Bezos-backed UK startup sued over trade secret theft
The founder of UK startup Beacon Technologies has been accused of stealing trade secrets from a California-based logistics company while he served as a board member.
In its suit, filed on Tuesday, October 27, at the US District Court for the Central District of California, Vanguard Logistics Services claimed that Beacon founder Fraser Robinson had “deceptively used his positions of trust as a consultant, advisor, board member, and fiduciary to gain access to, and steal, Vanguard’s most valuable property”.
Robinson, who co-founded logistics and supply chain finance startup Beacon in 2018, had previously led Uber’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In June this year, Beacon raised more than $15 million in its Series A fundraising round, with investors including Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, and US venture capital firm 8VC.
Vanguard accused Robinson of conspiring with former Uber executive Dmitri Izmailov (who co-founded Beacon with him) to steal its plans, data, technology, and IP, and create a “copycat competitor”.
Some of the allegedly stolen information includes data on pricing, schedules, and pickup and delivery locations; pricing logic and algorithms; and prototypes, models, and plans.
According to the suit, Robinson “defrauded and preyed upon Vanguard,” taking what he could from its officers, employees, and networks and even misappropriated its colour scheme and website design from prototypes that were secret at the time.
Vanguard said it has suffered and continues to suffer “significant damages” and that it was also seeking injunctive relief against Robinson and Beacon.
A spokesperson for Beacon said: “We are surprised to hear that Vanguard have filed these proceedings. The papers have not yet been issued by the court and have not been served. What we have seen so far is an ill-thought out action which is entirely without merit and which has been brought in the wrong jurisdiction. Any claim will be robustly defended.”
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