Yangry is a startup which offers an easy and affordable way to have your friends over and feed them without having to do any cooking. Private dinner parties are now as easy to organise as ordering a Deliveroo with over 130 chefs listed on Yangry. Yangry offers you the chance to create a menu or choose from suggestions and then the food gets delivered to your house. A couple of hours before you will eat, your own Private Chef will arrive and cook your food and even cleans up afterwards. All you need to do is add the wine. Yangry has just raised $1.5M from investors who are all also keen customers. They plan to expand from London to European cities including Paris, Lisbon and Barcelona. Since their launch in December 2019 they have served more than 7000 people, despite Covid. At Cow-Shed we can't wait until they start covering Guildford! @yhangry #startupdining #startupchef #startupprivatechef #startupcooking #PrivateEquity #Angelinvestor #GetFunded #VentureCapital 
London based startup WeWalk has created a 'smart' cane that uses ultrasound waves to warn users of obstacles above ground level. The WeWalk module replaces the standard rubber handle attached to canes. WeWALK can detect obstructions that the bottom of standard white cane would often miss such as low tree branches or a sign, and will send a vibration to the user. The cane continues to work with objects on the ground as usual. The cane links to an app with GPS navigation and can use a speaker to tell the user where they are - for example which shop they are passing. It can help with navigation by giving precise directions - turn 4 O'Clock, rather than turn right, and can even help users book a taxi. WeWalk's head of research and development, Jean Marc Feghali hopes that this cool device can make the cane something visually impaired people world wide can be proud to be seen with. However its $600 cost and the need to have a smartphone to use the free app will put it out of reach of many of the millions of visually impaired people worldwide, so WeWalk are working with charities and governments to help users afford their smart cane. WeWalk has 20 employees, several of which are visually impared. Crowdfunding secured their initial investment and they have now joined Microsoft's AI for Accessibility program. They hope to use Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to analyse data on the the way users move that can be collected by the cane. #wewalk #visuallyimpaired #smartcane #microsoftazure #startup #smartcanestartup 
Webflow is a “no code” website builder founded by Vlad Magdalin, his brother Sergie and their friend Bryant Chou in 2012. Every year Vlad has handwritten a note to each of his employees, but this year after writing 120 notes he has decided to find a new plan. At Cow-Shed we love using Webflow to create fabulous websites for our clients. Read more about Webflow on our blog. #businessgrowth #businesstips #microbusiness #microbusinessowner #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #businessopportunity #businessopportunities #businessowner #websitestartup #nocodewebsite #webflow 
Remix is a mapping startup that helps cities plan the best transport system they can. They have just be bought by VIa which started as an on-demand shuttle operator but now offers software to cities and transport organisations so that they can plan routes - for example for school buses. The Remix founders met 7 years ago when they were working for a non profit aimed at empowering local governments. They worked on a project that let San Francisco residents suggest better transport routes to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. The planning tool they created went viral after it was shared on Twitter and within 2 weeks over 30,000 maps had been created. When urban planners picked up on the tool and asked for extra features they realised there was a real problem out there that needed solving and founded Remix. Via have paid $100 million in cash and equity for Remix. 2 of the original 4 Remix founders, and all of their 65 employees will stay on at Via. #mappingstartup #startup #startupexit #buyout #transportsystem #viralstartup 
Covid has hit the travel sector hard, so its good to see travel startup Luxtripper doing so well. Perhaps their success is due partly to their exciting and innovative approach to digital travel - they won “Best Customer Relationship Management Platform” at the 2020 Travolution Awards. Luxtripper is a London based luxury travel startup that creates holidays of a lifetime by matching customers to destinations in seconds and creating itineries tailored to their needs, often in less than a day. CEO Nena Chaletzos explains that they “curate experiential, multi-destination and adventure travel through personalised itinerary planning to some of the most exotic destinations around the world”. Luxtripper had annual sales to March 21 of £7 million. They have total secured total funding of £3.1million including their latest round of funding which raised £1.2million. This will be used to develop its technology platform, increase the destinations they offer and hire more employees. #luxurytravelstartup #travelstartup #luxurystartup #startup #luxurydestinations #luxuryfunding #startupfunding 
Questo is a Romanian startup which helps people explore cities using an app on their phone. Users choose a city and a quest and follow the clues to discover different areas of the city. When they get a clue right they learn more about the story for that place as well as earning points. There is even a leader board so users can compete against people all over the world. Local people can apply to become independent creators and publish exploration games in their own city. Each game is rated by users, and can earn creators a small income. Questo has expanded from 40 European cities in 2020 to over 100 cities in 2021. They have just raised $1.5 million in funding to help them double again to reach 200 cities, focussing on the US, by the end of 2021. At Cow-shed we love the look of the Great Plague of London Quest - by following clues users walk around 15 different places learning about the plague and exploring historic areas of London. Rather topical! @questoapp #Startup #Businessstartup #Startupbusiness #Startuplife #startupworld #startupgaming #startuptravel #startups #fundingnews 
Vivino is a Danish startup who claims they have created the most downloaded wine app. The app gives each wine based on reviews by users and makes personalised wine recommendations to users who can then buy the suggested wine through the app. Vivino sell wine online in 17 countries such as the UK, US and Japan as well as European countries such as Italy, Portugal and Germany. They have seen their UK users and revenue double over the past year as consumer behaviour shifts online. A recent funding round raised $155 million bringing their total funding to $221 million. They plan to use this money to improve its techology platform so that they can use AI to enable users to see more useful recommendations, as well as to increase their marketing (historically an area where they have spent very little). Vivino don’t actually own any of the wines they sell, so they have to make sure they choose their wine partners carefully as any problems in fulfilling orders will reflect badly on Vivino. If this lockdown goes on much longer, we expect their UK users to grow far beyond the 2.4 million users they currently have. @vivino #wineapp #winestartup #onlinestartup #danishstartup #startupfunding #leanstartup #theleanstartup #leansixsigma #sixsigma #runninglean #scalinglean #leancanvas 
A startup called Millions has come up with a novel way of gaining attention. This month they encourages people to follow their Twitter account @millions which gives away money to its followers each month. This month followers need to go to Millions.app and pick 6 lucky numbers - if the numbers match their weekly draw, they win $1m! Millions are planning to do many drops and whilst this Twitter game encourages users to follow them on Twitter, future games will target other platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Next month's game will let people win $100k if they put their phone number into a website and it is just one digit off the target number. The startup has anonymous founders, who sign their emails Anon McMillions. Ultimately they appear to be using the giveaways to aquire customers for their ultimate launch - rumoured to be MyCard, which will reward customers for everyday behavior. So far Millions has raised $3million which they are currently using for customer aquisition in the form of giveaways. Investors all talk of the joy people get from winning money and how they want to be involved in such a exciting initiative. At Cow-shed we are excited to see how this works out. #startupgiveaway #customeraquisition #anonymousstartup #leanstartup #theleanstartup #leansixsigma #sixsigma #runninglean #scalinglean #leancanvas 
Payflow is a Barcelona based financial wellness startup which allows employees to get paid when they choose. Despite only launching 8 months ago, they have proved the relevance of their business model by striking up some important fund alliances to extend their seed round funding to E2 million. Payflow is now used by more than 100 companies who claim it has been able to give their many thousands of employees financial freedom. The mobile app lets employees take the proportion of the salary they have earned whenever they choose, rather than waiting for a fixed payday. This model gives employees control over their money and lets them avoid risky products such as payday loans. Payflow also offers an interactive e-learning platform known as Learnflow to help employees achieve financial wellness. Feedback suggests Payflow reduces employee turnover and increases productivity whilst being as important to people as other social benefits such as health insurance. @payflow.es #financialwellness #chooseyourpayday #paydaystartup #payrollstartup #businessgrowth #businesstips #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship 
Jack & Bry @jackandbry was founded by Bryony Tinn-Disbury who realised that people are looking for high quality plant-based foods with an authentic taste and texture. Their first product was a jackfruit based pepperoni pizza ingredient which is offered on Papa John pizzas. They have now branched out into burgers, mince and sausages. They realised that over 70% of the world's jackfruit is left unused, and that it would be a great base for their products. The startup has built a great management team, including former Quorn chairman Clive Sharp and the Singha Europe MD, David Flower, which has helped it to secure £1.25 million in seed funding from several backers including venture capital firm and private investors. Tinn-Disbury predicts that the Veganary effect will last all year. Having just completed Veganuary, the Cow-Shed team are still thinking about that one. #plantbasedmeals #plantbased #veganuary #PrivateEquity #Angelinvestor #GetFunded #VentureCapital #Bootstrapping �