Participated · Equity · Dec 2025

Kraken Technologies was incubated within Octopus Energy and offers a cloud-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to streamline customer billing, smart-meter integration, and home-battery management for energy suppliers. The system currently serves 70 million customer accounts, illustrating substantial commercial adoption. Last month the business was valued at $8.65 billion after Octopus Energy sold a $1 billion stake to a syndicate of investors ahead of Kraken’s planned spin-out. Founder Greg Jackson has indicated there is “every chance” the company will pursue a public listing in the medium term, weighing venues in London and the United States. Post-spin, Kraken aims to accelerate growth as a standalone entity while maintaining its UK roots. The firm positions itself as critical infrastructure for modern energy retailers, promising lower operating costs and improved service quality through automation. Support from high-profile backers, including Octopus Ventures and the British Business Bank, bolsters Kraken’s balance sheet as it eyes further international expansion.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2024

Vestiaire Collective is a social-commerce platform founded in 2009 that curates and connects buyers and sellers of luxury pre-owned fashion, with an inventory of about 3 million items and offices in Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and a tech hub in Berlin. The company is a Certified B Corporation focused on promoting circular fashion and sustainability and launched a "Brand Approved" buy-back service in collaboration with Kering’s house Alexander McQueen. Over the past 12 months Vestiaire grew orders by more than 90% globally, 100% in the US (now its largest market), and 150% in Asia. It recently raised €178M in a fresh funding round that values the company at $1.7B (approx €1.44B). Proceeds will be used to accelerate strategic objectives including educating consumers and brands, improving proprietary technology and services, entering new markets and expanding existing ones, and promoting local transactions to lower carbon footprints. The company aims to become carbon neutral by 2026 and has initiatives such as a local-to-local shipping scheme, increasing direct shipping (now over 50% of orders) which has saved over 1,150 tonnes of CO2, and 100% reduced/recycled/recyclable "less is more" packaging. Vestiaire Collective operates an online marketplace for pre-owned luxury and fashion items. The company authenticates some items before they reach buyers and offers reimbursement for direct-shipping purchases that are wrong. Transaction volume doubled in 2020 versus 2019, and the platform receives about 140,000 new listings every week. It has been expanding rapidly in the U.S. and Asia, with local sellers in those regions selling more than 250% more items year‑over‑year as of January 2021. With the new funding, Vestiaire plans to develop brand partnerships for buy-back circular solutions, encourage selling alongside purchases, pursue B Corp certification and target carbon neutrality by 2026. The company also intends to hire 155 people in its technology team to support growth. Vestiaire Collective is a marketplace for pre-owned fashion where users buy and sell clothes and accessories. The platform has 9 million members across 90 countries and reports that 80% of transactions are cross-border. The company raised $64.2M (€59M) in its latest round and has raised more than €209M in total, per Crunchbase. Vestiaire has shifted from requiring sellers to send items to warehouses to enabling direct shipping from seller to buyer; direct shipping launched in Europe in September 2019 and now accounts for over 50% of orders there. The company will use the new capital to expand to more countries, with plans to enter South Korea and Japan this year. Vestiaire plans to introduce direct shipping in the U.S. in the summer and in Asia by the end of 2020. Vestiaire Collective operates a curated marketplace for luxury and premium pre-owned fashion with a catalogue of around 1,000,000 items that are checked for quality and authenticity once sold. The platform has over 8 million members across 50 countries and maintains offices in Paris, London, New York, Milan, Berlin and Hong Kong. Launched in Paris in October 2009, the company emphasizes sustainable fashion and peer-to-peer resale. Vestiaire positions technology and curation at the core of its product offering to ensure authenticity and quality control. The company reported strong Asian momentum, citing 140% GMV growth in Q2 2019. It plans to expand internationally and to accelerate hiring as part of its growth strategy. Vestiaire Collective is a French online marketplace for pre-owned fashion and accessories that emphasizes a premium, curated shopping experience by checking every item before listing. The company aims to turn local success into a global business, already leading in the U.K., Germany, Spain and Italy. France remains its largest market, accounting for 35% of sales. Vestiaire has an office in the U.S. and plans to grow sales there, with further expansion to Asia planned for 2017. The company is investing in logistics, including an upcoming facility in France to expand its inventory across Europe. To date it has raised significant capital to support this expansion and scale its operations.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2022

Gousto provides customers with all ingredients in the right proportions to cook meals at home, using organic, fresh and seasonal produce and chef-developed recipes. Customers choose recipes online from a weekly-updated selection. The founders, Timo Boldt and James Carter, started the company in 2012 out of a shared passion for cooking. In 2021 Gousto achieved B-Corp certification. Financially, the company has been raising large funding packages in recent periods to navigate economic uncertainty. Most recently it closed a £50M share sale from existing investors that will provide additional cash during a volatile period. Gousto operates a meal-kit delivery service that aims to help consumers eat healthily and affordably. The company emphasizes sustainability, saying it plays a role in reducing food waste and carbon emissions in the food supply chain. Gousto is a profitable B Corp unicorn founded by Timo Boldt in 2012 and is based in London. Management has framed the business as disrupting the traditional grocery channel for evening meals and targeting further growth. CEO Timo Boldt has said the company is embarking on its next stage of growth to become the UK’s most loved way to eat dinner. Financially, Gousto recently completed a large financing transaction following a prior $100 million financing in January 2022 that valued the company at $1.7 billion. Gousto is a London-based meal-kit company providing consumers with a steady stream of over 60 recipe-box kits delivered fresh to their doorsteps. The company is a certified B Corporation and emphasises convenience, health and sustainability. Gousto plans to launch an automated, AI-driven fulfilment centre near Birmingham and has four additional hubs on its roadmap. The new fulfilment capability is expected to increase overall capacity by 40%. Financially, the company completed a $150 million financing that gives it a $1.7 billion valuation and brings cumulative funds raised to $361.5 million since late September 2013. Management says the funds will be used in part to scale fulfilment and capitalise on accelerated grocery-market trends. Gousto is an online meal-kit manufacturer that delivers pre-portioned ingredients and weekly updated recipes to customers' doorsteps. The company uses proprietary algorithms to maximise pick speed, daily volumes and pick accuracy while minimising cost and food waste. Founded in 2012 by James Carter and Timo Boldt and based in London, Gousto scaled rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Revenues increased sixfold between 2016 and 2019, and H1 2020 revenue surpassed the £83M reported for the whole of 2019. Monthly meal deliveries doubled from 2.5m in January to 5m in June 2020, and the company has been profitable since Q4 2019. With new funding, Gousto plans to open three customer fulfilment centres, triple capacity, and create over 1,000 new jobs, with a second fulfilment centre in Lincolnshire scheduled to go live before the end of 2020. Gousto operates a subscription meal-kit service offering more than 50 weekly recipes and automated packing that enables customers to tailor orders. The company currently delivers about 4 million meals to 380,000 UK households each month and aims to cross 400 million meals delivered by 2025. Average price per meal, per person is £2.98. Gousto is investing in its AI recommendation engine and backend logistics technology and plans to build more capacity and expand next-day delivery. It reported rapid growth pre-COVID (forecasting 70% year-on-year) and has temporarily paused new customer sign-ups to prioritize existing demand. The business has 550 employees (100 in tech) and plans to grow headcount to 700 by 2022.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2021

GoTo Group combines ride-hailing (Gojek), e-commerce (Tokopedia) and GoTo Financial into a single ecosystem serving consumers and merchants across multiple verticals. The company is creating synergies across transport, e-commerce, food and grocery delivery, logistics and financial services to expand its market reach. GoTo says it generated more than 1.8 billion transactions in 2020 with gross transaction value exceeding $22 billion, which it says contributed to more than 2% of Indonesia’s GDP. The group plans to use recent funding proceeds to fuel growth and bolster customer service. GoTo is preparing for a dual listing in New York and Jakarta later this year. Media reports estimate the company’s valuation between $28.5 billion and $30 billion; the company declined to comment on valuation.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2021

Spiber develops Brewed Protein™ materials — lab-grown, plant-based fibers, resins, and films manufactured through proprietary microbial fermentation and DNA-level protein design. The company’s platform enables customized molecular engineering of nature-inspired protein polymers and targets apparel textiles as its primary focus. To date, 15 domestic and international brands have launched products using Spiber’s materials. Spiber completed a fundraising round totaling over JPY 10 billion to accelerate mass production and global sales and to strengthen its production system and R&D platform. Founded in September 2007 and based in Tsuruoka, Japan, the company positions Brewed Protein™ as a sustainable alternative to conventional animal-, plant-, and synthetic materials. Spiber emphasizes its role in advancing a circular economy and plans to expand collaborations with apparel brands and partners to meet expected demand. Spiber develops Brewed Protein™ materials using synthetic biology, polymer science and microbial fermentation that use agricultural feedstocks as primary raw materials. Its Brewed Protein polymers are engineered as substitutes for cashmere, wool, fur, leather, silk and other animal- and petroleum-based materials and—per Spiber’s preliminary LCA—offer reduced natural resource consumption and potential for lower GHG emissions versus cashmere production. The company emphasizes a vertically-integrated R&D approach that it says yields superior productivity and material features, positioning it to benefit from rising ESG demand. Spiber was slated to begin mass production at a plant in Rayong, Thailand within 2021 and is constructing a second mass-production facility with ADM in Iowa, USA, targeted to begin operating in 2023 at the earliest. Financially, Spiber completed a financing that resulted in a reported post-money valuation of approximately JPY 133 billion; the offering price was JPY 4,500 per share with 29,565,875 outstanding shares after the capital increase. Founded in September 2007 and based in Yamagata, Japan, Spiber aims to scale industrial production of protein materials for applications across apparel, automotive and other industries.