Apps: has the UK market had enough?

We recently published a blog on events app YPlan’s dramatic exit for only £1.6m, 1/26th of its former value. It is becoming increasingly clear, however, that YPlan is far from the only technology company suffering in the current market. An unnamed source, whose company is currently advising three such companies, with a combined pre-money valuation of £75m, contacted Beauhurst directly to divulge that all three companies are insolvent, have rapid cash-burn problems, and are ‘running out of road’ with investors.

YPlan, sold for a fraction of its promised value

Insolvency events beckon these companies, and their likely aggregate values are south of £20m in administration. But whilst disheartening, this update is far from unsurprising: investments in the technology sector have plummeted 20% this quarter – twice as much as the 10% fall seen across the board. 

Indeed, in Q3’s edition of The Deal, Beauhurst CEO Toby Austin commented that market saturation is increasingly an issue for technology companies in the UK: “We think we’re getting to the point where the novelty of certain sectors has worn off.”

YPlan and the companies discussed above may, then, simply be victims of circumstance. At Beauhurst, we await the next wave of technological innovation to drive the industry forward.