Participated · Equity · Jan 2024

Xampla develops Morro materials — natural polymers made from regenerative plant proteins that are fully plastic-free, biodegradable and home-compostable. Morro Coating preserves cardboard recyclability while providing grease, oxygen and moisture barriers, and Morro films are soluble, food-safe and are being commercialised globally as replacements for PVA films in dishwasher tablets and laundry pods. The company has commercial partnerships with packaging firms including 2M Group of Companies, Huhtamaki and Transcend Packaging and has replaced plastic coatings for customers such as Just Eat Takeaway and Bunzl Catering Supplies. With a $14 million Series A, Xampla plans to expand into Asia Pacific while growing its UK and European operations. The funding will support scaling of production and commercialization to target replacing over ten billion pieces of the most harmful single-use plastics within five years. Investors in the round include Emerald Technology Ventures, BGF, Matterwave Ventures and follow-on support from existing backers Amadeus Capital Partners and Horizons Ventures. Xampla develops Morro, a range of fully biodegradable, home‑compostable and food‑safe plant‑based materials with high strength and grease and oxygen barrier properties. The technology is backed by 15 years of University of Cambridge research and is already used by brands such as Britvic, ELEMIS and Gousto. Xampla supplies Morro products including edible and soluble films and a Morro Nutri product for fortifying and stabilising vitamins and nutrients in food and drink. The company plans to expand the consumer Morro brand into new markets and to advance production of its biodegradable materials to support big brands in moving away from single‑use plastic. In collaboration with partners, Xampla will work to optimise operational efficiency and drive down the cost of sustainable materials while maintaining quality standards. The company is led by CEO Alexandra French. Xampla is a University of Cambridge spin-out that after 15 years of research has developed what it calls the world’s first plant protein material for commercial use. Its Supramolecular Engineered Protein uses pea protein to form microscopic capsules that protect vitamins in liquid products from sunlight, enabling vitamin-fortified drinks in clear bottles. The material is described as performing like synthetic polymers while decomposing naturally and fully, and Xampla is the first UK university spin-out to be awarded B Corp status. The company has secured a £1m grant from Innovate UK to scale up its technology and material processing and has entered a separate £1m packaging innovation partnership with Britvic to pilot beverage applications. Xampla previously launched an edible film with meal-kit maker Gousto in a trial that sold out within an hour, showing early commercial traction. The company positions itself as a partner to help businesses solve packaging and nutrient-delivery challenges while supporting sustainability goals. Xampla produces plant-protein-based materials intended to replace microplastics and single-use plastics. The company is commercialising next-generation plastic replacements and plans to accelerate roll-out of its alternatives. Financially, Xampla has just closed a €6.8 million seed finance round to support growth, following a €2.2 million round announced in April last year. The business is a University of Cambridge spin-out and emphasizes commercial traction and scalability to address plastic pollution. Xampla is the first UK university spin-out to achieve B Corp accreditation, and the team highlights strong technical and commercial progress. The company is chaired by Jeff Seabright and is backed by investors focused on deeptech and impact. Xampla is a Cambridge-born deep tech startup that has developed a plant protein-based material intended as an alternative to synthetic polymer microcapsules used in home and personal care products. The company says its protein material decomposes more quickly and completely than existing polysaccharide-based alternatives and that its fabrication process mimics natural processes. Xampla holds two patents for the material and has a third patent in development. The startup is targeting the roughly $12 billion global microencapsulation market initially, with plans to turn its prototype material into products such as films, gels and capsules and eventually move beyond the microcapsule market. The company positions its mission around reducing the impact of single-use plastic and helping manufacturers transition to high-performance, natural alternatives.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2024

Pier builds developer-facing APIs described as a “Stripe for credit” that automate the entire credit lifecycle from origination through servicing. Developers can add Pier’s APIs with a few lines of code to save months of engineering effort and significant costs, according to CEO Jessica Zhang. The company launched in 2023 and operates a SaaS pricing model with a monthly minimum plus usage fees tied to loan volume, use case and number of inquiries. Use cases cited include credit builders, BNPL for weddings and clean energy, salary advance loans, merchant advance and portfolio lines of credit. Zhang declined to disclose user counts or revenue growth but said Pier has more than a few years of runway. The company plans to invest the new capital into product development and building a team.

Participated · Series B · Sep 2023

Kneron designs low-powered, reconfigurable ASICs for AI inferencing that interface with existing systems such as sensors on driverless vehicles. Its chips run models ranging from face and body detection to text generation and are positioned for latency-, security- and cost-sensitive edge applications. The company emphasizes automotive and other autonomous-machine markets while avoiding direct competition with dominant cloud incumbents in the short term. Kneron plans to scale commercial efforts and expand its R&D-heavy headcount. Revenue is in the "double digit millions," and the company serves roughly 30 brands including Garmin, Naver and Quanta. Through its April acquisition of imaging provider Otus, Kneron has automotive partnerships including JVC Kenwood. Kneron develops full-stack hardware and software products aimed at edge AI applications, with reconfigurable solutions designed to address latency, security and cost challenges on edge devices. The company says its technology enables broader deployment of AI across devices. Over the past year Kneron reported significant new customer wins across multiple verticals including smart vehicles, smart homes and smart cities. Named customers in the article include Garmin, Dessmann, Gree, OFILM, AAEON, Advantech and Quanta. Led by CEO Albert Liu, Kneron intends to use the funding to expand operations and broaden its business reach. The company raised $48M in a Series B funding round. Kneron is an AI chipmaker founded in 2015 that develops reconfigurable edge AI semiconductors for devices including ADAS and autonomous-vehicle systems. The company is based in San Diego and Taipei and has released its first automotive-grade chips for ADAS and AV applications. Kneron reports $3–4 million in monthly revenue from about 30 enterprise customers, with 30–40% of revenues coming from the U.S. It is pushing into smart transportation and roadside AI, arguing that L4/L5 autonomy requires roadside perception units, and plans joint development of roadside AI boxes with strategic partners. Its chips are described as 'reconfigurable', combining software flexibility with hardware speed and usable both inside vehicles and on exterior sensors. Kneron has formed partnerships and made acquisitions (including buying Vatics from Vivotek) and counts strategic investors such as Foxconn, Horizon Ventures, Alibaba, Qualcomm and Sequoia. The founder previously said the company expected to turn profitable in 2023 and has discussed a likely U.S. IPO, though management was later more circumspect about listing timing. Kneron develops low-power edge AI semiconductors and proprietary software that enable on-device data processing using neural processing units (NPUs), reducing reliance on cloud compute. Its chips target applications including manufacturing, smart homes, smartphones, robotics, surveillance, payments and autonomous driving. The company is extending into the smart car industry and has partnerships with Foxconn and Otus (a supplier for Honda and Toyota). Kneron agreed to acquire Vatics, an image signal processing provider from Delta Electronics’ Vivotek subsidiary, for $10 million in cash; Vatics executives will join Kneron to lead its surveillance and security camera division. The acquisition and NPUs are intended to let Kneron offer full-stack AI solutions and accelerate go-to-market for surveillance and automotive products. Kneron is headquartered in San Diego with a development force in Taipei. The company has attracted strategic investors including Foxconn, Qualcomm, Sequoia Capital, Alibaba and Horizons Ventures and recently received a $7 million investment from Delta Electronics, boosting total financing to over $100 million to date. Kneron develops AI chips aimed at "smart" consumer devices and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones). The article identifies the company primarily by its hardware product line but provides no technical details about the chips. It reports a planned investment by MTS of about $10 million into Kneron. The piece does not outline Kneron's roadmap, commercialization plans, or financial metrics. Reader comments included in the article expressed skepticism about the technology and sourcing, and noted a lack of technical information in the coverage.

Participated · Series A · Aug 2023

Chemify is a Glasgow-based deep-tech company that integrates artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, and a large vetted reaction library to design and synthesize novel molecules directly from digital code. Its core Chemputation platform enables closed-loop, automated structure–activity relationship exploration, allowing rapid generation of drug-like compounds with high potency. Current work focuses on partnering with drug discovery groups such as Lgenia to create small-molecule therapeutics for infectious diseases, notably tuberculosis. By turning chemistry into a programmable workflow, Chemify aims to shorten the time from concept to validated lead and to scale digital chemistry for medicines and advanced materials. The company was founded by chemist Lee Cronin and positions itself as a partner for pharmaceutical R&D teams seeking speed and reproducibility. Financially, Chemify has secured $3.2 million in non-dilutive grant funding from the Gates Foundation across two tranches, including a recent $1.6 million follow-on award, to advance its tuberculosis program.

Led · Seed · Feb 2023

Sandbox Banking builds Glyue, a low-code API-builder integration platform that connects core banking, loan origination and CRM systems to fintechs. The platform is designed to help banks and credit unions grow revenue and increase operational efficiency by simplifying fintech integrations. Glyue already powers teams at over 70 financial institutions across the US and Canada, including Bank Newport, Silicon Valley Bank, United Bank, Choice Financial, and Service Credit Union. The company is led by CEO Ravi Balasubramanian and is based in Cambridge, MA. Sandbox plans to use the new funding to accelerate hiring for new product development and to expand solution delivery capacity. Financial details in the article report the recent seed raise and total financing to date.