March 2018 brought in $6.3m.

“Our mission is to make all of the world’s small businesses visible online,” says Telyan. “Our investors see the market potential and so this investment is a major validation of what we’ve done so far.”

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Female-Led London Tech Company UENI Reaches $100M Valuation appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

London may lead the pack when it comes to business start-ups in Britain, but the latest research from Instant Offices reveals the UK’s other major cities are making a significant contribution to entrepreneurialism in the UK.

Instant’s Entrepreneurial Index ranks the UK’s leading cities by analysing Companies House data and comparing average population in each city with the number of businesses launched there year on year. And this year, Birmingham has stormed to the top of the league for start-ups.

Despite uncertainty around Brexit, the UK’s start-up ecosystem saw record investment growth in 2017, as according to a report by Deal Room, UK investment grew by 87% to €7.1 billion, which is more than Germany, France and Sweden combined.

According to a Startup Outlook Report, UK start-ups are optimistic with 49% of entrepreneurs saying they are confident in better business conditions in 2018 while 42% said conditions would remain the same. Eight in 10 start-ups plan to expand their teams in 2018.

Birmingham Tops London

London leads the pack for total number of start-ups, as would be expected, with 145,993 businesses launched in 2017.  But, on a pro rata basis, Birmingham surpasses the capital as the Most Entrepreneurial UK City in 2018 with its impressive start-up to population ratio.

With significant growth over the past few years, Birmingham’s ability to attract and support early-stage businesses is attributed to its world-class support networks, accelerator schemes and significant infrastructure investment. The completion of HS2 is set to transform the West Midlands, and Birmingham’s sizeable metropolitan economy is predicted to see considerable benefits to boost growth.

Demand for Flex Space Soars in Birmingham

As more organisations opt for agile ways of working, the flex office market has seen explosive growth across UK regions, and interest in cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool is at an all-time high.

London continues to lead, as reported in Instant’s 2018 UK Market Summary. However, growth of a more agile working climate and new investment meant Birmingham saw some of the highest market activity in 2017.

Centre growth was up 13% last year, ranking fourth after Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds at 23%, 17% and 15% respectively.

Birmingham has an average workstation rate of £264 and offers a wide variety of office space.

John Williams, Head of Marketing and Research at Instant Offices, said that  “While majority of demand still comes from companies looking for flexible office requirements for smaller teams, our data reveals that larger, corporate occupiers are also looking for flexible space in what is proving to be a very competitive market in Birmingham.”

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

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