• Quantrol Ox

  Led · Seed · Feb 2022

  QuantrolOx develops machine-learning control software that tunes, stabilizes and optimizes qubits significantly faster than manual methods. Its technology is technology-agnostic but the company is initially focused on solid-state qubits, leveraging access to systems through a close partnership with a lab in Finland. QuantrolOx spun out of Oxford University last year and was co-founded by Andrew Briggs, Vishal Chatrath, Natalia Ares and Dominic Lennon. The team currently has seven full-time employees and plans to hire about 10 more in the near future, though the CEO does not expect headcount to grow much beyond that over the next two years. The company says many quantum builders are already approaching it for its control software and it is pursuing deep partnerships that require access to physical machines and source code. QuantrolOx positions itself as a niche, “picks-and-shovels” provider for the quantum ecosystem rather than a full‑stack vendor.

• uLesson

  Participated · Series B · Dec 2021

  uLesson began by distributing pre-recorded K-12 video lessons via SD cards and dongles and has expanded into a streaming app with quizzes, homework help connecting students to tutors, one-to-many live classes and one-to-one tutoring experiments. The platform records strong engagement: students spend an average of 57 minutes on the app, the app has 2 million downloads, 12.3 million videos watched and 25.6 million questions answered. Paying users grew 600% year-over-year, monthly average users rose 700% and average daily users surged 430%; live-lesson demand has grown 222% since its September launch. Nigeria is the core market (≈85% of paying users), though the company markets actively in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Ghana and has users in several other countries via word of mouth. uLesson sells monthly subscriptions (₦7,500 ≈ $18) and a two-year device+plan bundle (₦137,000 ≈ $334) and uses 180 field sales agents; roughly 50% of learners access lessons on parents’ phones. The company has rolled out offline centers for awareness and sign-ups and plans to integrate its DevKids coding offering into the main platform and broaden content into social sciences, financial accounting and additional primary-level reasoning topics. uLesson distributes curriculum using SD cards as a low-bandwidth delivery method and through a mobile app, positioning itself as a supplementary education tool. The service charges an annual fee of $50 and the app has been downloaded more than 1 million times. The company reported 70% month-over-month growth as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated device adoption across homes in Africa. uLesson is experimenting with live tutoring features and tested a question-asking feature during pre-recorded lessons that generated more than 3,000 questions per day before the test was paused due to demand. The founder said the company aims to go online entirely by Q2 this year and evolve from an offline, asynchronous product to a live, online platform. uLesson is conducting a study with the University of Georgia to track mastery and outcomes. uLesson, founded in 2019 by Sim Shagaya and headquartered in Lagos with a production studio in Jos, builds an app-based home education kit for secondary-school students. Its product pack includes a dongle, SD card, and headphones to connect to Android devices, combining streaming with offline SD-card delivery to minimize data costs. The curriculum covers math, physics, chemistry, and biology and the team has produced about 3,000 animated videos plus practice tests and tailored assessments. The service is sold as an up-front yearly subscription around $70 with a pay-as-you-go option and incorporates a network of counselors to guide usage and lesson plans. uLesson positions itself as a supplement to secondary education and a more affordable alternative to private tutors, targeting Anglophone West Africa (an addressable market the founder estimated at ~300 million people). The company planned a February 2020 go-to-market in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Gambia and intends to adapt the product for East Africa after regional rollout. The startup raised a $3.1M seed round and is led by founder Sim Shagaya, who has reinvested some proceeds from prior exits into the business.

• NoTraffic

  Led · Series A · Jul 2021

  NoTraffic develops an AI-powered mobility platform that connects and optimizes traffic signals as a cloud-based digital grid to improve efficiency, sustainability, and safety. The company operates a proactive Operations Center offering 24/7 monitoring, remote diagnostics, and over-the-air updates to support agency teams and deployments. Its platform has been adopted by traffic agencies across more than 40 U.S. states and Canada, including deployments in Houston, Phoenix, and Oklahoma. The company is led by CEO Tal Kreisler and is based in Overland Park, KS. Financially, NoTraffic recently completed a $90M Series C to fund expansion of operations and further product development.

• Placense

  Participated · Equity · Mar 2021

  Placense is an Israeli-founded location intelligence provider that uses machine learning and anonymisation to gather location-based data for retail and real estate decision-making. Its technology helps retailers assess market demand and the company says it can cut data-collection costs by around two-thirds versus surveys, cameras and sensors. Placense emphasizes data privacy and GDPR-compliant collection and management, with data handled by Placense and associated partners. The company has appointed Germany's Fachverband Aussenwerbung e.V. as location intelligence data experts to support retailers. CEO Dan Gildoni says the product enables faster, more informed decision-making for occupiers, asset managers, developers and brokers. Placense recently received external funding to support scaling and expansion across Europe.

• ciValue

  Led · Series A · Oct 2018

  ciValue provides cloud precision marketing and supplier advertising platforms for retailers, delivered as a SaaS marketing collaboration product. It leverages data science and proprietary algorithms to enable FMCG retailers to create targeted, segmented and personalized offers within hours. The company was founded in 2014 by Beni Basel and Gilad Cohen and has offices in New York, Paris, and Tel Aviv. ciValue sells to retailers and suppliers in the FMCG channel via its SaaS product. The company raised a Series A to scale its operations and accelerate international growth. The article does not disclose revenue or user metrics. Civalue provides cloud-based customer insight and personalization software for grocery, health and beauty retailers. Its solution uses advanced data‑science algorithms to glean customer insights from vast amounts of purchase data. The platform is used by FMCG retailers and CPG manufacturers. Civalue is led by CEO and founder Beni Basel, a pioneer in algorithm‑based recommendations. Basel previously founded Ingeneo, a personalization and real‑time recommendation company that was sold to SAP in 2007, after which he served as Global VP of CRM Advanced Solutions Management at SAP. In March 2016 the company raised $2.4M in seed funding from backers including Nielsen Innovate, Mac Fund, Deutsche Telekom and others.

No current team members are available.