A startup with a Ukrainian co-founder raises $500k. They are making a social network for neighbors

Localhalo, a London-based startup, raised nearly $500,000 from angel investors. The team is working on a free social network for neighbors, which already has 5,000 users in two areas of London. Its founders are James Rutledge from Great Britain and Andrii Maryin from Ukraine.

Together, they decided to build a social network for neighbors. There you can get to know those who live in the neighborhood and join groups.

“This way it’s easier for neighbors to work towards common goals, whether they want to get better services from local managing company or to warn neighbors about the theft of parcels or other things. The neighbors immediately send each other pictures of the suspects and keep watch together. It’s the so-called ‘distributed electronic watchdog’ that knows everything about everyone,” Andrii explains.

Currently, their product is at the preseed stage, and they already have their first users. Programmers in Ukraine, London, and Kazakhstan are engaged in the development, but so far the application doesn’t generate income. The team plans to invest money raised from the angels in marketing and development.

In 2018, the team also participated in the Y Combinator Startup School program. In January 2019, they raised the first round of investments and began attracting users in one of the districts of London. The startup’s office is also located in London, but they are planning to open a representative office in Ukraine. According to Andrii, at this time the startup has an agreement with a British non-profit network boasting 2.8 million users according to which their product would be used by neighbors that are members of this organization.