The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Mar 2026

Pasqal is a French startup focused on quantum computing. The company has attracted significant strategic and institutional backing and was described as a unicorn following the latest financing. In 2023 it completed a €100 million Series B that included investors such as Temasek, the EIC Fund, Saudi Aramco, Daphni and Isai. In the most recent raise it obtained at least €340 million, with a €170 million tranche from industrial and strategic partners including Parkway Venture Capital, Quanta Computer, LG Electronics, and CMA CGM. Pasqal says the new capital will support its development and prepare it for a Nasdaq IPO via a SPAC, with an additional plan to list in Paris the next year. The company’s financial position and investor mix reflect a combination of industrial strategic partners and prior venture/institutional supporters.

Led · Equity · Jul 2024

Horse Powertrain is a London-based company launched by Geely and Renault to manufacture fuel-based internal combustion engines. The firm focuses on producing petrol and diesel engines as many automakers shift away from internal combustion technology. Horse Powertrain's strategy relies on selling engines to automakers that stop in-house development of petrol and diesel powertrains. Saudi Aramco acquired a 10% stake in the company for £580 million, signalling belief in the continued demand for combustion engines. Yasser Mufti, executive vice president at Saudi Aramco, said internal combustion engines will be around for a 'very, very long time,' citing affordability and other factors.

Participated · Series C · May 2022

Carbon Clean develops modular point-of-source carbon-capture systems for industrial emitters. Its latest product, the CycloneCC, is described as roughly 10 times smaller than conventional point-of-source equipment, small enough to fit inside a shipping container, and uses amine scrubbers to absorb flue-gas CO2 before boiling it off for underground storage. The company claims the CycloneCC can cut average capture costs to about $30 per tonne. Carbon Clean aims to enable industrial decarbonization on a gigatonne scale by the mid-2030s and says point-of-source capacity needs to expand by as much as 40 times in the coming years. The sector it targets — cement, steel, energy-from-waste and oil refineries — accounts for roughly one quarter of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Recently it raised a $150 million Series C led by Chevron, with participation from CEMEX, Saudi Aramco and Samsung Ventures. Carbon Clean develops carbon dioxide capture and separation technology aimed at reducing the costs and environmental impacts of CO2 separation. Led by CEO Aniruddha Sharma, the company is described as a global leader in CO2 capture technology. Its technology has been proven at scale in over 10 locations, including the UK, USA, Germany, India, Norway, and the Netherlands. Carbon Clean works with industries such as cement, iron and steel, refineries and energy-from-waste to reduce their carbon emissions. The company has a North American footprint that includes operations in California, Chicago, Illinois, and at the University of Kentucky. Financially, Carbon Clean extended its Series B with an $8M raise, bringing the total Series B proceeds to $30M (after a $22M Series B announced in July 2020). Carbon Clean Solutions develops affordable CO2 capture and separation technology for industrial applications, with a patented APBS process proven at demonstration scale in over 10 locations and in use at the Tuticorin industrial-scale CCU plant. The company targets heavy-emitting sectors including steel, cement, waste management and refining & petrochemicals. CCSL plans to scale production of a modular “containerised” solution aiming for $30/tonne cost of CO2 capture (excluding carbon credits) by 2021. The firm has won recognition such as the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer award in 2015 and its research was funded by competitive grants. CCSL will use new funding to grow the team and deliver its technology across CCUS projects. The company is headquartered in London and also operates offices in India and the United States. Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd (CCSL) develops carbon dioxide (CO2) separation and capture technology for industrial and gas-treating applications, serving sectors such as steel, cement, refining, petrochemicals and waste incineration. The company is UK-headquartered and operates an industrial-scale carbon capture and utilisation plant in Tuticorin, India. CCSL focuses on affordable carbon capture solutions and is working to commercialize containerised systems to reduce costs. It aims to bring the cost of CO2 capture down to $30 per tonne by 2021 through these developments. The recent equity injection supports delivery of an existing pipeline of global projects to lower emissions from industry.

Participated · Series C · Feb 2022

Fenbeitong is a corporate spend management startup founded in 2016 in Beijing that aims to build a one-stop SaaS+Payment platform. The company combines SaaS expense and budgeting tools with payment capabilities and supply-chain networks it developed over five years. Fenbeitong has partnered with airlines, hotels, rideshare and dining platforms and worked with multiple banks to set up digital accounts to create a seamless travel and spend management experience. Since 2019 the company has seen roughly threefold growth each year. It recently launched VoC and CE mechanisms and plans to double down on product, expand its team, and expand to all major cities in China via direct sales or SaaS channel partners. To date it has raised $300 million in total funding. Fenbeitong, founded in 2016 by Lan Xi, provides corporate expense management products that help companies manage and control expenditures through technological innovations. The company has established itself as an industry leader and has served over 1,000 corporations. In March 2020 Fenbeitong completed a $36M Series B+ financing. The company plans to use the funds to double the size of its product research and development team and further improve customer experience. Management also intends to seek more channel partners, cooperate with cross-industry players, and expand into more first- and second-tier cities in China.

Participated · Series D · Aug 2020

Parsable develops a Connected Worker platform that digitizes industrial front-line, deskless workers by replacing paper-based processes with mobile and laptop workflows. The platform lets workers access individual devices, helping maintain separation and avoid shared computers on factory floors—a capability that increased usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parsable’s customer base is concentrated in essential industries such as consumer packaged goods, food, beverage, agriculture, paper and packaging. Registered users grew 11x year-over-year and deployed sites tripled; the company reports users in more than 100 countries and support for 14 languages. Customers include Georgia-Pacific, Henkel and Shell. The company has 120 employees and plans conservative hiring for essential needs while expanding internationally into Asia, EMEA and Latin America. Parsable has developed a Connected Worker platform to bring digital tools to deskless industrial workers who traditionally relied on paper-based processes. The solution runs on most smartphones and tablets so workers can tap, swipe and enter information while walking around environments where desktops are impractical. The product is intentionally simple and familiar to long-tenured workers while also appealing to younger, more tech-savvy staff; the platform is extensible and already supports smart glasses (about 10% of its business). Parsable positions its offering as a digital guide to capture work, aiming to increase efficiency, reduce safety incidents and improve quality. The company counts 30 enterprise customers (including Ecolab, Schlumberger, Silgan and Shell), 30,000 registered users, and around 80 employees, with plans to reach 100 by the end of Q3. Parsable was founded in 2013 and is using recent funding to continue building its product and scale operations.