Participated · Series C · Jun 2023

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.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2021

Collectiv Food operates a managed marketplace that directly sources products from producers and delivers them to restaurants, hotels, catering firms, meal-kit companies and dark kitchens. The platform removes the wholesaler middleman to offer better prices, fresher products, transparency and traceability. Collectiv says its model and multiple city distribution points generate 50% less CO2 emissions versus traditional supply methods. Customers named in the article include Big Mamma Group, The Hush Collection, Dirty Bones and others. Launched in 2019, the company currently operates in the U.K. and France. Founder Jeremy Hibbert-Garibaldi has stated the company aims to become a European — and potentially global — leader in food distribution over the next few years.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2019

HypeLabs develops the Hype SDK, a software-only mesh networking solution that connects devices into local networks which can securely hop content between devices until it reaches a destination or an internet exit point. The SDK is cross-platform and works across existing connectivity technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi‑Fi and LoRa, and can be implemented at the application layer without specific hardware. HypeLabs positions the product for mobile, desktop and IoT use cases and highlights applicability in decentralised, IoT-based energy systems and smart-home scenarios. The company says the technology enables networks that self-configure, self-heal, self-optimise and self-protect to improve range and deliverability. HypeLabs will use new funding to strengthen its team and support international growth, with a particular commercial focus on the energy-utility market. The company frames its mission around expanding affordable, reliable and interoperable connectivity as an enabler of opportunity.

Led · Seed · Nov 2018

Fenton & Co., founded in early 2018 and based in London, designs bespoke engagement and occasion rings built around precious gemstones such as sapphires, rubies, emeralds and aquamarines. The company launched with a suite of five classic styles that customers can tailor to more than 5,000 configurations to suit individual tastes. Materials are sourced directly by the team, offering full supply-chain transparency and working with local suppliers and dealers. Stones are obtained from mines in conflict-free zones and the metals used for engagement rings are procured from recycled sources. Fenton & Co. maintains boots-on-the-ground support in India where its factories are based, selecting partners with progressive working conditions, equal pay and shared promotion opportunities. The company raised £850K in seed funding.

Participated · Seed · Jan 2017

Crowdsurfer is a Cambridge, UK-based crowd finance data intelligence company. It recently raised over £1m in funding from backers including Mustard Seed, Peter Sands, Mike Rees, Brendan Bradley and William Tunstall-Pedoe. The company will use the funds to continue to expand operations. Led by Chief Operating Officer Emmi Nicholl and Chairman Richard Baker, Crowdsurfer recently launched its machine intelligence application, Daisy. Using big data engineering and machine learning, Daisy maps, augments and interprets information provided by hundreds of crowd finance platforms spanning equity, debt (P2P), rewards, donations and other forms of crowd-based financial transactions. The company intends to apply the investment to grow its operations and further develop its data and machine intelligence capabilities.