• A&B Smart Materials

  Participated · Seed · Dec 2025

  A&B Smart Materials is an Oxford-based materials science startup engineering fully biodegradable superabsorbent polymers that can slot into existing manufacturing processes for products such as nappies, menstrual pads, and agricultural soil additives. Its technology modifies biopolymers derived from widely available, low-cost natural feedstocks to deliver absorbency performance comparable to synthetic SAPs while eliminating microplastic pollution. The company’s R&D focuses on balancing high absorbency, competitive cost, and industrial-scale validation so that large hygiene and agricultural players can adopt the material without retooling. Management sees a sizeable opportunity in a SAP market expected to reach about $17 billion by 2035 and aims to “completely replace” persistent fossil-based SAPs in high-volume single-use products. The fresh capital strengthens its runway to accelerate lab work, pilot production, and partnership development for commercial trials. To date, the company has raised £1.5 million in external funding, with no operating revenue disclosed yet.

• Serene

  Participated · Seed · Feb 2025

  Serene is a London-based provider of an AI-powered platform developing a consumer vulnerability engine. The platform combines AI with behavioural insights to detect distress early and deliver support to customers. Led by CEO and Founder Savannah Price, Serene provides this service to businesses. The company raised £930K in pre-seed funding to support growth. It intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts.

• Limula

  Participated · Seed · May 2024

  Limula builds a platform to automate and digitize ex vivo manipulation of cells to reduce the high costs and manual steps in cell and gene therapy manufacturing. The company aims to make therapies such as CAR T-cells more affordable by replacing highly skilled labour and sterile infrastructure–intensive processes. After an initial proof of concept, Limula is onboarding selected cell therapy developers to run pilots and has launched a program giving industry and academic partners early access ahead of commercial launch. The technology is intended to support transitions from pre-clinical evaluation to clinical trials and later commercial-scale manufacturing of clinical-grade cell products. Limula has signed partnerships with several research centres, including the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, to broaden application scope. The company will use the new funding to advance its software development and further roll out pilots. Limula develops an automated tool for scalable cell therapy manufacturing that integrates a bioreactor and centrifuge in a single device to enable "one-patient – one batch" personalized treatments with minimal human intervention. The technology aims to reduce the high cost of current cell therapies and help broaden access to these treatments. Limula was the grand prize winner of the BioTools Innovator 2023 Final and received a $250,000 non-dilutive award. The company participated in the BioTools Innovator accelerator, receiving individualized mentorship and industry feedback. Limula’s CEO said the program helped bridge the knowledge gap between Switzerland and the U.S. and aided in building the company’s value proposition and business strategy. Limula has developed a technology platform that automates cell therapy manufacturing in a single, compact instrument, encapsulating all process steps to reduce devices and manual interventions. The platform is intended to enable decentralised production directly in hospitals to lower costs and broaden patient access to autologous cell therapies. A multidisciplinary team of seven engineers and biologists built the system and plans to move from prototyping to industrialisation of its innovative bioreactor. Limula will establish and equip a laboratory at the StartLab incubator located in the Biopôle in Lausanne and grow its team. The startup received a Tech Seed loan from the Foundation for Technological Innovation (FIT) to finalise its demonstrator and begin a pilot phase with partners. Founded at the end of 2020, Limula aims to address current capacity limits and high production costs that restrict access to cell therapies.

• ORDA

  Participated · Seed · Jan 2022

  Orda offers a cloud-based restaurant operating system that digitizes order management, inventory, recipe yields, kitchen display systems, accounting and integrations with food aggregators like Chowdeck, Bolt Food and Glovo. The two-year-old startup primarily serves small and medium-sized restaurants in Nigeria and Kenya, many of which previously relied on pen-and-paper processes. Orda’s platform works offline when connectivity is poor and supports tiered pricing plans (N1,000; N5,000; N20,000) for different feature sets. The company processes over 50,000 orders weekly for about 600 vendors, has seen GMV grow roughly 30% month-on-month, and reports revenue growth of 30% month-on-month with retention above 95%. Orda already processes payments for about 10% of its vendors and plans a major payments rollout by Q2 next year. The team has expanded leadership with hires including Afua Ahwoi (head of operations and strategy) and Modesola Osasomi (head of growth). Orda intends to use product expansion—particularly financial products for lending and payments—and geographic expansion (including South Africa and later Ivory Coast) to scale. Orda is a cloud-based restaurant operating system tailored for African chefs and food business owners, offering point-of-sale, inventory management, payments, logistics and analytics. The platform integrates orders from delivery services (Jumia Food, Glovo, Bolt Food), in-store, website and social channels like WhatsApp, and includes an ePos solution for low-connectivity areas. Orda targets small local restaurants that rely on pen-and-paper, aiming to reduce reconciliation time and provide analytics off the gate. The company charges restaurants $5–$50 per month and reports GMV growth of 15% week-on-week, processes up to 10,000 transactions weekly, and says its growth rate doubles every three weeks. With its product roadmap it plans to build financial products (especially lending), move into payment processing, and expand white-label mobile apps for customers across Africa.

• Habitual

  Participated · Seed · Oct 2021

  Habitual is a London, UK-based healthcare company led by CEO Napala Pratini that focuses on sustainable weight loss and long-lasting habit change. It provides holistic weight-loss and weight-management solutions including GLP-1 weight-loss medication, meal replacement shakes and soups, and personalized support. The company aims to help individuals reverse type 2 diabetes and address other weight-related issues through tailored programs. Habitual works as an NHS partner, leveraging that relationship in its approach to weight management. It raised £1M in funding and intends to use the proceeds to accelerate expansion of its products and services to cater to individuals on their weight-loss journeys. Habitual is a London-based healthtech startup that offers a type 2 diabetes weight-loss program combining a period of total food replacement (nutritionally controlled meals) with a companion digital app. The food product supplies users with packaged meals — flavored porridges, shakes and soups — developed with a consultancy that previously worked on Huel formulations, and the clinical approach follows the DiRECT trial framework of three months total diet replacement followed by gradual reintroduction of whole foods. The app provides evidence-based daily behavior-change lessons (from CBT to nutritional education), personalised self-report tracking of weight and mood, access to a patient care team and bespoke virtual peer groups. In a private beta of 30 patients, users averaged 17 kg weight loss over three months. Habitual currently sells direct-to-consumer at £39/week or £139/month for six months (covering all food for three months and about half for the second three months). The company plans peer-reviewed trials in the next year and aims to partner with payers such as the NHS, self-insured employers and insurers while pursuing global expansion, including the U.S.

No current team members are available.