Deals of the Week, January 18 to 22 – Growth Business roundup 22 Jan 2021
Growth Business roundup of Deals of the Week, January 18 to 22, listing seed funding, venture capital and crowdfunding deals of note
Omnipresent enrols £11m in Seed to Series A funding
An undisclosed investor has led a £11m Seed to Series A funding round for remote working employment software start-up Omnipresent. Existing investors Playfair Capital, Episode 1 and Truesight Ventures. Omnipresent, which gives companies a way to handle HR for remote workers globally, plans to roll out its platform to 150 countries worldwide.
You’re hired! Apprentice platform Multiverse closes £32m funding found
General Catalyst, the American venture capital firm whose previous investments include Airbnb and Deliveroo, led a $44m (£32m) funding round for education start-up Multiverse. Other backers already include Google Ventures and Microsoft chairman John W Thompson. Multiverse, whose which matches yo
With the rise of low and no alcohol drinks, The Gin Guild is fighting the use of the descriptor ‘gin’ on such products.
Gin is defined in EU regulation as a juniper-flavoured spirit with a minimum alcoholic strength of 37.5% ABV: meaning low and alcohol product cannot, by definition, be considered as gin (Similar regulations exist in the US, where gin needs to be bottled at 80° proof).
But the rise of low and low alcohol drinks has led to a number of brands using the term ‘gin’, while the UK guild wants to protect the use of the term for genuine gin brands.
Gin Guild sends warning to low-ABV ‘freeloaders’ 20th January, 2021 by Melita Kiely
Trade body The Gin Guild has slammed low- and no-alcohol producers who label their products as ‘gin’ for ‘freeloading’ on the category’s success despite not meeting legal requirements.
The Gin Guild plans to clamp down on low-ABV brands marketing themselves as ‘gin’
The Gin Guild said numerous brands have launched recently to ‘piggyback’ on the popularity of gin.
Nicholas Cook, director general of The Gin Guild, said: “Gin is a protected category under EU and UK law and, amongst other requirements, must be not less than 37.5% ABV.
By Edward Devlin2021-01-18T11:04:00+00:00
Sales at the business have soared by 580% already this year as drinkers quit booze for Dry January
Low-alcohol spirits start-up CleanCo has raised £7m in new funding as the booming category continues to attract investors and consumers.
It takes the total investment secured by the company, founded by Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews, to £9.1m since it launched in 2019.
Existing and new investors took part in the round, including Ursula Burns, board member of Uber and former Diageo executive, and Stonebridge, a digital-first consumer brand investment firm set up by DTC entrepreneur James Cox, who will also advise the company on its future growth plans.