Member Article

London scaleup pair tipped for unicorn status join Silicon Valley programme

Two tech firms from the capital are to join a cohort of UK scaleups as part of the Startup Europe Comes to Silicon Valley (SEC2SV) programme that aims to put future European unicorns in touch with investors and industry figures across the Atlantic.

Whitechapel’s Metail and Clerkenwell-based Meninga will be joining PCA Predict and Stream Technologies as part of the UK delegation to the San Francisco event which will host 15 tech companies from other European countries including Iceland, Italy and Germany among many others.

The SES2SV, which is organised by Mind the Bridge and EIT Digital, forges links between European tech firms and their relevant industries in the US, with a week-long programme of events including local presentations, meetings and a European Innovation Day at the Computer History Museum.

Participating businesses have been selected based on proposals by their Silicon Valley-based partner organisations, and all meet stringent criteria which outline that they must have had at least 10 employees three years ago and that their revenue or number of employees must be growing by more than 20% year-on-year.

Marko Turpeinen, Director of EIT Digital’s Silicon Valley Hub believes that the programme helps to strengthen ties between the tech scenes in Europe and the Bay Area.

He commented: “These companies really epitomize European Innovation—the next TomTom, Spotify, or BlaBlaCar—and we are convinced that their participation in SEC2SV will strengthen the two-way bridge between the European and the Bay Area ecosystems creating value and jobs for both continents.”

Founded in 2007, fashion technology firm Metail has already embarked on partnerships with the likes of Tesco, who have piloted its tech allowing consumers to try on clothes online.

It has already raised $19.5m of capital which includes a $12m Series B round which is closed back in 2014.

Meniga, meanwhile, is a FinTech startup which provides personal finance software to banks such as Santander and ING, and has a presence in both London and Reykjavik in Iceland.

The firm recently closed a €7.3m funding round led by Netherlands-based Velocity Capital and Iceland’s Frumtak Ventures and now looks poised to grow its workforce of 100 employees even further.

Commenting following the funding round, Willem Willemstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Capital, said the firm was bringing traditional banks into the digital presence with its data-driven marketing and software.

He said: “Meniga has demonstrated consistent sustained growth and the agility that is required for banks to keep up with the technology needs of their customers, partners and vendors and stay relevant.

“Meniga understands where digital banking is going and provides the technology to help their customers get there. We look forward to the next phase of bringing banks up to date.”

The week-long SEC2SV programme kicks off on 12 September.