Cambridge-based data analytics developer, Featurespace, has won £1.5m of additional funding in a round led by Imperial Innovations and supported, et al, by Autonomy founder and ex-CEO (and prior investor), Mike Lynch. Featurespace was one of the 12 ‘Little British Battlers’ who participated in the inaugural TechMarketView Little British Battler event back in January (see here).
Featurespace got its seed funding from Betfair back in 2008 and went on to a £1m Series A funding round in December 2010 from NESTA, Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Capital Group, and Mike Lynch. Betfair remains a significant client, along with internet money lender Wonga.
This is also an interesting investment move by Imperial Innovations (IVO), the AIM-listed tech ‘incubator’ arm of London’s Imperial College (see Who says there’s no money for start-ups? and work back). Originally created to nurture and commercialise the College’s own R&D, IVO has since extended its beneficence to support technologies from or associated with Cambridge University, Oxford University, and UCL. Featurespace co-founders Prof. Bill Fitzgerald and CEO David Excell are both Cambridge University alumni as is, of course, the esteemed Dr. Lynch.
Featurespace plays in what we now know as the Big Data market. Though still truly tiny, its heavyweight backers should give it more than a fair chance to prove its mettle.
PS. Yes, there will be another Little British Battler event later in the year. Keep an eye on UKHotViews for details.