Participated · Series A · Feb 2021

Touchcast offers a virtual events platform that combines AI and mixed reality to deliver captivating, interactive experiences for enterprises. The platform is designed to enable real-time knowledge-sharing and collaboration, including live transcription and translation. It helps attendees capture and synthesize collective intelligence and makes communications actionable and discoverable for future reference. The design aims to remove barriers of language, time, and distance to simulate in-person events. Led by founder and CEO Edo Segal, the company intends to use new funding to scale its platform.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2019

Farewill provides an online platform to write wills, organise probate and order cremations and other funeral services. It is currently live only in the U.K. but has longer-term plans to expand to more countries. In five years of operation it claims a 10% share of the U.K. will-writing market and says its cremation service is now the third or fourth biggest cremation provider in the country. The company reported 800% revenue growth last year (pre-COVID) and has facilitated over £200 million in pledged legacy income with a target of £1 billion by 2023. Cremation, funeral and probate services were launched in December 2019, and Farewill positions its cremation offering at roughly one-fifth the cost of a typical funeral. Founders Dan Garrett (CEO) and Tom Rogers (CTO and CPO) built the business with a design-led approach aimed at destigmatizing death and simplifying administrative processes for grieving families. Farewill provides an online platform that asks users a few questions to create a will, with live chat and phone support available. After users complete their will, one of the company’s legal experts checks it to ensure there are no issues. Once finalised, users print and sign the will, with two witnesses required to sign as well, and are advised to store the will safely and inform executors of its location. The company has partnered with insurance firms such as Legal & General and Aviva and charity partners including Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support. Led by co-founder and CEO Dan Garrett, Farewill intends to use the new funding to expand its team and improve the service. Farewill provides an online, question-driven will-writing service that algorithmically generates legal wills and offers live support from wills specialists. The product is sold as a subscription: £50 for a will with one year of updatability and £5/year thereafter to retain update capability. It is currently available in England and Wales, with Scotland planned next, and the company says it has about 2,500 users and drafted over 1,000 wills during testing. Farewill targets 28–50 year olds (first-time will writers) and emphasizes a simpler, more human experience versus DIY packs and traditional solicitors. The team is pursuing partnerships with employers, charities, and is in discussions with two large UK banks to drive customer acquisition. Farewill also states technical safeguards: will PDFs stored on Amazon S3 in Ireland, AES-256 at rest, expiring URLs for access, transport-level encryption, restricted developer access, and a pledge not to sell or share user data.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2018

Tech Will Save Us provides a play-led home learning system that pairs a digital platform (interactive manuals, projects and coding challenges) with physical product experiences such as the Electro Dough Kit and the Arcade Coder. The company has launched a subscription service to support lifetime learning and to integrate its products with ongoing online content. It has collaborated with partners including Google, Code Club, The Prince’s Trust, the BBC on the micro:bit, and Disney to produce a Marvel Avengers STEAM toy. Tech Will Save Us reports customers across 97 countries and says it has helped 1.2 million kids build and create with technology. Founded in 2012 by Bethany Koby and Daniel Hirschmann and based in London, the company shifted focus to digital sales prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Management plans to accelerate home learning clubs as parents increasingly seek ways to inspire learning at home. Tech Will Save Us develops educational, accessible 'hackable' toys and DIY technology kits that enable young children and parents to creatively engage with technology. Founded in 2012 by Bethany Koby and Daniel Hirschmann and based in London, its products have been sold in over 87 countries and are carried by retailers including Nordstrom, Best Buy and John Lewis. The company has secured partnerships such as a superhero-themed electronic building kit with Marvel and a coding kit with the BBC. In November 2018 it raised an additional £1.6m as a Series A extension, bringing the total Series A to £5.3m. The extension was led by Brighteye Ventures, and Alex Spiro, Managing Partner of BEV Advisors, will join the Tech Will Save Us board. The company said it will use the funds to accelerate development of its DIY gadgets and to expand into new global territories. Tech Will Save Us develops ‘hackable’ toys and kits that combine digital and physical play to teach children STEM, electronics and programming. Its product range includes electronic dough, programmable wearables and build-your-own game consoles across multiple price points and age groups. The company sells direct online and through retailers including Amazon, John Lewis, Best Buy and Target, and says it has reached customers in over 97 countries. It has launched a multi-year, multi-product partnership with Disney, beginning with a Marvel Avengers-themed kit that embeds electronics learning into mission-based play. The new capital will be used to expand the product range and continue the company’s mission to encourage kids to create with technology rather than be passive consumers. The company was founded by Bethany Koby and Daniel Hirschmann and is based in London. Technology Will Save Us (TWSU) produces do-it-yourself gadget kits, activities and online resources that combine hardware and software making into accessible products. Its kits are priced from £15 and the company has shifted over 50,000 units to date. TWSU designed the BBC micro:bit, a pocket-sized tech tool slated to be given to 1 million 11-year-olds in February 2015, and sells through mainstream retail partners. Retail relationships include John Lewis, Urban Outfitters, The Conran Shop and the MoMA Design Store in New York, which the company plans to build on. The business presents an ecosystem approach—open-source-friendly kits plus community hacking and customization—that the founders say complements rather than undermines sales. Advisors and mentors include Tracy Dorée, Matt Webb, Stuart Marks and Sherry Coutu CBE.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2017

Ometria provides a customer data and experience platform (CDXP) designed specifically for retail marketers. The platform is used by over 200 global clients, including Steve Madden, Hotel Chocolat, Sephora UK, Brooklinen and Fred Perry. The company plans to use the funding to further develop and advance the retail-specific AI capabilities of its platform. Ometria was founded in 2013 and is led by CEO and founder Ivan Mazour. The company has raised over $70M from VC funds including InfraVia, Octopus Ventures and Bright Pixel. Ometria operates out of London and New York City. Ometria is an AI-powered customer marketing platform that uses data science to automatically create and optimize personalized marketing experiences across multiple communications channels. Its Co-Marketer platform is built to close personalization gaps caused by fragmented retail tech stacks. Customers include Steve Madden, Aden + Anais, Pepe Jeans, MADE.com, Notonthehighstreet.com, Hotel Chocolat and Feelunique. The company says the new funding will be used to triple the size of its product and engineering teams as consumers gain more control over personal data. Ometria has also hired several senior executives, including Markus Plattner (Chief Technology Office), Paul Barnes (Chief Revenue Office) and Michelle Schroeder (Chief Marketing Officer). Financially, Ometria has completed a $40M Series C and has now raised over $75M to date. Ometria provides an AI-driven customer marketing platform designed for retailers to create unified predictive profiles and deliver individually personalized marketing across channels. The product emphasizes specialist retail marketing capabilities rather than generic email or behavioral tools. The company says it serves a client base of 200 retailers, including Hotel Chocolat, Fred Perry, MADE.com and Notonthehighstreet.com. Leadership hires cited in the article include a new chief revenue officer, VP of Professional Services and VP of Customer Success. Ometria plans to use its latest funding to accelerate product development and further innovate its AI technology. As part of its expansion, the company will open its first U.S. operation in New York. Ometria provides an AI-powered customer marketing platform that builds unified predictive profiles of individual customers to drive personalised messaging across channels. The product claims to predict customer interests and future behavior to encourage repeat purchases. The company says it is used by over 100 large multi-channel retailers and fast-growing VC-backed ecommerce businesses, including Moss Bros, Crew Clothing, Charlotte Tilbury, Feelunique, LoveCrafts, Wonderbly and Graze.com. Ometria positions itself against email service providers, behavioral marketing tools and customer insight companies by focusing specifically on retail and unified predictive customer profiles. The company plans to accelerate development of its platform using new funding. Financially, the raise brings Ometria's total funding to $11M. Launched in 2013, Ometria pivoted to become a customer insight and marketing automation platform for retailers and commerce businesses. Its platform unifies disparate customer signals, identifies where each customer is in their lifecycle, profiles tastes and interests, and triggers personalized messages and campaigns. The company says its automated marketing platform drove a 323% increase in email revenues and a 92% increase in customer reactivation in cited case studies (Swoon Editions, Finisterre, MyTights). Ometria built the automation layer after finding customers lacked resources to act on analytics alone. The startup will use the disclosed funding to grow the team and further develop the automated marketing product. Financially, the company has secured a total of $5 million in seed investment to date.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2016

Gluru is a UK-based startup building an AI-powered smart to-do list that automatically converts communications into actionable tasks. Its first product is available on web and Android, with an iOS version in beta, and currently syncs with Gmail and Google Calendar to identify daily tasks and suggest actions. The company says it uses a multi-patented combination of natural language processing, deep learning, and ontology to parse 'conversational data sources.' Gluru learns from user interactions to automate repetitive tasks and flag items requiring attention, with a vision to predict complementary actions and answers. Planned integrations include Outlook, Slack, Alexa, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Salesforce, and the product is intended to live inside those ecosystems to power productivity. Financially, Gluru raised a $2 million seed round from Sussex Place Ventures, SaatchInvest, Gecad and Playfair Capital, bringing total funding to $3.5 million. Gluru applies advanced machine-learning and natural-language-processing to multiple file-based data sources to learn how a person lives and works. Its algorithms organize files and predict when a user will need specific content, then surface relevant information automatically in context such as calls, emails and appointments. Led by founder and CEO Tim Porter, the company plans to release its first app, Gluru Assistant, in Q1 2015. The company intends to use new funding to expand the team, accelerate product development and cross-platform offerings, and bolster infrastructure across sales, marketing and communications. The product strategy centers on triggering intelligent, instant content delivery to users' devices based on contextual cues. Gluru is headquartered in London, UK.