A British logistics start-up backed by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and other titans of the technology world is raising tens of millions of pounds to help it satisfy booming demand for its services.
Sky News has learnt that Beacon, which helps companies to manage their supply chains more efficiently, has sealed a $50m (£37m) Series B funding round led by Northstar.vc, a leading venture capital investor.
Upper90, another investor in early-stage companies, is also participating in the fundraising as a new investor in the business.
Image: Amazon’s executive chairman is one of the world’s wealthiest people. Pic: AP
Launched in 2018, Beacon uses artificial intelligence and cloud-based technology to improve operational efficiency for customers organising international trade in their products.
It provides services including global ocean, air and road freight, customs clearance, insurance and supply chain finance, all of which can be accessed and managed on a single platform.
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The company helps importers to address cashflow needs by offering financing within 72 hours – a critical issue for importers who invariably have to pay suppliers before goods begin a shipment journey that can take several months.
Headquartered in London, it was founded by Fraser Robinson, chief executive, and Dmitri Izmailov, chief operating officer, two former Uber executives.
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Beacon boasts one of the most stellar investor registers of any early-stage company in the world, with Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, Travis Kalanick, the Uber Technologies founder, and Marc Benioff, the Salesforce founder, chairman and chief executive, among its backers.
The venture capital firms 8VC and Expa are also among its shareholders.
Mr Bezos, Amazon’s executive chairman and one of the world’s wealthiest people, is understood to be participating in Beacon’s Series B round alongside other existing investors.
Freight forwarders act as agents between exporters and importers, taking a fee for the service they provide in arranging transport for goods from factories prior to their shipment.
They also administer relevant paperwork required for exports.
The industry’s largest players include DHL, the global logistics group, and Kuehne + Nagel, although the sector as a whole is regarded as having been slow to embrace the digital age.
Beacon was set up to drive efficiencies in a historically fragmented industry, but has been a big beneficiary of the havoc that COVID-19 has wreaked on global supply chains.
One source close to the company said this weekend that since unveiling its $15m (£11m) Series A fundraising in May 2020, it had seen “hyper-growth”, with revenue growing 12-fold in the last year.
It now employs 180 people, up from 24 18 months ago, and has expanded into Asia through the opening of an office in Hong Kong.
Demand for more efficient logistics operations has been driven by soaring freight rates, labour shortages and consumer demand for more rapid and reliable delivery times for goods purchased online.
The new funding, which could be announced early this week, is expected to be used to further expand Beacon’s workforce, develop its technology and expand into new markets.
It was unclear at what valuation the capital was being injected.
Shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla have reversed sharply over renewed concerns about his focus on the company’s recovery as he plots against Donald Trump.
Shares in the electric car firm plunged by more than 7% at the start of trading on Wall Street – taking about $71bn (£52bn) off its market value.
The stock has often come under pressure since Musk started his association with the president, latterly helping bring down federal government costs through a new department known as DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency).
But it is now suffering as their political relationship has soured.
Musk has publicly opposed the so-called “big, beautiful bill” – Mr Trump’s flagship tax cut and spending plans that received Congressional approval last week – since he left his DOGE role.
Musk wrote in a post on his X platform on 30 June: “It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”
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Once the bill was passed, he created a poll on X, asking people if they would want him to launch the America Party.
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1:32
Musk v Trump: ‘The Big, Beautiful Breakup’
He wrote on 4 July: “Independence Day is the perfect time to ask if you want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system!”
The vote ended with 65.4% in favour of creating the party.
The formation of the America Party was announced the following day.
“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.”
“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom,” Musk posted.
Trump responded on his Truth Social account: “I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks.
“He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States – The System seems not designed for them.”
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Trump threatens to ‘put DOGE’ on Musk
Trump has previously threatened to go after Tesla‘s government subsidies and contracts through the DOGE department to save “big” as their relationship deteriorated.
Such threats have also pressured the share price at Tesla.
It has suffered throughout Trump 2.0 and, in fact, has trended lower since last December – shortly after Mr Trump’s election win was confirmed.
The possibility of tariff hits to the business, followed by actual tariff disruption, along with a consumer and investor backlash against Musk’s previous DOGE role have contributed to a 35% decline on the December peak.
The very absence of Tesla’s CEO dragged on the shares.
Tesla sales suffered globally as the trade war ramped up due to the imposition of tariffs by a government he supported, until the public row between him and the president began in early June.
Musk had only just renewed his 100% focus on Tesla and his other business interests by that time.
Tesla sales were down during the presidential election campaign last year and continued to decline, on a quarterly basis, during the first half of 2025.
Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, said of the company’s share price woes: “Investors are worried about two things – one is more Trump ire affecting subsidies and the other more importantly is a distracted Musk.
“Investors had cheered Musk stepping back from frontline politics but are now worried he’s going to sucked back in and take his eye off Tesla.”
Post Office scandal victims are calling for redress schemes to be taken away from the government completely, ahead of the public inquiry publishing its first findings.
Phase 1, which is due back on Tuesday, will report on the human impact of what happened as well as compensation schemes.
“Take (them) off the government completely,” says Jo Hamilton OBE, a high-profile campaigner and former sub-postmistress, who was convicted of stealing from her branch in 2008.
“It’s like the fox in charge of the hen house,” she adds, “because they were the only shareholders of Post Office“.
“So they’re in it up to their necks… So why should they be in charge of giving us financial redress?”
Image: Nearly a third of Ms Hamilton’s life has been dominated by the scandal
Jo and others are hoping Sir Wyn Williams, chairman of the public statutory inquiry, will make recommendations for an independent body to take control of redress schemes.
The inquiry has been examining the Post Office scandal which saw more than 700 people wrongfully convicted between 1999 and 2015.
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Sub-postmasters were forced to pay back false accounting shortfalls because of the faulty IT system, Horizon.
At the moment, the Department for Business and Trade administers most of the redress schemes including the Horizon Conviction Redress Scheme and the Group Litigation Order (GLO) Scheme.
The Post Office is still responsible for the Horizon Shortfall scheme.
Image: Lee Castleton OBE
Lee Castleton OBE, another victim of the scandal, was bankrupted in 2007 when he lost his case in the civil courts representing himself against the Post Office.
The civil judgment against him, however, still stands.
“It’s the oddest thing in the world to be an OBE, fighting for justice, while still having the original case standing against me,” he tells Sky News.
While he has received an interim payment he has not applied to a redress scheme.
“The GLO scheme – that’s there on the table for me to do,” he says, “but I know that they would use my original case, still standing against me, in any form of redress.
“So they would still tell me repeatedly that the court found me to be liable and therefore they only acted on the court’s outcome.”
He agrees with other victims who want the inquiry this week to recommend “taking the bad piece out” of redress schemes.
“The bad piece is the company – Post Office Limited,” he continues, “and the government – they need to be outside.
“When somebody goes to court, even if it’s a case against the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), when they go to court DBT do not decide what the outcome is.
“A judge decides, a third party decides, a right-minded individual a fair individual, that’s what needs to happen.”
Image: Pic: AP
Mr Castleton is also taking legal action against the Post Office and Fujitsu – the first individual victim to sue the organisations for compensation and “vindication” in court.
“I want to hear why it happened, to hear what I believe to be the truth, to hear what they believe to be the truth and let the judge decide.”
Neil Hudgell, a lawyer for victims, said he expects the first inquiry report this week may be “really rather damning” of the redress claim process describing “inconsistencies”, “bureaucracy” and “delays”.
“The over-lawyeringness of it,” he adds, “the minute analysis, micro-analysis of detail, the inability to give people fully the benefit of doubt.
“All those things I think are going to be part and parcel of what Sir Wynn says about compensation.
“And we would hope, not going to say expect because history’s not great, we would hope it’s a springboard to an acceleration, a meaningful acceleration of that process.”
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11:28
June: Post Office knew about faulty IT system
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said they were “grateful” for the inquiry’s work describing “the immeasurable suffering” victims endured.
Their statement continued: “This government has quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters to provide them with full and fair redress, with more than £1bn having now been paid to thousands of claimants.
“We will also continue to work with the Post Office, who have already written to over 24,000 postmasters, to ensure that everyone who may be eligible for redress is given the opportunity to apply for it.”
A British fintech which counts Standard Life among its key clients is close to finalising one of the industry’s biggest funding rounds so far this year.
Sky News understands that Hyperlayer, which is run by the former Morgan Stanley executive Rob Rooney, is lining up a major equity injection led by CDAM, a UK-based investment firm, and several new institutional investors.
City sources said this weekend that the new capital from CDAM and other backers could total at least £30m.
The funding round is expected to take place at a post-money valuation of about £160m.
Hyperlayer, which operates a consumer-facing digital wallet called Hyperjar, intends to use the new funding as growth capital to finance the development of new partnerships with global banks and asset managers.
The company provides smart account technology on existing client infrastructure, and is said to work with a number of the world’s 10 largest banks – although it has not publicly disclosed their identities.
Its work with Standard Life involves the future launch of a consumer money app aimed at people approaching or in early retirement.
Hyperlayer’s consumer-facing platform sees customers organise their money in what the company calls “digital jam jars”, enabling them to earn rewards which give them access to partner brands such as Asda, Morrisons and Starbucks.
IKEA and the John Lewis Partnership are among the other merchant partners with which Hyperlayer is working to develop distinctive loyalty-based initiatives for its financial institution clients.
Founded in 2006 by Adam Chamberlain and Scott Davies, CDAM has $1.5bn in assets under management and is an experienced investor in financial services technology.
Mr Davies has had a seat on Hyperlayer’s board for several years.
Mr Rooney, who was a prominent Wall Street executive for years, ultimately serving as Morgan Stanley’s technology operations, joined the company as CEO in 2023.
The new capital injection led by CDAM is understood to be subject to approval by Hyperlayer’s shareholders.