As the world slowly recovers from the onslaught of the Coronavirus pandemic, cautious optimism prevails. However, things are not all that well in the UK in terms of its economy. Britain, on Wednesday, officially entered into recession as its GDP slumped by 20.4% in Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2020 – the largest quarterly contraction in the UK economy since the quarterly records began in 1955. This is the second consecutive quarterly decline after the GDP fell by 2.2% in the previous quarter (Jan to Mar) 2020.
But, things are not all grim as the ONS also mentions that despite the slump, there was some pick up in June as government restrictions on the movement started to ease. According to a study by Paris-based startup campus Station F, 48% of startups globally have hired new employees since the beginning of March. The report also mentions that 78% of startups globally plan to hire new employees before the end of the year. In terms of investments, European investors and industry professionals are optimistic that even amidst the pandemic, the fundings won’t dry up completely.
To keep the optimistic streak alive, we spoke to some of the startups in the UK that are hiring.
London-based payments startup Banked is currently hiring. It’s CEO and co-founder, Brad Goodall tells Silicon Canals, “If your organisation is in a position to hire, this is absolutely the best time to be hiring. Not only is the candidate pool immense with highly skilled talent right now, but even more so, you have the possibility of helping someone get back on their feet after being made redundant due to the pandemic.”
Here are 10 tech startups in the UK that are currently hiring. Seeking a job in the UK? Check out this list and spread the word.
Poplar
Founders: David Ripert, Laurie Ainley
Founded year: 2018
Funding: €2.9 million
Poplar’s platform allows users to create 3D and AR campaigns on demand. It’s team of AR and 3D creators creates digital experiences such as at-home virtual try-ons, branded face filters, product visualisation and other interactive AR experiences, for retail, fashion & beauty, entertainment, food & drink, and gaming brands.
The startup is currently hiring and the open positions have been mentioned here.
Revolut
Founders: Nikolay Storonsky, Vlad Yatsenko
Founded year: 2015
Funding: €774 million
London-based fintech startup Revolut specialises in mobile banking, card payments, money remittance, and foreign exchange. According to the company, it’s vision is to build a Financial Super App – a single app with which consumers can manage all aspects of their financial life. Since its launch in 2015, the company has added many new features and services, including salary advance, instant peer-to-peer payments, budgeting controls, and FDIC insurance up to a value of $250,000, through a partnership with Metropolitan Commercial Bank.
Revolut claims to have signed up nearly 10 million customers worldwide. The company now employs more than 2,000 people globally, including in New York and San Francisco, and is still hiring. You can access Revolut’s 221 open positions here.
Citymapper
Founders: Azmat Yusuf
Founding year: 2011
Funding: €42 million
Citymapper is a London-based public transit app that uses open data, mobile and payment technology to offer navigational and mapping services. It allows users to compare all travel options in real-time across all transport modes. Last year, it launched its subscription service called Citymapper Pass that enables people to pay for weekly travel across all modes of transport mediums, with a smart travel card.
The passes can be integrated with the startup’s android and iOS app, along with Apple Pay and Google Pay. They can, therefore, be used as virtual cards as well. The app covers over 36 cities across the world. Interested in working with Citymapper? You can check out the open positions here.
Banked
Founders: Brad Goodall, Ellen Fernandes, Neil Ambler, Patrick Cox
Founded year: 2018
Funding: €5.92 million
Banked uses open banking to create a real-time payments network for consumers, businesses, and banks. Its account-to-account payment software allows its users to process payments in real-time, in a secure and cost-effective manner.
With its real-time payment option, merchant and customers receive the funds instantly, as soon as the transactions are complete. Thereby saving them from any processing delays during fund transfers.
By offering payments in real-time, Banked enables merchants and customers to receive money from transactions as they happen, meaning they no longer have to wait days and weeks to receive the funds.
Goodall tells Silicon Canals that Banked is currently hiring for design and product-focused roles.
Starling Bank
Founders: Anne Boden
Founded year: 2014
Funding: £363 million (€401 million)
Starling Bank is a digital bank based in the UK. Its banking app offers personal, business, joint, and euro current accounts on Android and iOS. The Starling Marketplace offers customers in-app access to a selection of third-party financial services. It also offers B2B banking and payment services. Headquartered in London, with offices in Southampton, Cardiff and Dublin.
According to Starling, it has more than 1.4 million current accounts with over £2.4 billion (€2.67 billion) in deposits. Since launching its banking app in May 2017, it has currently more than 1.4 million current accounts, including 155,000 business accounts.
In March, this year, Starling Bank opened its third UK office – a 14,000 sq. ft. office in Brunel House, Cardiff. With this move, the bank created 400 new jobs in its data science, fraud and customer services teams. It has a workforce of over 800 employees in London and Southampton.
Starling Bank is currently hiring and you can check out all the open positions here.
Babylon Health
Founders: Ali Parsa
Founded year: 2013
Funding: €577 million
Babylon Health uses a combination of AI technology and medical expertise to deliver digital
health tools in multiple languages and localised for multiple countries. In some countries, it offers 24/7 access to a health professional through virtual consultations. The startup claims that its current technology allows users to instantly learn more about their symptoms through its AI symptom checker. Its AI-powered Healthcheck helps users to understand their current health and offers them practical insights to stay healthy.
These features can be accessed on the company’s app, along with the ability to consult a doctor at any given time. Its COVID-19 Care Assistant helps patients or concerned users to check their symptoms, track their illness, cope with self-isolation, access information, chat with trained staff, and consult doctors
According to Babylon Health, Babylon has over 4 million registered patients and has completed nearly 2 million consultations globally. You can check out all the vacancies with Babylon Health here.
Checkout.com
Founders: Guillaume Pousaz
Founding year: 2012
Funding: €320.9 million
London-based fintech company Checkout.com offers an API-based platform for global merchants and businesses to streamline and optimise their payments. The company claims to offer reliable payments in more than 150 currencies, with in-country acquiring, fraud filters and reporting, through one API. It also offers data and insights to help global enterprises launch new products in new markets.
Checkout.com employs over 750 staff across 13 offices globally. The vacancies with the company can be found here.
BenevolentAI
Founders: Brent Gutekunst, Ivan Griffin, Ken Mulvany, Michael Brennan
Founding year: 2013
Funding: €263 million
BenevolentAI is an AI company that combines the power of computational medicine and advanced AI with the principles of open systems and cloud computing to transform the way drugs are designed, developed, tested and brought to market. According to the company, its ‘Benevolent Platform’ is the world’s only end-to-end computational and experimental platform for drug discovery that spans data ingestion to clinical development.
BenevolentAI has headquarters in London with a research facility in Cambridge (UK) and further offices in New York and Belgium. BenevolentAI has active R&D drug programmes from discovery to PhaseIIb in disease areas such as ALS, Parkinson’s, Ulcerative Colitis, and Sarcopenia. All open positions can be looked at over here.
Onfido
Founders: Eamon Jubbawy, Husayn Kassai, and Ruhul Amin
Founding year: 2012
Funding: €168.6 million
Onfido is a global identity verification and authentication provider. It uses AI to verify whether a user’s government-issued ID is genuine or fraudulent and then compares it with the person’s facial biometrics.
According to the company, it currently helps over 1,500 companies verify their users. It has a workforce of over 400 across the world, with offices in London, San Francisco, New York, Lisbon, Paris, New Delhi, and Singapore. The positions that the company is currently recruiting for have been posted here.
Visionable
Founders: Alan Lowe, Lord Victor Adebowale
Founding year: 2015
Funding: €18.8 million
London-based healthtech startup Visionable is a video collaboration platform that helps clinical teams deliver better patient care. It allows remote consultation, collaboration between clinicians and healthcare professionals, and also enables patients to connect with friends and families virtually – a feature that is coming in handy during this pandemic.
The company is looking to expand its workforce and is also currently hiring. You can check out the open positions over here. According to Donna Holt, COO of Visionable, “In the UK alone, the number of clinical virtual consultations has risen from 2% pre-pandemic to 80% during it. In June, we announced that we had successfully completed a fundraise to invest further in our technology and in teams behind the technology. During this period of high use, in particular, we believe it is imperative we continue to look to the future and optimise our offering through incorporating feedback from clinicians and patients. This requires bringing in additional high-quality talent which is why we have stepped up our hiring during this period.”
Are you a UK-based startup that is hiring during the pandemic and missing in the list? Let us know, we will make sure your message is heard.
If you are on the lookout for an exciting new job, then check out Silicon Canals’ Jobs, where you may just find your dream job at a fast-growing startup or technology company.
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