London Business School start-up secures over $1 million in investment

A London Business School start-up has expanded into Europe after raising over a million dollars in funding.

Blikbook, a technology company for higher education lecturers and students has raised $1.3 million in a new round of financing.  The new capital will support the significant growth of the business including the move of the headquarters to Dublin, Ireland.   

Blikbook launched in 2010 after participating in London Business School’s incubator programme with alumni from London Business School and UCL- Cheyne Tan, Barnaby Voss, Ben Hall and Deepak Colluru.  Since 2010, Blikbook has seen rapid growth with its usage figures doubling with each semester.  In the last term alone, BlikBook was used in select courses at a third of UK and Irish universities, and at half of the top 30 UK universities, with students using the platform for 1.5 to 3 hours per session on average, two to three times a week.  

Cheyne Tan, co-founder and Managing Director of BlikBook, commented:  “Our technology enables universities to improve student engagement, quality ratings and academic performance through an easy to use digital platform for knowledge sharing between lecturers and students.  This investment gives us a great boost as we seek to expand further in the UK and Ireland.”

BlikBook’s platform enables lecturers and students to interact and share questions and answers.  Lecturers use the platform to manage questions and student engagement outside of the lecture theatre whilst students use it for further academic help from their lecturer and fellow students.  

The funding round was led by Leaf Investments alongside Delta Partners, investing from its Bank of Ireland Start-up and Emerging Sectors Fund, and Enterprise Ireland.  Existing investors Forward Investment Partners, also participated, and taking the opportunity to build on their original investment in BlikBook.  This round takes the total funds raised since launch to over $2 million.