Category: Behind the Raise

Aura Funerals, the digital end-of-life planning and funeral service, has announced a successful £750,000 funding round through Angel Investment Network. This marks Aura’s third successful raise through the network. The funds were raised as part of a larger £3.2m growth funding round.

Aura Funerals, launched in 2019, is transforming the funeral care process by digitising and simplifying arrangements, making them more affordable and flexible. The company prioritises compassionate support and offers comprehensive planning resources to assist families during challenging times. Following recent market changes, it is one of fewer than 30 FCA-regulated funeral providers. read more

In the return of our Behind The Raise series, we interview Andrew Gordon, the co-founder of a brand new disruptor in the health, sustainability and beverage space: Naked Rivals. The Australian brand announced a successful capital raise of A$3 million with AIN, 3 months after launching its first 100% lemon and lime juice cubes product range across 1,600 supermarkets in Australia.

In the article Andrew discusses how his wife and business partner Kate’s pregnancy was the inspiration behind the brand, the problem they’re solving for busy consumers, and the secrets to their successful fundraising through angel investors. You’ll also discover their top tips for navigating the fundraising landscape and their approach to persuading retailers to stock their unique product. read more

Australian beverage brand, Naked Rivals has announced a successful capital raise of A$3 million within 3 months of launching its first 100% lemon and lime juice cubes product range across 1,600 supermarkets in Australia.

This remarkable deal, one of the largest of its kind in Australia this year for a startup, was sourced from a single ultra-high-net-worth family through the Australian Investment Network (AIN). AIN is part of the Angel Investment Network, the world’s largest online angel investment community. read more

MAGIC AI, the UK’s first AI personal trainer, is on a mission to combat obesity through its innovative fitness platform. Founded in 2021, the company utilises cutting-edge holographic technology and a wall mirror to create an immersive fitness experience at home.

In our latest Behind The Raise interview, co-founder Varun Bhanot shares his personal journey from being overweight to a transformative training experience, which inspired him to democratise personalised training. 

He discusses the problem MAGIC AI aims to solve, its appeal to investors, celebrity endorsement, and valuable tips for raising investment. Varun also reveals how he discovered a close-to-home connection in the AIN database. read more

In our latest Behind The Raise interview we interview Nick Torday, co-founder of Bower Collective, a sustainable consumer technology business dedicated to combatting the global plastic waste crisis. Bower Collective aims to create a more sustainable world by eliminating plastic waste through the delivery of a wide range of award-winning natural household products in BowerPack™, their unique reusable packaging system. Nick discusses their mission-driven approach, the growth they have seen and scale of the investment opportunity, how they have coped with global supply chain challenges and his top tips for raising investment. read more

For our latest Behind The Raise interview we speak to Moses Rashid, founder of online marketplace for Limited edition Sneakers & Streetwear, The Edit LDN. He reveals how he had his lightbulb moment at a sneaker festival, his huge focus on service and the impressive partnerships and celebrity backers that have helped propel the business forward.

He also reveals his top tips for anyone raising investment for the first time and why he initially thought a call from Harrods wanting to partner with The Edit LDN after just 18 month of operating was a prank… read more

For our latest Behind The Raise interview we speak to Florian Jacques, founder of Midstay, the platform helping companies and individuals work remotely. Florian talks to AIN about his innovative startup catering for ‘digital nomads’ with an all-in-one solution to set up remote working experiences. He discusses the benefits of his platform for both employees and employers, the traction points that won round investors and what Elon Musk has got wrong.

Tell us about Midstay and how you came up with the idea?

The idea for Midstay came from the experiences my co-founder and CTO Magnus and I had as remote workers and travellers. We met each other in Bali while surfing on a flat day. While waiting for a wave, we discussed our common experiences of being a “nomad”. We understood that the current landscape of digital tools was missing the essential tool of helping facilitate the relocation of people taking their work with them while travelling. read more

For our latest Behind The Raise interview we speak to Jim Mulford, founder of rewards redemption platform for gamers, acQyr eXchange. The serial entrepreneur talk to AIN about his mission to effectively monetise the hugely growing gaming market with relevant rewards and offers, learn about how to get ahead of your competitors. As someone who has led several exits he also offers his top tips for raising investment and reveals the pitfalls to avoid.

Tell us about The acQyr eXchange and how you came up with the idea?

Our mission and QX Offering have a strong foundation of research, development, pilots, partnerships, and IP for the real-time issuance and redemption of digital reward value in markets that effectively apply loyalty rewards to attract, engage, and retain the customers of businesses within each market. read more

For our latest Behind The Raise interview we speak to Linas Pozerskis and Crystal Drury the co-founder of smart-EV and energy storage startup WAU (We Are Universal). They talk to AIN about their mission to transform the electric bike market, top tips for raising investment and why shortening supply chains has improved the startup’s capacity to innovate.

Tell us about WAU bikes and how you both came up with the idea?

The problem we identified was that there was no 2-wheel EV platform on the planet that would take all large 4-wheel EV perks and raw sex appeal and make it portable. Our solution was to provide a powerful/portable alternative to full size Smart EVs such as Polestar, Tesla, Lucid, etc. read more

For our latest Behind The Raise interview we speak to StJohn Deakins, the founder of ‘Zero Data’ leader CitizenMe. He talks to AIN about his mission to improve the internet by enabling people to control their own data, developing your ‘why’ as a startup and his fundraising insights having raised in the UK, USA and Asia.

Tell us about CitizenMe and how you came up with the idea?

My last startup helped over 100 million people get online with their smartphones. After selling it, I had the ‘beach time’ to dig deep into the economics of the internet. It quickly became clear that data will become the new currency of our digital world. However, because everyday people can’t participate in the value of their own data, there are billions of dollars of value left untapped. This personal value from personal data can mean many things. read more

Ben Hallett is the CEO and co-founder of fast growing EdTech company Vygo, built to ensure no student is left behind. In the latest Behind The Raise interview he talks to AIN about creating equality in education, scaling fast and pivoting, the reasons for rising investor interest in EdTech and how to avoid wasting time when fundraising.

Tell us about Vygo and how you came up with the idea?
While studying at university, myself and my co-founder witnessed too many of our peers struggling, falling through the cracks and ultimately falling short of their potential. With further research we discovered that the problem was global with 30-50% of students dropping out of higher education and most students struggling with severe or debilitating stress. We discovered that one of the core challenges is helping students connect with the support they need when they need it and we couldn’t see anyone else meaningfully solving this. This set us out on a mission to ensure that every learner has equal access to the support they need, when they need it, so that they can reach their full potential. read more

Antony Yousefian is the co-founder of innovative agtech businesses Bx Technologies. In the latest Behind The Raise interview he talks to AIN about transforming farming, his lightbulb moment courtesy of cannabis growers, a near death epiphany, and a clever approach for refining your pitch for investors.

Tell us about Bx Technologies and how you came up with the idea?

Bx Technologies helps farmers switch to climate friendly practices by measuring the climate-impact of produce, and putting that information on food. We do this via our software technology that quantifies farmers’ positive impact on improving their soil. We then sell that as a service. This enables farmers to differentiate their crops from others.

My co-founder Ben Bardsley is a 5th generation farmer and my background is in asset management where I was involved in the initial waves of cleantech. So we really understood the challenges in this space. Both on the ground and the economics behind it.  read more

Rich Wooley is the CEO and founder of Paperclip, a challenger marketplace taking on eBay. Rich shares lessons from his fundraising in #BehindTheRaise: What’s the biggest thing he thinks investors look for? What would he do differently if he did it all again? And well, does AIN really work?

Tell us about what got you into start ups:

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset – my first business was at school selling Big Red chewing gum that I imported from the US, it certainly made me more money than my paper round!

At university, my housemate, Alan, (later, co-founder) and I made good money importing clothes from the US and selling them on eBay, and we saw an opportunity there for a challenger marketplace to take on eBay’s monopoly. We shelved the idea at the time, and both went into our respective management consulting careers – but eventually I thought that if I didn’t do something entrepreneurial soon, I might never, so I took a career break and started attending startup events in London like AngelHack and London Startup Weekend. I pitched Paperclip, we came second place, and we got to work. read more