Innovative London technology and storytelling start-up Lost My Name, which uses technology to create personalised story books for children, has secured £500,000 of seed funding, adding to the hundreds of millions raised by London tech companies over the last year.
Lost My Name, which brings technology to storytelling, was founded in 2013 by Asi Sharabi, Pedro Serapicos, Tal Oron and David Cadji-Newby. The company’s first book, “The little boy who lost his name” or “The little girl who lost her name” was launched in April 2013. So far they have sold over 40,000 copies in more than 90 countries.
Lost My Name plans to use proceeds of the fundraising to grow the business and invest in developing its next product, which it hopes to launch later this year.
London-based technology companies are attracting increasing amounts of funding. According to figures from CB Insights, London tech companies attracted more than $1.2 billion of funding across 231 deals over the last four quarters (Q3 2013 – Q1 2014) while early stage tech companies attracted $385 million across 165 deals. ¹
Asi Sharabi, co-founder and CEO of Lost My Name said, “We were frustrated by the lack of innovative technology in children’s books, but we have shown that when old-fashioned illustration and storytelling craft meets the possibilities that technology offers the results can be inspiring, beautiful and genuinely magical. We hope to use the proceeds of this funding to develop our next product, which will be the world’s most technologically advanced picture book.”
Gordon Innes, Chief Executive of London & Partners, the Mayor’s official promotional organisation for London said, “My Lost Name has created a children’s book that tells 14,000 different stories, each personalised to the reader. That’s amazing. It shows the depth of talent and creativity that resides in London’s technology companies. London boasts world-leading talent across the technology sector. It’s encouraging to see the success of Lost My Name rewarded with a successful funding round and it shows how adept London tech businesses are becoming in attracting significant levels of funding.”
