2020 - More than £50m raised across 16 rounds

2020 has been an interesting year. The outbreak of the coronavirus turned the world upside down. National lockdowns were ordered, workplaces were closed, and face masks and social distancing became the new norm.

Despite the difficulties this year, here at Breed Reply, we are proud of the resilience and continued success of our portfolio companies during these unprecedented times.

As well as vaccines, the pandemic has pushed the need for innovative technology, including up-scale IoT solutions, as companies and organisations adjust. This year has taken the world further into the digital revolution with IoT at the forefront. In fact, the latest research estimates that by 2021, the internet of things and analytics market is expected to be worth $520 billion.

Over the past 12 months, we have highlighted some of our portfolio companies’ best work – from new investments and secured funding, to product launches, new partnerships, and awards. Check out the list below to see our portfolio companies’ success during 2020.

More than £50 million of new funding

In total, our 20 portfolio companies raised more than £50 million in new funding in 2020, from 16 investment rounds, including:

• Leading kerbside management and smart parking technology firm AppyWay, announced the launch of its £20 million Series B funding round to support the organic growth of the platform, strategic acquisitions and further technological investment and international scalability.
• SkyNews reported on Callsign, one of the fastest-growing identity authentication businesses’, announcement of a capital injection led by JP Morgan Asset Management - which manages $2trn for clients around the world.
• Connecterra completed the largest-ever Series B investment raised by a European livestock tech company and secured €7.8 million from existing investors including Breed alongside new investors including AgTech specialists ADM Capital, leading French food safety enterprise Kersia Group and Dutch impact investor, Pymwymic.
• FoodMarble, the digital digestive health company, closed a seed investment round of around €2.1 million, to support continued expansion and R&D of FoodMarble AIRE, world’s first personal digestive tracker. FoodMarble also opted to open its funding further with the launch of a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.
• RazorSecure raised £2.6 million from a jointly led consortium of investors to protect passenger transport systems from cyber risks. The Company later announced a milestone of their transport cyber security efforts protecting more than 10 million rail passengers.
• Senseye, an industrial Asset Performance Management company and leader in Predictive Maintenance, secured new investment from NTT DOCOMO Ventures and Sony Innovation Fund alongside existing investors IQ Capital and Breed Reply, to expand its presence in the Japanese market and increase its research and development.
• The blockchain security startup Ubirch completed its third round of financing, receiving new growth funding as it aims to secure end-to-end IoT data transmission.

• In March, AppyWay, the kerbside management and mobility technology firm, partnered with Transport for London and the London Freightlab to pilot kerbside management tools for freight and service vehicles in the capital
• Sleep technology expert Kokoon launched their new NightBuds product on Kickstarter. Nightbuds are the world’s thinnest Bluetooth headphones with immersive, intelligent audio to help improve sleep.
• In March Senseye launched the ROI Lock scheme in partnership with a leading global re-insurer, to significantly reduce the perceived risk of investing in predictive maintenance solutions. The guarantee is an industry first in predictive maintenance, with Senseye promising to reimburse customers with the subscription costs for its Senseye PdM software if the agreed downtime reductions fail to materialise.
• To combat COVID-19, Ubirch announced a joint solution for the fight against the effects of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, alongside Centogene to store test results on the blockchain that can be retrieved at any time, serving as a virtual certificate of the results.
• In March, The UK government announced its biggest investment in 5G for manufacturing to date – a £9m project to install a private 5G network at the National Composites Centre (NCC) in Bristol. The 11-member consortium work was led by portfolio company Zeetta Networks, the Bristol-based networking specialist.
• METRON signed two strategic partnerships with NTT FACILITIES, part of the NTT Group, and the SK Group's gas subsidiary. METRON’s technology will be used to reduce energy consumption at their industrial sites across the globe.



And the winner is…

Many of our portfolio companies have been recognised for their success in 2020.

• AppyWay has had a year of accolades and honours, receiving several awards for its incredible work in developing kerbside management solutions to enable intelligent mobility which better connect cities with people and businesses.
• In November, the Local Government Chronicle awarded AppyWay with the Innovation Award for their Smart City Parking (SCP) solution initiative with Harrogate Borough Council (HBC) and North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC). The same initiative was given the Intelligent Parking Award at The British Parking Awards 2020.
• In October, AppyWay won the Digital Leaders 100 ‘5G Innovation of the Year Award’ which recognises a project programme or initiative that demonstrates the wide possibility and opportunity presented by 5G across all sectors.
• AppyWay also took top place at Transport for London (TfL) FreightLab Challenge, a research project which examined how to reduce freight movement pollution and congestion in the Greater London area.
• AutoExpress magazine named AppyWay the best parking app of the year.
• In February, Digital twin and digital ecosystem enablement specialist Iotics was declared Champion of the Telecoms and IoT Domain at the Grand Finale of the global NTT DATA Open Innovation Contest in Tokyo.
• French cleantech company, METRON won numerous awards during the year including being named one of LinkedIn’s top startups in October. METRON uses technology to help factories to reduce their energy consumption by 4 to 15%, You can see a rundown of the awards here.
• At the IoT Global Awards 2020, Senseye won IoT Product / Service of the Year for Senseye PdM in the Industry & Construction category. In the Securing IoT category Ubirch won for UBirch TrustService - Making Data Trustworthy.