Wired UK – September 2019

Vidsy

Vidsy’s network of

5,000 creators across

70 countries produces

high-quality video ads

for brands such as

Sky, L’Oréal, Vodafone,

Netflix and Amazon.

Creators can respond

simultaneously to briefs

posted on the platform,

meaning that brands get

options they can test and

develop. Performance

data enables insights

on ad effectiveness

and creative ideas for

future campaigns. “We

could see the shift

from traditional video

advertising to mobile

and digital video,” says

Gerard Keeley, CEO of

Vidsy. vidsy.co

Karakuri

Karakuri’s 1.5m x 1.5m

Marley robot has an arm,

12 ingredient dispensers

and can serve up to 120

bespoke meals per hour,

each customised by

portion size and nutrition.

“It was born out of a

realisation that the food

service market needed

an update,” says Barney

Wagg, CEO of Karakuri.

“Lower-cost robotics

and machine learning

have the potential to

transform the ready-to-

eat meal market.” In May

2019, Karakuri secured a

£7m investment, led by

Ocado alongside Hoxton

Ventures, Firstminute

Capital and Taylor

Brothers. karakuri.com

Beautystack

LabGenius

FiveAI

Co-founded in 2017

by Sharmadean Reid,

Dan Woodbury, Chris

Whittleston, and Ken

Lalobo, Beautystack is

a booking and social app

that gives independent

beauty professionals

the tools they need to

manage social media,

customer support

and appointments. In

May 2019, they raised

£4 million from Index

Ventures. “You’d look at

cool apps that do things

instantly, from Uber to

Airbnb, but when it came

to the beauty industry,

it was like we were still

using software that

was made in 1995,” says

Reid. beautystack.com

This biotech startup’s

synthetic biologists,

data scientists and

automation engineers

are developing EVA, the

world’s first autonomous

scientist. Engineering

antibodies and enzymes

for medical or industrial

applications mostly

relies on trial and error.

EVA uses AI to predict

which mutations have

the required biological

traits and, using

liquid-handling robots,

continuously runs its

own experiments. The

startup has raised

$3.6m from investors

including Kindred Capital

and Acequia, and has

contracts with the UK

MoD. labgeni.us

Founded in September

2015, FiveAI is building a

self-driving alternative

to the urban commuter

car. It began vehicle tests

at the Millbrook Proving

Ground in Bedfordshire in

2016; in 2018, it launched

its first autonomous,

end-to-end service route

between Flitwick station

and Millbrook; since April

2019, it has been testing

a prototype on London’s

roads. The company

has raised nearly $30

million, and has offices

in London, Edinburgh,

Oxford and Bristol. “We

want to use the power of

autonomy to transform

Europe’s cities,” says

CEO Stan Boland. five.ai

In the UK, the tech community remains optimistic at a time when the

country is facing one of the biggest political upheavals in its history. “Although

the current political landscape is sub-optimal to say the least, Londoners

are nothing if not resilient,” says Tessa Clarke, CEO of food-sharing startup

OLIO. “The fact that our political system is in a Brexit-induced meltdown has,

if anything, given renewed fervour to the tech startup scene as we recognise

that if we want change to happen, we’re going to need to do it ourselves.” The

UK still ranks fourth in the world in terms of tech investment, after India,

China and the US – total VC investment in 2018 topped £6bn, more than any

other European country. However, London’s place in the tech world may yet

be challenged, as the landscape for workers evolves. “London has histori-

cally been one of the few hubs that tech talent has chosen in Europe, but this

was changing even before Brexit,” says Bryce Keane, partner at Atomico.

<

Beautystack co-founder

Sharmadean Reid MBE

Kheiron Medical

Kheiron’s Mammography

Intelligent Assessment

(MIA) tool uses deep

learning to analyse

mammograms and assist

radiologists in deciding

whether to recall a patient

for further evaluation.

“Breast cancer is hard

to detect, which is why

many countries mandate

that mammograms are

read by two radiologists,”

says CEO Peter

Kecskemethy. “MIA

acts as an independent

second reader.” The

software was the first

product developed by a

UK company to receive

the CE mark (for European

regulatory approval) for a

radiology deep-learning

product. kheironmed.com

093

LONDON

BY JOÃO MEDEIROS

LONDON

09-19-SUstartup02.indd 93 24/07/2019 14:04