Episode 1
112-116 New Oxford Street, London, England, WC1A 1HH, United Kingdom
Overview
Episode1 Ventures is a London based venture capital fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in the UK. It was created with a mixture of public and private money, including backing from a number of entrepreneurs including Alex Chesterman of Zoopla Property Group. It is one of the UK Government's Enterprise Capital Funds – set up to support fund managers who invest in small, high-growth businesses. The £12.5 million of private investment was matched with £25 million of public money. Episode 1 Ventures invests in seed and Series A rounds of up to £2m in software-driven businesses with the potential to transform industries. They’ve been entrepreneurs theirselves so provide a frank and fast approach to investing and they like to play a very hands-on supportive role in growing the businesses they back. They look for entrepreneurs with relevant experience ambitious to change their sector. They like to see that they can hire world-class talent and delegate to them effectively, and that they really know the customers and understand the problem. They also like entrepreneurs that are data-driven. But above all they like people with passion and ambition, that can execute at speed and overcome significant hurdles along the way. They are building a portfolio of companies that are using software technology to disrupt their chosen marketplaces. It is a diverse group across a range of industries, but with two common themes – a great founder and a big market. They also like to invest once a company has launched their product and has some clients they can reference. Revenues are usually from zero to £50k per month when they first invest. They like to play an active role in helping the companies that they invest in, at least until their companies have secured one or more later financing rounds. They want to help entrepreneurs turn their early stage ventures into fast growing companies built to grow into significant and valuable entities. They see every investment as a partnership. Indeed, they share their office with a number of portfolio companies so they work very closely with them.
- Total investments
- 88
- Lead investments
- 35
- Investments · 12mo
- 10
- Active investors
- 9
Sector focus
- Enterprise Software
- Finance
- Financial Services
- Venture Capital
Investment portfolio
- Ossprey Security
Led · Seed · Jul 2026
Ossprey Security develops cybersecurity technology aimed at helping organisations build safely at AI speed. The company is based in London. Following an oversubscribed pre-seed raise of $2.65 million, Ossprey plans to accelerate product development and grow its engineering and commercial teams. It also intends to expand its reach internationally using the new capital. The article does not disclose revenue, user metrics, or a company valuation. The funding round was led by Episode 1 Ventures with participation from Osney Capital and Octopus Ventures.
- Ossprey
Led · Seed · Jul 2026
Ossprey builds a platform that continuously scans open-source packages for malware and malicious code before those components reach production environments. The technology is designed to enable development teams to secure software without slowing engineering workflows. The company was founded by Nate Dunning and David Read in response to increasing supply chain attacks and the faster pace of development driven by AI coding assistants. Ossprey highlights that around 90% of enterprise software relies on open-source components and that attackers increasingly embed malicious code within trusted packages. The startup targets enterprise organisations building software at scale and plans to expand across the UK, Europe and North America while preparing for a larger funding round.
- Record OS
Led · Seed · Jun 2026
Record OS offers a platform that links users’ financial data, uses AI to sort income, identify allowable expenses, and flag issues, and then requires a qualified tax professional to review every return before submission. The company was co-founded by Dhruv Chadha and José Luis De La Peña, who are former operators at Wise; Chadha has also worked as a CFO at Google, Wise, and Nansen. It started by building software for accounting firms but shifted to a direct-to-consumer model after finding that individual taxpayers face similar errors and confusion. Record OS charges £125 for a standard filing with professional sign-off and operates with a six-person pre-seed team. The startup aims to scale as the UK’s Making Tax Digital rules expand, increasing the number of people required to file quarterly digital updates over the next few years. The recent $2M pre-seed round led by Episode 1 and backed by angels from Wise, Revolut, Deliveroo, and Alphabet will fund product development and customer acquisition as the company prepares for broader market adoption.
- Poindexter Labs
Led · Seed · Jun 2026
Poindexter Labs focuses on producing high-quality, expert-level training data for advanced AI models using collaborative workflows and peer review. Its proprietary platform, currently in beta, supports both in-house data production services and allows organisations to run collaborative workflows to generate and validate datasets. The company targets domain-specific, complex-reasoning tasks across fields such as mathematics, science, law, medicine, finance, and engineering. Poindexter highlights that many existing annotation workflows prioritise scale over collaborative knowledge creation, and it positions its methods as more academic—emphasising transparency and peer review. It serves enterprise and public-sector organisations and is building deeper relationships with frontier AI labs. The company intends to use its seed funding to scale the team and broaden platform adoption.
- RevEng.AI
Participated · Series A · May 2026
RevEng.AI builds a binary-native verification layer and an AI model called BinNet that analyses software directly at the binary level to identify hidden vulnerabilities, backdoors, and suspicious functionality. The platform inspects compiled executables, firmware, and third-party applications without requiring access to source code. The company developed its model in collaboration with government cyber units and commercial security teams. RevEng.AI is positioning its technology for procurement and deployment checks, release comparisons, and integration into security and software delivery workflows. It reports early demand from enterprise and defence customers. Financially, the company recently raised $15 million in a Series A to support growth and deployment of its verification platform.