Dojo, an app dedicated to finding you the best places to go to in London, has raised a $1.2m seed round.
The investment is led by Playfair Capital, with participation from Saatchinvest and several angel investors including Harry Briggs and Ross Bailey (Appear Here).
It is the first investment to be made from the new London Co-Investment Fund that was announced by Mayor of London Boris Johnson last year.
Better discovery
Launched in September 2014, Dojo’s events discovery technology has been built in a way that its founders believe is equipped for “fast and aggressive” global expansion.
The app is in a crowded space that includes other apps such as YPlan and traditional publishers like Timeout but the team and its investors Playfair Capital believe Dojo have a better understanding of the market and their clients.
“Dojo’s assiduous understanding of the market is what makes them such a promising start-up,” explained Federico Pirzio-Biroli, partner of Playfair Capital.
“The retention figures and rate of growth prove these guys really have created a useful, sticky product that has potential to explode.”
The London-based team now have plans to launch a second version of the app in the next month on iOS and the Android version in March.
Boris’ fund
The $1.2m boost for the startup comes in part from the new London Co-Investment Fund, aimed to encourage investment in London businesses.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson celebrated the investment as just the first of many that will help cement the city’s place in the world of tech.