Tech investment up 100% as COVID-19 drives digital adoption

The Coronavirus pandemic has seen investment in tech businesses targeted at improving healthcare and education surge by more than 100 per cent, according to new figures.

Data from Wealth Platform, which helps startups and scale-up companies access the Enterprise Investment Scheme, showed the crisis has prompted a spike in investments in medical testing, healthcare and children’s education businesses in the last three months.

Between 6 April and the end of June, £10.8 million was invested into EIS qualifying businesses through Wealth Club’s platform, compared with £4.9 million in the same period last year - an increase of 110 per cent.

EIS deals which have seen strong demand since April through Wealth Club include:
Bond Healthcare – a digital platform for the medical testing industry. A £400,000 EIS fundraising round sold out in less than a minute after going live

Acamar – the production company behind the children’s series Bing. It has raised £9.4 million through the Wealth Club platform; £1.8 million during the Covid crisis.

Azoomee – a global media company focusing on kids educational content that has 60 million users worldwide saw its subscriber numbers rise by 40 per cent in March.

Gobsmack – a company delivering digital wallet technology to allow its blue-chip clients to engage and reward their customers.

Visionable – a video collaboration platform for healthcare teams, billed as the 'Zoom for medics', now reportedly mulling a £100 million raise to help support growth in the UK and overseas.

Sofant – An Edinburgh University spinout at an advanced stage of development of a patented 5G-ready smart antenna.

Alex Davies, chief executive at Wealth Club, said: “COVID has turned even the staunchest technology luddites into online shoppers, viewers and users, meaning demand for innovative businesses, where technology is at the heart of what they do, has rocketed.

“Many of these businesses were growing rapidly before the crisis, the pandemic has simply turbocharged their business models," he continued. “People are being forced to learn online, have meetings online, treat patients virtually and so on.”

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