• Edge Retreats

  Led · Seed · Apr 2016

  Edge Retreats is a London-based tech startup specialising in luxury villas, launched last year by founder and CEO Luke McCormick, a former travel journalist. The company operates a platform designed to simplify the process of finding and booking luxury villas around the world while offering concierge services. It plans to use new funds to continue building a world-class product and to increase the number of properties and countries it features. Management says the investment will allow the company to accelerate growth and expand its inventory. Financially, Edge Retreats closed a $1m seed round led by Lean Investments, bringing total funding to $1.4m with support from existing investor Forward Partners.

• Sortlist

  Led · Seed · Feb 2015

  Sortlist operates a marketplace that matches clients and marketing agencies using a mix of AI-powered technologies, professional networks and peer-to-peer recommendations. The company says its platform speeds up connections and improves matching accuracy while preserving human oversight. Founded in 2014, Sortlist is active in Belgium, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands and plans to use new funding to capture the English-speaking market. The team is roughly 100 people and the company reported about 40% revenue growth in the past year. Over the past two years Sortlist has helped more than 2,700 companies in 91 countries find 1,117 qualified marketing agencies. To date the company has raised a total of €13.6 million. Sortlist operates an online platform that helps companies discover marketing, communication and digital agencies. Founded in 2014 and based in Wavre, Belgium, the platform serves businesses in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and France and is also present in North America. The platform is available in five languages and the company is now targeting expansion into Spain and Italy. Leadership includes CEO Thibaut Vanderhofstadt, CMO Nicolas Finet, CTO Charles De Groote, and Product Manager Michael Valette. Sortlist raised €2m in funding and intends to use the funds to enhance its team and consolidate its position in Europe. Sortlist operates an online marketplace that helps companies discover and vet marketing and communication agencies, combining discovery with a reputation and review system. The site lists more than 53,000 communication agencies, which can register for free or upgrade to a premium account for greater visibility and extra features. Companies can search by location, type of work, and budget, and Sortlist integrates LinkedIn to show how close an agency is to a business's professional network for validation. The founders built the product from experience running a digital agency and designed it to address discovery shortcomings of LinkedIn and Google. Monetization is through premium subscriptions for agencies, a model the founders viewed as scalable when they launched the service. The company recently raised external funding, indicating early-stage validation of its business model.

No current team members are available.