Led · Equity · Nov 2020

Elmtronics supplies and installs electric vehicle charging stations for public sites, homes and businesses and has developed its own Hubsta software, which is installed on charging points to measure electricity use and manage accounts. The company was established in 2016 by former electricians Dan Martin and Anthony Piggott; Dan Martin serves as CEO. Elmtronics is headquartered in Consett and also has offices in Bristol, Manchester and London. Its clients include Nike, the NHS, National Grid, FedEx, Taylor Wimpey and several city councils. The company plans to step up the roll-out of charging points across the UK and will use new funding to further enhance its software. The raise is expected to support rapid hiring, with 19 new jobs planned in the next three months, almost doubling the workforce.

Led · Series A · Jan 2020

3D Repo is a London-based provider of cloud-based design collaboration for Building Information Modelling (BIM). Led by Founder and CEO Dr Jozef Dobos, the platform lets users manage 3D model revisions and use live collaboration tools so the whole project team can work from a single source anywhere and at any time. It includes patent-pending technology—3D Diff Change Detection—that compares actual geometry across models from different sources to identify real-time changes rather than relying on software-specific object IDs. 3D Diff Clash Detection automatically highlights intersections and potential conflicts between different types of models, helping to flag safety issues and clashes. The company’s technology has been deployed on construction projects with firms such as Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bryden Wood, BuroHappold, Canary Wharf Contractors, and Crossrail. 3D Repo raised £2.3M in Series A funding and intends to use the proceeds to expand operations and broaden its business reach.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2019

Winnow develops AI-enabled systems that recognise and record food waste at the point it is thrown away, capturing 100% of the waste stream and delivering analytics to identify where wastage occurs. Its tools enable kitchens to optimise operations, change behaviour, and reduce waste; customers average a 50% reduction in food waste and 2–8% cost savings. Winnow is deployed across more than 2,000 sites in over 70 countries and counts major hospitality brands among its users. The company is headquartered in London with offices in Singapore, Chicago, Dubai, and Cluj-Napoca, and is a Certified B Corporation. Winnow plans to expand further into Asia (notably Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia) and to continue enhancing its AI capabilities to bring greater profitability and sustainability to commercial kitchens. Winnow builds computer-vision and AI tools that identify wasted food items in real time and provide analytics to help kitchen teams pinpoint waste sources. Its solution is designed for the hospitality sector, where the company estimates more than $100 billion of food is wasted annually. Winnow says its analytics have helped clients cut waste in half by enabling operational improvements. The company reports its solutions have saved $174 million and reduced 217,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions worldwide, equivalent to nearly 50,000 cars off the road for a year. Winnow plans to use new funding to further develop and expand its AI capabilities and increase impact across its customer base. The product-focused approach pairs automated detection with actionable insights for operators to reduce costs and emissions. Winnow develops smart kitchen technology, notably its Winnow Vision product, which uses computer vision to automatically track discarded food. The company says Winnow Vision has reached and surpassed human levels of accuracy in identifying food waste. Winnow serves commercial hospitality clients including Ikea and the Armani Hotel in Dubai and aims to enable better inventory decisions by automatically capturing discard data. The startup reports that kitchens using its system typically see a 40–70% reduction in food waste within 6–12 months, driving food-cost savings of 2–8%. Financially, Winnow recently raised $12M in a Series B and secured an $8M loan from the European Investment Bank, adding $20M of capital in the last month. It plans to use the new funds to improve its technology and double down on product development, including hiring QA engineers and front-end developers, while noting its main costs are hardware and service delivery for each deployed unit. Winnow develops the Winnow Waste Monitor, a system of smart scales and a tablet app that lets kitchen staff log discarded food; data are uploaded to the cloud, analysed by Winnow’s algorithm, and shared to reduce waste. Launched in May 2013 and led by founder and CEO Marc Zornes, the company serves more than 600 commercial kitchens including IKEA, Compass Group and AccorHotels. Winnow says its customers collectively save about 4,300 tonnes of food waste annually and that customers typically cut food waste in half within 12 months, reducing food purchasing costs by 3–8%. To support this growth the company disclosed a further $7.4M in funding. The product targets both environmental impact and margin improvement for thin-margin hospitality operators by turning waste data into actionable insights. Winnow offers a set of smart scales that sit under kitchen bins and a tablet app that lets staff log discarded food; that data is uploaded to the cloud and analyzed by Winnow’s algorithm. The system delivers daily reports to chefs highlighting top areas of waste by value so they can adjust operations and reduce costs. Winnow says clients typically see a 30–60% uplift in food profitability by cutting food waste. The company launched in May 2013 and is London-based, and it reports working with over 200 kitchens, including Compass Group, Accor Hotels and River Cottage Canteens. Winnow recently opened an office in Singapore to serve the Asia–Pacific market. It raised a $3.3M Series A to further develop the product and support global expansion.

Led · Equity · Apr 2015

Dingo offers a mobile-first fan-to-fan ticketing app for iOS that prohibits listings above the original ticket price and charges a 10% commission, undercutting typical aftermarket fees. The app uses an escrow model that holds buyer funds until 48 hours after the event and guarantees refunds if tickets don’t arrive, aiming to reduce fraud and no-shows. Listings are social and fast (login via Facebook or Twitter; listing in under 30 seconds) and payments are designed for simple mobile use. The company positions itself against established aftermarket platforms and classified sites by focusing on fair pricing and safety. Dingo is currently available only in London and is run by a four-person team based in the Silicon Roundabout area. The startup is in early stages and is funded to the tune of £150,000 from the venture arm of Ingenious Media.

Led · Seed · Oct 2014

Woto is a publishing platform that enables users to create standalone pages from scratch with full access to HTML and website-building tools. The product targets social sharers who want more than short social posts but less than a full blog or site. Users can display content freely and add multiple components to shape pages however they choose. The platform launched earlier the same year and is currently in beta. Woto's founders, Ian Collins and Ekin Caglar, describe the product as a new ’fifth wave’ of social publishing to address stagnation in social sharing. The company raised funding to support its public launch, product improvements, and customer acquisition.