Manchester in the UK is carving out to become a major tech hub. There has been a technological revolution in the city leading to a surge in the number of tech startups out there. It is touted to be one of the cities in the UK to have the highest number of tech businesses.
Top VC deals in Manchester
Having said that, Manchester tech startups have secured funding from investors to help them grow further. And, here is a list of top VC deals secured by Manchester-based tech startups in Q2 2020 as sourced from PitchBook.
Sharp Gaming
Founder/s: Andrew Daniels
Founded year: 2017
Funding: NA
Sharp Gaming operates with the mission to build a revolutionary tech platform for the global gaming industry. This platform is targeted at online and retail operators including sports betting and gaming services. It uses state-of-the-art cloud-ready infrastructure to provide extensive flexibility and scalability for operators and let them build robust gambling products that will suit their needs.
The founder of Degree 53, Andrew Daniels announced the launch of his gambling tech business after securing an investment of £25 million (nearly €28 million) from Fred Done, the co-founder of Betfred.
Peak
Founder/s: Atul Sharma, David Leitch, Richard Potter
Founded year: 2014
Funding: €19 million
Manchester-based Peak that has built the first-of-its-kind enterprise AI system has announced the closing of its extended Series A funding round of €11.8 million. The investment round has been led by existing investors such as Praetura Ventures and MMC Ventures. Peak will use this investment to support its rapid growth and expansion. Also, it will ramp up the investment in R&D.
The Artificial Intelligence startup provides companies a full-stack enterprise AI system, which merges the required data processing, infrastructure, AI workflow and applications in a single SaaS product. It eliminates the complexity in enterprise AI rollouts and minimises the number of separate software applications needed to deploy AI to just one.
CGHero
Founder/s: Chris Lawrence, Jonathan Lloyd
Founded year: 2016
Funding: €1.3 million
A few months back, CGHero announced that it secured a seed investment of $1.1 million (nearly €0.93 million). This funding round was led by Fuel Ventures along with participation from Cumron Ashtiani, Tim Dempsey of Epiphany Capital, and private Angel investors. The company will use the investment to grow its sales and marketing efforts rapidly and to streamline the production of 3D computer-generated content.
CGHero is a platform for outsourcing 3D CGI production, which provides on-demand access to the world’s top studios and artists. It works with the mission to help customers outsource cutting-edge computer graphics from professionals all over the world.
Collctiv
Founder/s: Amy Whitell
Founded year: 2019
Funding: €170k
Collctiv announced that it raised £200k (nearly €220k) co-investment from CG Angels. Recently, the company was named the fundraising partner for the #LocalLegends initiative that aims to raise money for frontline NHS staff in the North West of England.
Collctiv helps organisers easily collect money and pay for group bookings or purchases. Pots for collecting money from friends and family can be used for many reasons such as holiday bookings, charity donations and more. When making a group booking or purchase, merchants who use Collctiv can allow their customers to split payments between their group at checkout, increasing their revenue and customer insight.
Stock photo from SAKhanPhotography/Shutterstock
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