• Downforce Technologies

  Participated · Equity · Jun 2024

  Downforce Technologies operates a remote soil organic carbon MRV platform. The company announced it has raised $4.2M in its latest funding round. The round was led by Equator VC and included Tiverton Agriculture Impact Fund, Dragonfly Enviro Capital, Perivoli Innovations, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). With the investment the company plans to enhance its global product offering and continue its commitment to 'make every hectare count'. The announcement directs inquiries and demo requests to info@downforce.tech. Downforce Technologies offers a data-based platform that measures soil organic carbon remotely with high accuracy (to the nearest 10m2) by fusing a broad range of data sources. Its first product provides analysis of current land state, recent history and soil carbon potential without the need for on-site sampling. The company aims to commercialise in Australia first, citing the favourable potential of Australian soils, and targets large agricultural landowners, financial institutions, food companies and policymakers. Early customers include National Australia Bank, landowners and companies in the Australian food supply chain. Downforce closed a $3.0M (£1.6M) seed capital raise to continue development and growth of its globally scalable data services platform. The company plans to expand its offering to include data on water, nutritional content and biodiversity and to hire local leaders in target markets. Downforce was incorporated in 2021 by the UK-based The Downforce Trust and is led by CEO Josephine Wapakabulo and CSO Jacquie McGlade.

• Ilara Health

  Participated · Series A · Feb 2024

  Ilara Health is a Kenya-based healthtech that enables private clinics to acquire diagnostic devices, pharmaceuticals and other clinic items on credit. The company began by leasing diagnostic devices to clinics in 2019 and has since expanded its offering to include pharmaceuticals, hospital furniture and a subscription practice-management software. Ilara serves about 3,000 clinics across Kenya and charges KSh.1000 (~$6.25) monthly for its software, which digitizes operations and supplies data for reporting and credit assessment. It partners with manufacturers such as Butterfly Network to provide low-cost portable ultrasound devices and other equipment. The startup plans to use new funding to scale operations in Kenya and to roll out a B2B health and occupational service that gives uninsured workers access to partner clinics for a fixed monthly fee. Management also intends to use clinic data from the software to support credit ratings and lend up to $15,000 in working capital to clinics. Ilara Health is a Nairobi-based diagnostics health-tech service provider that partners with healthcare facilities to expand access to basic diagnostic tests. Since its 2018 inception the company has grown partnerships across Nairobi and Kisumu from 15 to 200 facilities and aims to make diagnostics more accessible and affordable to over 500 million Africans. It recently raised $3.75 million in Series A funding led by TLcom Capital with participation from DOB Equity, Global Ventures, and Chandaria Capital to fund service expansion and technology investment. CEO and co-founder Emilian Popa said the company will widen its disease-indication coverage and create end-to-end value across the care delivery process. Ilara plans to reach patients who currently struggle to access lifesaving tests and to develop data-driven insights to improve quality of care across the continent. The new capital is intended to accelerate service expansion and build the company's technological capabilities across its partner network. Ilara Health distributes low-cost, AI-powered diagnostic devices bundled with its proprietary electronic medical record (EMR) system to primary-care doctors in peri-urban and rural clinics. The EMR records patient data and helps clinicians provide effective patient management while the diagnostics enable testing at the point of care. The company says it was started to help doctors bring diagnostics to the roughly 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who need them most and notes that about 70% of patients need some form of medical test to inform treatment. Ilara will use the new funding to grow its peri-urban clinic customer base in Kenya and to build a flexible technology platform to manage and protect patient health and clinic financial data. The startup was founded by CEO Emilian Popa, COO Amaan Banwait and VP sales Hannes Eckmayr and is based in Nairobi, Kenya. The company also received a Columbia Business School Tamer Fund seed grant award (seed grants up to $25,000) announced in late July.

• Greenspark

  Participated · Seed · Feb 2023

  Greenspark operates an Impact-as-a-Service platform that enables companies to create positive impact at key business touchpoints, track its growth, and communicate it effectively to customers and stakeholders. The system focuses on lifting client business objectives such as customer engagement, product sales, order value, and loyalty. Through direct integrations with e-commerce platforms, payment providers, and marketing suites, businesses can offer tangible climate actions such as planting trees, preventing ocean-bound plastic, and offsetting carbon emissions on behalf of their audience. Led by CEO Lenny Leemann and based in London, Greenspark raised £1M in Seed funding. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, expand operations and its business reach.

• Cheesecake Energy

  Participated · Series A · Aug 2022

  Cheesecake Energy develops a modular energy storage system (branded eTanker) that stores electricity by compressing air and storing heat in inert rock, then converts those stores back to electricity via its compressors and a generator. The company positions the technology as a lower-cost, more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries for applications such as agriculture and transport, with no rare or toxic materials and a design said to be fully recyclable after a 20-plus-year life. Its system emphasizes passive safety and lower fire risk by storing much of the energy as heat in inert rock. Cheesecake is a University of Nottingham spinout based on a decade of research into thermal and mechanical energy storage. The startup will use the £3.5m raise to hire staff, run trial deployments, and explore manufacturing and distribution partners. It previously secured £1m in seed capital and is preparing for a Series A of over £10m in late 2023. Cheesecake Energy develops the eTanker, a modular, containerised system that stores electricity as compressed air and heat for industrial and grid applications. The eTanker is aimed at medium-duration energy storage use cases where batteries are uneconomic and pumped hydro is unsuitable. Its modular packaging targets applications such as local renewable microgrids, electric vehicle fleet charging and heavy industry. The company is progressing its first pilot system with Nottinghamshire County Council to support the council's carbon management plan. Led by CEO Mike Simpson, Cheesecake plans to use recently raised funds to develop its manufacturing capabilities and advance its lead eTanker storage system. The company raised seed funding to support these near-term development and deployment activities. Cheesecake Energy was awarded business support and funding as part of the fourth wave of the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) UK’s Technology Developer Accelerator Programme (TDAP). The support comprises grant funding and accelerator support aimed at helping early-stage developers of low‑carbon propulsion technologies become commercially viable. TDAP Manager Josh Denne said APC is committed to working with micro, small and medium organisations developing innovative low‑carbon technologies and that APC hopes the support will help Cheesecake Energy's technology become commercially viable. The APC accelerates the industrialisation of technologies to realise net‑zero emission vehicles and, since its foundation in 2013, has funded over 110 low‑carbon projects involving more than 290 partners. APC states those projects are projected to save over 179 million tonnes of CO2 and have helped participating companies increase turnover by 14–17% and jobs by 8–10%, generating a 17% Gross Value Added uplift. Cheesecake Energy Ltd is registered in England and Wales and is based at the Ingenuity Centre, Triumph Road, Nottingham, NG7 2TU.

• Orthox Ltd.

  Participated · Series A · Feb 2022

  Orthox is a clinical-stage company developing FibroFix™, a fibroin-based tissue scaffold derived from silk fibres that aims to emulate cartilage functional properties while facilitating rapid tissue regeneration. FibroFix implants are designed to be bone-sparing, enable strong tissue integration, and be implanted via minimally invasive surgical techniques to support faster patient rehabilitation. The company is preparing pivotal clinical trials for knee cartilage repair, with initial recruitment of a six-patient cohort (six months follow-up) before expanding to a 75-patient trial with two years of follow-up. Planned and proposed clinical sites include Southmead Hospital Bristol and sites in Budapest, Hungary; Orthox has submitted a regulatory dossier to the Hungarian authority OGYÉI. The business is clinical-stage and has raised capital and grants to support development; it employs 18 people at its site in Oxfordshire.

No current team members are available.