Participated · Seed · Nov 2020

FuroSystems designs and manufactures premium electric bikes and scooters, including the folding Furo X, the Fuze e-scooter, and the new Aventa urban e-bike. The Furo X is a 15kg folding e-bike with a high-density removable lithium-ion battery providing a 55km range, Shimano gears, and hydraulic disc brakes. The Fuze scooter offers over 800W peak power (top speed limited to 15.5mph/25kph where required), double front and rear suspension, dual mechanical disc brakes, remote key lock and alarm, and reinforced 10" pneumatic wheels. The Aventa is built from aerospace-grade alloys, features hydraulic disc brakes, nine gears, a high-performance clutch, an integrated 504Wh battery, and weighs under 17kg; pricing starts at £1,399 with pre-orders available from FuroSystems.com. Founded in 2017 by engineers Eliott Wertheimer and Albert Nassar, the company plans to use new funding to accelerate growth and invest in R&D to develop next-generation products.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2020

BibliU combines proprietary digital technology with end-to-end campus retail operations to deliver course materials and campus store services through a vertically integrated model. The acquisition of Texas Book Company established BibliU Campus and launched its hybrid digital-and-retail approach in the U.S. The company serves over 170 colleges and universities globally and more than 100 institutional partners across 30 U.S. states. BibliU reported surpassing $100 million in annual revenue and compound annual growth exceeding 100% over the past two years. Key recent partnerships include a statewide system deal with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and expansion into North Carolina and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. BibliU plans to deploy the new capital toward inventory, platform development, and expanding operational capacity to support further partner growth.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2020

LettUs Grow, founded in 2015, develops a patent-pending, nozzle-free aeroponic system and an integrated farm-management software called Ostara to automate and optimise indoor farms. Their nozzle-free systems are easy to clean, fully automatable, run without pesticides and reportedly deliver an average 70% increase in growth rate versus hydroponics across multiple crops. Ostara collects plant data, oversees inputs and enables seed-to-sale traceability to improve operational efficiency. The company positions its technology as a step-change to help indoor farms scale and compete with traditional agriculture while addressing CO2 emissions, waste, ecosystem collapse and food security. LettUs Grow plans to build a second aeroponic research centre, scale existing technology, fulfil a growing sales pipeline and accelerate new product lines to market. The business is expanding into new markets and pursuing wider commercial deployment of its systems.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2019

We Are Digital delivers digital and financial training as a service to housing associations, councils, corporates and central government, using a UK-wide network of outreach tutors and delivery partners controlled from a Midlands head office. The company offers in-home and community-based personal training and has provided community investment support to over 100 clients, including national and regional programmes through a managing-agent model. Management says the business is growing at 100% per year and is positioning its services amid a broader social-housing shift to digitisation (the sector comprises roughly 2,000 providers and 4.6 million homes). Proceeds from the recent raise will be used to hire key staff and make technology upgrades to scale operations and impact. Leadership plans to scale further over the next six years and to expand impact in the UK and beyond. Early angels and investor Midven were exited as part of the transaction.

Led · Seed · Oct 2016

Switchee provides tens of thousands of high-tech devices and a two-way platform to over 130 social housing providers. Its hardware and platform help keep homes warm, safe and sustainable by identifying and preventing mould, lowering heating bills, and improving communications between residents and providers. The company is led by CEO Tom Robins and founder/executive director Adam Fudakowski. Switchee raised £5m in new funding announced in 2024, with backers including Octopus Ventures and existing investor AXA IM Alts. This follows a May 2023 £6.5m investment financing led by AXA IM Alts. The new investment will be used to accelerate growth and advance its Trusted Installer Network while continuing to serve housing providers. Switchee develops its own smart thermostat hardware paired with a cloud service and landlord dashboard specifically for large landlords in the social housing sector. The device includes temperature, light, motion, humidity and air pressure sensors to learn occupancy and a property’s thermal profile, and connects via 2G and WiFi. The system passively optimizes heating settings, which the company says can cut resident energy bills by up to 15 percent, and surfaces welfare and maintenance alerts such as mould risk, poor insulation and boiler performance. Switchee sells hardware to landlords (installed free to residents) and a SaaS dashboard that aggregates sensor data to enable pre-emptive maintenance and welfare interventions. After two years of commercial pilots and a national deployment last winter, Switchee says it is working with over 40 U.K. social landlords, including Flagship Group, The Guinness Partnership and Peabody, plus local authorities and councils. The team emphasizes data privacy and consent, saying it does not share raw occupancy data with landlords and uses derived features only for practical purposes like scheduling visits or detecting abandonment. Switchee is a London, United Kingdom-based cleantech startup that has developed a smart thermostat targeted at large social landlords. Its thermostat detects occupancy and turns heating off when a property is empty to save tenants money. The device also provides aggregated, remote data analytics for landlords to better manage large-scale residential portfolios. Led by co-founder and managing director Adam Fudakowski, the company raised £605k in seed funding. The round was co-led by Mustard Seed Ventures, ClearlySo and Ian Nolan, and supported by Wayra UK (part of Telefonica Open Future) through its acceleration programme and by property-tech fund Pi Labs. Switchee intends to use the funds to expand the reach of its smart thermostat technology.