Participated · Seed · Nov 2022

Aviant operates Kyte, an autonomous home-delivery service that drops groceries, ready meals and non-prescription medicines directly to doorsteps via long-range drones. Its aircraft can fly up to 120 km in a straight line, giving Kyte a much larger delivery radius (return flights up to ~30 km) than many competitors. Customers order through the Kyte app; drones are loaded at a home base, autonomously complete the delivery and return. Aviant is certified under EU regulations to operate autonomous flights and has completed over 2,500 autonomous flights covering more than 35,000 km; Kyte deliveries alone have covered over 4,000 km with an average delivery time of 24 minutes. The company has completed 12 commercial contracts in Norway and Sweden and was used during the pandemic to transport Covid-19 tests and blood samples between hospitals. Aviant has secured public funding and VC backing (including a €1M grant from Innovation Norway and a €2.3M seed) and plans to open a second Norwegian base to serve 20,000–30,000 remote holiday homes, with longer-term ambitions to expand across Norway and into EU markets. Aviant develops hybrid vertical-takeoff, forward-flight drones designed for autonomous delivery of biological samples and other lightweight cargo. The company began in 2020 at MIT and was founded by Herman Øie Kolden and Lars Erik Matsson Fagernæs. Its fleet has completed more than 2,000 flights covering over 25,000 km and the aircraft claim an extended range of up to 120 km. Aviant says its drones have been tested in winds up to 18 m/s and temperatures as low as -26°C and that customers benchmarked them against better-funded competitors. The company is positioning its technology as a faster, lower-emission logistics alternative and is focused on scaling operations. Aviant’s use cases have included transporting biological and blood samples, milk and water samples, and spare parts to wind turbines.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2022

Founded in 2014 by Eirik Rime and Axel Franck Næss, Tise operates a social marketplace app for second-hand items with integrated logistics and payment solutions. The platform includes features to like, chat, follow profiles, and add filters and text to listings. Tise positions itself as a sustainability-focused alternative to new purchases and emphasizes circular consumption. The app community comprises over 2.5 million registered users and about 150,000 daily users who spend an average of 17 minutes per day. Since its 2016 launch, more than 6.5 million items have been sold through the platform. The company says it will use new capital to strengthen its Nordic position and expand into new European markets. Tise is a second-hand marketplace and social network that targets Gen Z and Millennial consumers with a sustainability-focused platform for buying and selling pre-loved items. Founded in 2014 and launched in 2016, the platform has attracted over 2 million users and lists more than 7 million items. Tise uses community incentives including an in-app currency, “Tise Cash,” which users earn for posting items, gaining followers and likes, answering quizzes and other engagement, and can redeem with partners such as Viaplay and Voi. The company describes itself as a “marriage between Instagram and Craigslist” and aims to reduce fast-fashion waste by extending item lifecycles. Tise raised $11 million in a round led by Voi and VNV Global, bringing total funding to $25 million to date. The new capital is intended to shore up its Nordic market position while funding expansion into Germany, France and the U.K., as it faces competition from players like Vinted and Depop/Etsy.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2021

OnBuy.com is a Bournemouth, UK-based online marketplace led by Cas Paton that operates a ‘level playing field’ platform and does not compete with its retailers. The platform has attracted more than 7,000 retailers and hosts over 36 million products across categories including electricals, beauty, home and garden, toys, and baby supplies. In four years the company reached £155M annualised GMV and had only £8M in total investment prior to this round. OnBuy intends to use the funds to expand its leadership team, further develop its product offering for sellers and consumers, and pursue global expansion. The company has a 12–24 month roadmap that includes development of a consumer app, improvements to product infrastructure, and the launch of new partnerships. A fully funded £2M allocation was set aside for existing retailers currently using the platform. OnBuy operates an online marketplace that provides businesses with a transparent platform to list and sell products to shoppers. The company has positioned itself as a competitive alternative to large incumbents and has attracted major brands such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Kimberly‑Clark. After a 1100% sales increase in the past year, OnBuy reports over eight million customers, more than 25 million products, monthly visitors trending above four million, and over 400 retailers joining each month. To support rapid growth it has tripled its workforce to over 50 full‑time staff. OnBuy is executing an aggressive international expansion plan into 140 new territories, including the US, Germany, France, Spain and the UAE, and is set to launch globally this summer. The company launched in November 2016 and says the new funding will bolster its operational capacity and globalisation strategy.