SFC Capital, the UK's most active seed investor (PitchBook, 2020), provides capital and support to British startups. By combining its Angel Network and Seed Funds, SFC has created a unique model that allows investors to get exposure to SEIS- and EIS-qualifying businesses, either directly or through a diversified portfolio curated and managed by SFC’s expert team. In 2020, SFC received a £10m allocation from Business Investments as part of the Regional Angels Programme in support of SFC's mission to back promising early-stage companies from every corner of the UK. SFC Capital is an Appointed Representative of SFC Capital Partners Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 736184).

SFC Capital

Fuel Ventures is a technology fund focusing on marketplaces, fintech, platforms, and SaaS startups in the UK.  The Fuel Ventures Portfolio (the ''Fund'') invests at the most lucrative early stages of internet technology companies that have exceptional growth potential and substantial returns can be achieved. The Fund focuses on marketplaces, platforms, and SaaS business models, identifying investments in seed and growth stages. Bringing together great entrepreneurs into an environment of innovation, collaboration, and support in RocketSpace in the heart of London. We provide a unique combination of mentorship, experience, and access to the investment required to drive a business and ideas to success. Founded in 2015 by entrepreneur and investor Mark Pearson, Fuel Ventures is focused on bringing a unique approach to early-stage investment.

Fuel Ventures

Rising Stars is the UK’s newest and most exciting competition for innovative, early-stage tech startups, with a prize package designed to send your business into the stratosphere. The competition’s winners will have the opportunity to  connect their business with mentors, investors and influencers, and significantly raise the profile of your business.

Rising Stars

Smedvig Ventures helps B2B tech teams scale more confidently. We invest between €4-8m in rounds of up to €20m across Europe. We support our select portfolio of ambitious teams from early traction to inspiring success stories focusing on taking founder led businesses to strong leadership teams and from product market fit to go-to market fit onwards. We’ve made this journey countless times over more than two decades and provide focused input that creates the biggest impact. The Smedvig family have been passionate about innovation for over 100 years. Put simply, having their complete backing means we can give you ours.

Smedvig Ventures

Lunio

Lunio surgically removes IVT, bots, and invalid users from all the paid acquisition efforts. It builds powerful invalid audience segments to be removed from campaigns. Stop paying to show ads to bots and invalid users and start making marketing decisions based on clean, actionable data.

UK-based Lunio was formerly a digital marketing agency known as PPC Protect before pivoting toward marketing automation with the launch of its automated click fraud prevention platform in 2018. By using analysis of click traffic and user behavior patterns, the platform can identify and exclude fake, non-human, and zero-value traffic, providing marketers with better insights into ad performance. Its platform is compatible with a variety of digital media and ad networks including Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Using AI to automate, enhance and optimize marketing activities

Marketing Automation

AdTech Lunio wins backing from Praetura

UK-based Lunio was formerly a digital marketing agency known as PPC Protect before pivoting toward marketing automation with the launch of its automated click fraud prevention platform in 2018. By using analysis of click traffic and user behavior patterns, the platform can identify and exclude fake, non-human, and zero-value traffic, providing marketers with better insights into ad performance. Its platform is compatible with a variety of digital media and ad networks including Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.The platform's algorithm leverages WebAssembly, a web standard designed to enable near-native code execution speed in the browser, which Lunio claims is up to 7x faster than traditional JavaScript, giving it an edge over its peers. The firm claims users of its solution have experienced a 98% drop in bot clicks and a 21% increase in traffic quality. As a result, Lunios’ solutions have been recognized by G2 as a leader in the ad prevention space; Lunios was the highest-rated click fraud software in its fall 2022 report.Key customers and partnershipsAs of October 2022, the firm's solution was used by 1,000+ firms, including Hugo Boss, Marks &amp; Spencer, McDonald’s, Blend Jet, and Europcar, representing more than 2,500 individual users.The firm also has an agency partnership program aimed at digital marketing agencies as well as an agency marketplace enabling users to discover marketing consultancy services across a variety of geographies and services. As of October 2022, Lunio had partnered with ~55 marketing agencies including Modo25, Circus PPC, and Atomic Marketing.Funding and financialsIn July 2024, Lunio raised an<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/31009"> undisclosed investment</a> from Praetura Ventures to expand into new sectors and international markets such as Europe and the US.

<div>
 
 Outbrain is an algorithm-based content recommendation and discovery platform that curates native advertising content from the open web, providing personalized content for brands to increase customer engagement. Outbrain&rsquo;s customers include leading news media outlets such as CNN, MSN, and Sky News, serving more than a billion monthly users (by September 2021). Outbrain also allows content publishers to amplify its reach by supplying content to the platform. As of September 2021, customers could access 7,000+ online content sources including content by the Washington Post, Guardian, and BBC.&nbsp;
 
 
 Outbrain has been a pioneer in the content recommendation space and was the first to introduce an algorithm-based content recommendation in 2008. It was also the first to introduce a self-service platform for content recommendation in 2012. Outbrain has made a series of acquisitions over the years while making enhancements to its product offerings. In May 2021, it tested &ldquo;QualityRatings,&rdquo; a tool that implements quality guidelines for the content featured on its platform while using machine learning and AI to create a more personalized user experience. In April 2022, Outbrain&rsquo;s platform was 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9907">
 integrated with ID5
 </a>
 to provide a privacy-first customer identification solution. In September 2022, the firm launched 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13122">
 Keystone
 </a>
 , a business optimization solution for publishers. In November 2021, 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6992">
 Outbrain acquired vi
 </a>
 , a contextual video intelligence platform for USD 55 million to grow it's CTV and other display ads offerings. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Outbrain&rsquo;s revenue model is structured as a &ldquo;pay per click&rdquo; model with the revenue being shared with publishers of the content. In FY 2022, the firm 
 reported a revenue of USD 992.1 million (a 2% YoY dip). For the 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16860">
 full year of 2023E,
 </a>
 the firm expected to achieve a minimum Ex-TAC gross profit of USD 237 million and generate an adjusted EBITDA of at least USD 28 million. 
 
 
 Outbrain was listed on the NASDAQ in July 2021, where it raised USD 160 million at a valuation of USD 1.25 billion. Ahead of its listing, Outbrain also raised USD 200 million in the form of senior subordinated secured notes from Baupost Group. Since then the firms share price has fallen steeply, and as of July 2022 the firm was&nbsp; worth USD 300 million, equivalent to a ~75% drop in its value. In response, Outbrain is reported to have 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11880">
 shed ~3% of its total workforce
 </a>
 . 
 
</div>

Outbrain

<div>
 
 Marin Software is an adTech firm offering a suite of solutions for brands looking to conduct search, social media, and ecommerce advertising. The firm&rsquo;s &ldquo;MarineOne&rdquo; solution enables Brands to integrate their data under a single platform; coupled with machine learning tools, marketers can optimize ad spending across multiple platforms. In the case of search and social media advertising, Brands can increase their visibility across a number of search engines and social media platforms including Google, Facebook, and Apple Search Ads.&nbsp;
 
 
 In recent years the firm has been making enhancements to transform its Marine One Software as a complete marketing campaign management &amp; intelligence solution. In line with the firm expanded its ecommerce advertising solution capabilities by increasing the number of integrations to include Criteo&rsquo;s commerce media platform and Instacart&rsquo;s advertising platform. In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12159">
 2022
 </a>
 , the firm rolled out a number of new product and features including 1) MarinOne bidding, the firm's ad bidding marketplace, 2) MarinOne support, to enable advertisers to improve ad performance with multi-edit ad scheduling solutions, 3) social rules engine, to help automate workflows, and 4) 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15019">
 Budget Optimizer
 </a>
 , an ad budget management solution. More 
 recently, in April 2023, the firm introduced an automation tool 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17565">
 &ldquo;MarinOne Scripts,&rdquo;
 </a>
 which integrates Python scripting with its MarineOne platform, providing marketers with customized and data-driven solutions to optimize campaigns.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 As of October 2021, several brands from varied industries, including Nissan, American Eagle outfitters, and Harmony, use the firm&rsquo;s solutions.
 
 
 In 2021, the firm made a number of new initiatives in 2021, including an 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7635">
 integration with Amazon Ads
 </a>
 and a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6973">
 partnership with CitrusAd 
 </a>
 to expand the ecommerce capabilities of its platform. More recently, in January 2023, the company announced an 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16172">
 integration with Yahoo
 </a>
 to broaden access to programmatic ad content. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Marin Software was listed on the NASDAQ in March 2013, raising USD 105 million and was valued at USD 432 million. However, since then the firm has been experiencing a decline in performance; in 2022, the firm recorded a revenue of 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16613?industryIds=62">
 USD 20 million (a 18% YoY drop)
 </a>
 compared to the ~USD 100 million revenue in 2016. The reasons analysts cite for this are 1) weaknesses in its search advertising model and 2) not selling digital ads, which is a growth area for lead generation firms.&nbsp;
 
 
 
</div>

Marin Software

<div>
 
 Founded in China, Terminus claims to have the first account-based marketing (ABM) platform that unifies the marketing and sales teams&rsquo; roles under a single platform. Terminus specializes in B2B marketing and, according to the firm, its &ldquo;Terminus Data Studio&rdquo; has one of the largest B2B account databases, which by September 2021, covered more than 70 million businesses. Terminus&rsquo;s customer data platform (CDP) is fully integrated with its marketing automation platform, through which teams can run multi-channel targeted campaigns across many channels including email, ad networks, live chat, and the web. This can then be analyzed with Terminus&rsquo; suite of analytics and attribution tools. In March 2023, the firm 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17406">
 launched Prospect Engine,
 </a>
 a new data solution, to help users identify high-quality accounts and contacts displaying buying signals. 
 By September 2021, Terminus served more than 1,000 customers, including Salesloft, Foundry, and Quantum Workplace.
 
 
 According to a study done by Forrester (in Q2 2020), Terminus has been recognized among the ABM platform leaders. 
 
 
 Through a series of acquisitions, Terminus has transformed into a marketing cloud platform offering a range of services. Its two latest acquisitions took place within 12 months. In November 2020, it acquired Growflare, a lead generation and account-based intelligence platform catering to B2B startups, followed by B2B CDP Zylotech in September 2021. Terminus hoped to capitalize on these to build the most comprehensive ABM platform on the market.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 Terminus raised USD 50 million in debt financing from CIBC innovation banking in November 2021. The funding was used to support international expansion, product development, and further acquisitions. In February 2021 when it raised USD 90 million in Series C funding, it was valued at approximately USD 400 million.
 
</div>

Terminus

<div>
 
 Founded in France, Brevo 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18241">
 (formerly Sendinblue)
 </a>
 began as an email marketing automation platform catering to small and medium-scale businesses (SMB). It has since extended its services to become an all-in-one marketing platform catering to 300,000+ customers across 180 countries by end December 2022. The range of services found on Brevo&rsquo;s platform includes email and SMS marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, landing page creation, and Facebook ad management, among others. In November 2022, the firm launched an 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14388">
 integrated meetings solution
 </a>
 that brings together scheduling, video conferencing, and payment solutions. In March 2023, the company 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17462">
 unveiled &ldquo;Conversations&rdquo;
 </a>
 to manage customer conversations across messaging channels in one centralized location.
 
 
 Brevo&rsquo;s platform is compared with other well-known competitors such as Mailchimp and Hubspot and is commended for its live support and fair pricing, making it a strong contender in the SMB space.&nbsp;
 
 
 The company has expanded its product offering through a series of acquisitions during 2021-2022. Brevo acquired three firms in September 2021 for USD 47 million: 1) Metrilo, a provider of customer analytics and marketing services for ecommerce stores, 2) Chatra, a live chat messenger app for increasing online sales, and 3) PushOwl, a customer re-engagement website that uses web-based push notifications. In March 2022, the firm 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9009">
 acquired MeetFox
 </a>
 , a meeting scheduling and video conferencing platform. In September 2022, the company 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13360">
 acquired Yodel.io,
 </a>
 an Austrian cloud-based phone system provider, to enable additional customer touchpoints, and reduce the overall digital marketing spend for SMBs. In February 2023, the firm 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16271?industryIds=62">
 acquired Captain Wallet,
 </a>
 a mobile wallet marketing platform, to broaden its reach internationally. In December 2023, 
 Brevo
 acquired 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24833">
 WonderPush and Octolis,
 </a>
 two customer interaction platforms, to expand its CRM capabilities.
 &nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials&nbsp;
 
 
 Brevo raised USD 160 million in its Series B round in September 2020 with participation from Bridgepoint, Bpifrance, Blackrock, and Partech. The firm planned to utilize the funds to increase its presence in the US, where it has experienced a 100% YoY growth since 2018. 
 
 
 The firm achieved 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15834">
 USD 100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
 </a>
 at the end of 2022 while maintaining a positive EBITDA position.&nbsp;
 
</div>

Brevo

Acquia provides a digital experience platform (DXP) to support medium to large enterprises that use Drupal, an open-source content management system (CMS) that provides the back-end infrastructure for websites and by September 2021, powered approximately 2.1% of websites on the internet. The core product offered by Acquia is a marketing cloud that provides a full suite of services to manage the customer journey. The platform features a customer data platform (CDP), unifying data across multiple sources; sales automation tools to deliver personalized marketing campaigns across multiple delivery channels; marketing campaign management tools to manage distributed marketing teams; and a content management platform to organize and monitor content.Having been built on the Drupal framework, which does not require any programming skills to implement, Acquia’s marketing cloud claims to be more accessible and agile than enterprise cloud solutions provided by incumbents such as Adobe and Oracle. In 2021, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report named Acquia a leader in DXP platforms, while a study done by Forrester (in July 2021) found that customers of Acquia’s DXP solutions experienced a payback on their investment in less than six months, generating an average return on investment (ROI) of 589% over three years.Acquia has made several investments and enhancements to its DXP platform. In January 2021, Acquia, in partnership with Commercetools and Lucidworks, launched “Acquia Digital Commerce,” a service for creating personalized digital shopping experiences for customers. The firm has also added a number of self-serve features to its CDP such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11422">“right to erasure” </a>to bolster the privacy and security features of its platform to cater to enterprise users. In May 2024, Acquia announced the launch of its enhanced digital experience platform, <a href="https://">Acquia Digital Experience Optimization (DXO),</a> which optimizes digital marketing spend by improving the performance of digital experiences. In September 2021, Acquia acquired Widen Enterprises, a digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) software company, for an undisclosed amount. As a result, customers can have a fully integrated experience on the platform, while the acquisition also added a further 700+ customers. In November 2023, the company acquired Monsido, a website accessibility and optimization solution from CivicPlus, to expand its platform capabilities.Key customers and partnershipsBy September 2021, Acquia counted one in four Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson &amp; Johnson, Bayer, and Xerox, among its customers.In June 2022, Acquia <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11352">partnered with Workato </a>(enterprise-level workflow automation platform) to integrate with Acquia’s CDP to expand enterprise use of the platform. The integration added 100+ technology integrations compatible with Acquia’s marketing cloud.Funding and financialsAcquia was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in September 2019 for USD 1 billion.

Acquia

Firms positioned as an 'all-in-one' marketing platform,  providing a variety of functions across the MarTech stack

Startups providing platforms for planning and managing marketing campaigns.

Startups offering tools for finding and attracting potential customers with targeted ads.

Startups providing tools to automate the execution of marketing campaigns across varied channels.

Startups providing tools for gathering, cleaning and enhancing customer data to provide deep analytics.

Uses AI/ML to enable marketing automation, making it a core part of many companies' products

Metaverse advertising is being explored by AdTech segments for in-game advertising

Personalization tools are mainly used in AdTech and marketing campaign automation

Marketing automation provides measurement and attribution solutions to measure marketing effectiveness

The in-game advertising segment is in development and has a niche relevance to this area

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 Lunio, a marketing data and analytics platform, has secured an unspecified investment from Praetura Ventures. Existing investors Smedvig Ventures and Fuel Ventures participated in the funding round.
 The new funds will be used by Lunio to expand its reach to new sectors and global markets, including Europe and the US.
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Lunio's new capital builds on its <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/13569"> September 2022 Series A funding, </a> where it raised USD 18 million to advance its technology and expand geographically in the EMEA and North American markets. This time, the expansion will likely be more strategic and robust, using the new capital to deepen market penetration and increase local presence.

Lunio

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