Here’s a list of 15 failed startups from London.
Some of them were big, with huge teams and funding rounds.
Others were smaller, ran by the co-founders, and with no funding.
But all of them shut down.
And each for a specific cause of failure.
15 Failed Startups Founded in London
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2,189 Accelerators & Incubators
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1,016 Unicorns
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1,190 Unicorns
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250 FinTech Investors
List of startup investors in the FinTech industry, along with their Twitter, LinkedIn, and email addresses.
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250 BioTech & Health Investors
List of startup investors in the BioTech, Health, and Medicine industries, along with their Twitter, LinkedIn, and email addresses.
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250 AI Investors
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Berg was a cloud platform on which Little Printer, an IoT device, worked. They had loyal supporters, but couldn't convert it into a sustainable business.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Matt Webb
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Design
Started in:
2005
Closed in:
2014
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$1M-$10M
Specific cause of failure:
No Market Need
Berg
You can read more about their failure here.
Crowdmix
Crowdmix was a music streaming platform where people could listen and talk about their favorite bands. They spent £14M before having a working product.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Gareth Ingham, Ian Roberts
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Music
Started in:
2013
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
100-250
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Mismanagement of Funds
Crowdmix
You can read more about their failure here.
Dinnr
Dinnr allowed to select a recipe and order pre-measured ingredients accompanied with instructions. However, there wasn’t a market need for the business.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Adil Mohammed, Michal Bohanes
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Food & Beverage
Started in:
2012
Closed in:
2014
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
No Market Need
Dinnr
You can read more about their failure here.
Dopplr
Dopplr was a social travel network service. In 2009, Nokia acquired it for $20 million and the number of Dopplr users fell since then until shutting down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Dan Gillmor, Lisa Sounio, Marko Ahtisaari, Matt Jones, Taneli Tikka
Country:
United States
Industry:
Travel
Started in:
2007
Closed in:
Active
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
No Data
Specific cause of failure:
Acquisition Flu
Dopplr
You can read more about their failure here.
HitMeUp
HitMeUp was a web-based business commercial center. The founder had no tech background, and after launching 3 versions, they decided to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Charlie Pool
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2015
Nº of employees:
1-10
Funding Amount:
< $1M
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Experience
HitMeUp
You can read more about their failure here.
Karhoo
Karhoo was a cab aggregator. It was out of business after 6 months of operation. Poor management and bad execution of a good concept were the main causes.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Daniel Ishag
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Transportation
Started in:
2014
Closed in:
2016
Nº of employees:
50-100
Funding Amount:
$10M-$50M
Specific cause of failure:
Poor Product
Karhoo
You can read more about their failure here.
Radar Radio
Radar Radio, a hub for emerging music talent online, ceased operations amidst a debt of £3.6M. Here's their story.
Details of the startup:
Founders:
Ollie Ashley
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2008
Closed in:
2018
Nº of employees:
10-50
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Mismanagement of Funds
Radar Radio
You can read more about their failure here.
140 Canvas
After dropping out of university, Harry went back home and found a gift: a fake big tweet from Federer. That’s when he came with a business idea: fake tweets printed and sold for £30. He partnered with a friend and launched the project within 2 months. However, after a Youtube’s influencer campaign, the site got 17,000 visitors and only 20 sales. That’s when they realized not so many people were interested in their product...
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Harry Dry
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2017
Closed in:
2018
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
No Market Need
140 Canvas
You can read more about their failure here.
AskTina
AskTina was a live video chat widget for experts to install on their blogs. They did not spend enough time validating the idea through customer interviews before investing in building the MVP.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Tom Hunt
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2016
Closed in:
2017
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Market Fit
AskTina
You can read more about their failure here.
Mongoose Cricket
In 2009, Thomas Evans began working alongside Marcus, the creator of a radical new cricket bat named the Mongoose. After spending over $130,000 on glitzy marketing, and failing to break through the heavily traditional cricket market, they were forced to shut down.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Thomas Evans
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
e-Commerce
Started in:
2009
Closed in:
2011
Funding Amount:
$100K-$500K
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Marketing
Mongoose Cricket
You can read more about their failure here.
NewCo
If you are interested in the no-code movement, you’ve probably heard Ben Tossell’s name. But today we’re not here to talk about Makerpad, one of the leading communities for no-coders, but about Ben’s previous project: NewCo. We want to know what went wrong, what were the lessons learned, and how it led to his success afterward.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Ben Tossell
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Education
Started in:
2018
Closed in:
2018
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Focus
NewCo
You can read more about their failure here.
Sharkius
Sharkius was a social games company. It grew too fast, too quickly. It reached $80k/month revenue within months and wasted it. Learn from their mistakes!
Details of the startup:
Founder:
David Kramaley
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2007
Closed in:
2012
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Marketing
Sharkius
You can read more about their failure here.
Sport Draftr
Will created Sport Draftr, a Daily Fantasy Sports site in the UK, offering leagues in the English Premier League, and UEFA Champions League. The product was loved, looked great, and it worked well, but due to a lack of knowledge in the gambling industry and changes in legislation, they were forced to close the company.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Will Laurenson
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Entertainment
Started in:
2015
Closed in:
2017
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Legal Challenges
Sport Draftr
You can read more about their failure here.
Tailor
Joe is a 25-year-old founder who, following Pieter Levels example, decided to build 12 startups in 12 months. Doing some A/B testing for his other projects, he found the existing tools had a lot of missing features and decided to spend 2 months full-time working on a new solution. But things didn't go well...
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Joe D’elia
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Analytics
Started in:
2017
Closed in:
2017
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Bad Marketing
Tailor
You can read more about their failure here.
Watu
Watu was a temporary staffing app founded by José Pablo Fernández and his business partner. The business was very sticky; once a company started using the app, it was very unlikely for them to leave. So what could have gone wrong!? Read our interview with Pablo below to know more.
Details of the startup:
Founder:
Pablo Fernández
Country:
United Kingdom
Industry:
Software & Hardware
Started in:
2011
Closed in:
2015
Funding Amount:
$0
Specific cause of failure:
Lack of Funds
Watu
You can read more about their failure here.
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