London-based startup Ably snags $7 million to power real-time messaging and data streaming at scale

London-based data streaming platform Ably has raised a $7 million Series A round from MMC Ventures, with support from Forward Partners. The B2B startup provides APIs and cloud infrastructure that allows companies to deliver real-time messages, such as transit updates or live scores, at scale. The technology delivers 100 billion messages per month, including HubSpot’s live chats and notifications and the city of Chicago’s public transportation updates. Software engineers Matthew O'Riordan and Dr. Paddy Byers founded the company in 2013, and after a period of research of development, launched the “infrastructure-as-a-service” product in 2016. In a press release, Ably claims business has grown 150 percent year on year. Now the UK startup has several enterprise-scale customers across industries such as SaaS, mobility and logistics, sports and media, IoT, e-commerce and e-learning.  O’Riordan, who is also Ably CEO, commented on the new investment: “This funding allows us to really ramp investment in the platform and build more features that we know developers need to further integrate into other event-driven platforms and support more open protocols.” MMC Ventures invested in part from its £52 million MMC Greater London Fund, launched in May 2019, which forms part of the Mayor of London’s initiative, the Greater London Investment Fund.