A startup with a Ukrainian cofounder raised $ 500,000.

 Localhalo, a London-based startup, raised about $ 500,000 from angel investors. The team is working on a free social network for neighbors, it already has about 5,000 users in two areas of London. Its founders are the British James Rutledge and the Ukrainian Andrey Maryin.

Together, they decided to build a social network for neighbors. Here you can get acquainted with those who live in the neighborhood, join in groups.

    “So it’s easier for neighbors to achieve common goals, whether they be better served by the local ZhEK or warning neighbors about the theft of parcels or other things. The neighbors immediately send each other pictures of the suspects and watch out together. Such a “distributed electronic granny” at the entrance, ”Andrei explains.

Now their product is at the preseed stage, there are first users, programmers in Ukraine, London and Kazakhstan are working on the development, but so far the application does not generate income. The team plans to invest money raised from the angels for marketing and development.

In 2018, the team also managed to participate in the Y Combinator Startup School program, in January 2019, it raised the first round of investments and began to attract users in one of the districts of London. The startup’s office is located there, but the startup is planning to open a representative office in Ukraine. According to Andrei, now the startup has an agreement with the British non-profit network Neighborhood Watch UK with 2.8 million users that their neighbors in this organization should use their product.