Powa Technologies
Fintech/paymentsUK
New to Unitard
💀 Dead / Bankrupt
Peak $2.7 BillionToday
~-100%
from peak
- 🦄Became a unicorn2013
- 📈Peak valuation$2.7 Billion ’15
- 💔Became a UnitardFeb 2016
- 💸Last valuationWiped out
🔥 Raised & burned
$200M
Total raised
$63.5K/day
Burned · 8.6y alive
Funding: Computing/City AM
Current status
Administration (Feb 2016)
The rise & fall
6 moments · 2007–2016The key moments.
2007
2007
Founded by Dan Wagner
The serial London entrepreneur sets out to build a mobile-commerce empire.
Wikipedia
2013
2013
A monster round mints a unicorn
Wellington Management leads a ~$76M investment, billed as one of the biggest first rounds a tech startup had ever raised.
FT
2015
2015
The peak: a claimed $2.7B$2.7B
Wagner promotes PowaTag — scan an ad, buy instantly — and claims a valuation of about $2.7B.
FT
2015
2015
Burning cash in the Heron Tower
Lavish offices and heavy spending against thin revenue drain the ~$200M raised, while many of the trumpeted brand 'deals' are only non-binding letters of intent.
FT
Feb 2016
Feb 2016
Administration — joins the Unitard Club 💔
The cash runs out and administrators are called in; the $2.7B claim meets reality.
FT
2016
2016
Sold for scraps
The assets fetch a fraction of the $200M+ investors put in.
FT
$2.7Bof peak value erased · 9 years
How it happened
Powa Technologies, led by Dan Wagner, promoted its PowaTag mobile-payments product and claimed a valuation around $2.7B. Heavy spending against thin revenue drained its cash, and the company collapsed into administration in February 2016. Assets were sold off for a fraction of the capital raised.
Source: FT; mobile commerce (PowaTag)
Where they went
- Dan WagnerFounder & CEOFounder, CEO & Chairman at Rezolve Ai
Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-21. See our methodology.
