Participated · Series C · Jan 2023

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Oxford, Oxa builds a modular autonomy platform that combines software, hardware and fleet-management tools to retrofit and operate driverless vehicles in controlled industrial environments. The company focuses on “industrial mobile autonomy,” avoiding the complexity of open-road passenger applications in favor of repetitive, predictable driving tasks at ports, airports, warehouses and manufacturing facilities. Oxa’s system can convert a heavy-duty port truck to autonomous operation in less than a day, demonstrating rapid deployment capabilities for customers like DHL, BP and Vantec. By integrating its own sensors, compute stack and remote management software, the startup delivers a full-stack solution that can be adapted to multiple vehicle types. The new financing lifts Oxa’s total funding to more than $250 million, providing fresh capital to expand existing deployments and support upcoming commercial projects. Management intends to use the funds to scale with current partners and enter additional industrial sites globally, positioning the company for broader commercial rollout.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2021

Miles provides a universal rewards platform and mobile app that awards users ‘miles’ for travel across every mode of transportation, with higher rewards for alternative or more sustainable modes. Users can view miles earned per trip, participate in weekly and monthly activity challenges, redeem personalized rewards from a marketplace of more than 200 brands, or donate miles to charity. Reward partners include brands and services such as ButcherBox, Harry’s Razors, Home Chef, Noom, Thrive Market, and gift cards from Amazon, Starbucks, Target and Walmart. The platform also supports donations to charities including Doctors Without Borders, Feeding America and The Pride Foundation. To date, users have earned 12 billion miles, redeemed 7 million rewards and realized more than $50 million in savings. The company plans to use new funding to invest in R&D, expand its marketplace, and grow its team to accelerate growth and deliver value to partners and its user base. Miles operates a rewards app that tracks travel and physical activity and issues points redeemable with nearly 200 partner merchants. The core product incentivizes travel and greener modes of transport with multiplier bonuses (public transit 3x; biking, walking and jogging 10x) and temporary COVID-era bonuses (up to 20x for physical activity). The company has adapted its messaging during the pandemic to encourage staying home while driving redemptions with partner offers. Miles has a partnership with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority to reward public-transit riders and is already operating in North America and Japan. The startup says users have redeemed over 500,000 rewards and received more than $10 million in discounts. To date the company has raised roughly $7.4 million, and it recently secured a strategic investment from Liil Ventures to fund further expansion. Miles is a mobile app that tracks users' travel by foot, bike, car, rideshare, bus, train and plane, and awards reward miles on a sliding scale based on eco-friendliness. The app is available on iOS and gives new users 2,000 miles (enough for a $5 Starbucks, Target, or Whole Foods gift card) and features nearby and online merchant deals that can be redeemed with miles. Miles’ platform includes predictive AI to deliver hyper‑targeted offers based on location and past preferences. The team foresees selling aggregated traffic and usage data to city governments and working with municipalities to incentivize sustainable transportation; the Contra Costa Transportation Authority plans to offer rewards via the Miles platform and Seattle is evaluating it. The company raised $3 million from Porsche Digital, Scrum Ventures and others, with former TechCruncher Keith Teare assisting on the raise.

Led · Series A · Nov 2020

Mind Foundry, founded in 2016 as a spin-out from the University of Oxford’s Machine Learning Research Group, develops an AI platform aimed at helping insurers predict accidents and enable human prevention. The platform is designed to address the full insurance value chain rather than a single point solution, which the company and its strategic partner describe as a differentiator. Mind Foundry completed a proof-of-concept with Insure The Box, the UK subsidiary of ANDI, and that project’s success prompted plans to integrate the platform across the insurer’s businesses. The startup says the strategic partnership with Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance (ANDI) will accelerate ANDI’s digital transformation and help Mind Foundry gain a bigger foothold in insurance. The company’s co-founders are Professors Stephen Roberts and Michael Osborne. The article reports the company has now raised a total of $24.4 million to date.