The London startups and scaleups to watch in 2021

In 2020, the biotech raised a further $15m extension of its Series A round — which totalled $25m. It was led by Atomico. It also appeared on our list of best London startups to work at in 2021.

Reaching profitability in 2019, Azimo received $88m from Rakuten, eVentures and Frog Capital. It's currently preparing for the fallout of Brexit, and in April 2019 it secured a license in the Netherlands to operate and opened up an office in the Netherlands. They've also got an office in Krakow. But they're doing well, with a 70% increase in new customers since the pandemic.

Ever thought of taking snaps of your...bin?! Well, that's Winnow's business model. Its AI tool captures pictures of food thrown away in hotels, restaurants and even IKEA to tackle the huge problem of food waste.

As you might imagine, 2020 was a huge year for HealthHero — and it now claims to be the largest telemedicine provider in Europe after acquiring the heavyweight champion Doctorlink. It's just over a year old but now claims to cover 20m people as a result. But even before the pandemic, telemedicine was predicted to be an emerging force for the long-term. While 1% of consultations were done digitally prior to Covid-19, there's capacity for 70-80% of consultations to be remote. There seems to be a very secure and successful future for the startup. Read more: HealthHero: the new healthtech startup buying its way to the top

Soldo is one of Europe's fastest-growing fintechs. Despite being founded in 2015, in 2019 it secured the largest round of funding ever by a spend management startup in an impressive $61m Series B round led by Battery Ventures and Dawn Capital. Its services are used by over 60k businesses. In July 2020, Soldo announced it was extending its partnership with Mastercard to become a principal member of the company.

Last year, CQC made waves in the quantum community after announcing a cloud-based random number generating service and “meaning-aware” natural language processing — both of which are expected to push it into the very top of the worldwide market. It's certainly one to watch as viable and genuine quantum computing emerges.

Multiverse, formerly known as WhiteHat, secured the UK's biggest ever edtech raise in January 2021. The $44m round was led by General Catalyst but also included Google Ventures. With a new round of young adults about to finish secondary school and enter into an overwhelmed job market, its services in connecting apprentices with companies and providing training means this is likely the beginning of a strong year for the startup. Read more: Tony Blair's son secures UK's biggest ever edtech raise

Streetbees are in the business of documenting consumer thought — then using AI to determine general consumer psychology. Clearly there's a market for it, as its 100-strong team has earned it a market almost everywhere, from Kenya to France, and India to the UK. They claim to gather about 1m 'stories' from consumers a month in 150 countries for brands like the giant Unilever, to IKEA and Sony Pictures. What's next? Well in October 2020 it raised $40m in its Series B round led by Lakestar. We're watching to see what they do with it. Streetbees raises $40m — but what's in it for the bees?

The pandemic didn't touch Moneybox. In fact, in March of 2020 it closed a Series C with a valuation of $132m, and accelerated hiring towards the end of July. Related: UK trading apps up to 20x cheaper than incumbents

Heroes had the biggest seed round of any European in 2020.

The financial services industry goes through a lot of documents, so of course its interested in natural language processing capabilities — and Eigen Technologies is a startup that does just that. Founded in 2014, their clients include Blackrock, Allen & Overy, and one-third of all G-SIBs. In 2020, its Series B round raised $42m, led by Goldman Sachs and ING. Read more: How AI is changing the game for banks

Form3 helps banks and fintechs make super-fast payments using its cloud-based platform. In its latest Series C funding round, it raised $33m from investors including Nationwide and Lloyds — part of the deal involves the two banks implementing the technology for their customers. Their plan is to build a global transaction platform for SMEs real-time services, to roll out to at least 690k small firms by the end of 2023. Such a big target has got to mean they're one to watch.

Cleo leads in the financial wellness niche, although it doesn't quite offer the whole nine yards, lacking tailored saving advice or hacks for users. Read more: The best London startups to work at in 2021

The startup uses AI to predict the cost behind car accidents and natural disaster repairs. In February 2020, it raised $25m in a round led by Georgian Partners. It plans to expand across Europe, parts of Asia and North America. Related: How to stop the looming “AI winter”

Wagestream is one of the most innovative of the 'buy now, pay later' startups. It allows users to draw down a percentage of their earned wages before payday without any interest at all, at a flat fee of £1.75 — in an attempt to prevent the public entering into cycles of debt and payday loans. It's clearly working: with over 300k customers and a £20m Series B round in July 2020. But it's also clearly necessary, as according to its CEO Briffett, 55% of UK households don't have £250 in savings to access in an emergency. Let's see how it fares against other 'salary-on-demand' fintechs like Hastee, also based in the UK. Read more: The rise of an ethical alternative to payday lenders?