The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Jul 2024

Turing develops fully autonomous driving technology originating in Japan. The company is scaling its computing infrastructure and commercial operations as it moves toward real-world deployment. In its Series A and extension rounds the company has raised a cumulative ¥27.89 billion (about $174 million), including ¥12.62 billion (about $79 million) in the recent extension. Turing plans to use the new funding to expand compute capacity, strengthen its business organization for deployment, and hire additional staff. The company’s stated goal is to accelerate realization of Japan-developed fully autonomous driving systems.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2023

Open Payments is a Swedish open banking platform that aggregates multiple bank APIs and ISO-based payment integrations into a single interface embedded in ERPs, payment providers and other financial applications. Its platform supports domestic and cross-border payments, account reconciliation, cash management, and same-day settlements. Recent product launches include cross-border payment capabilities with lower exchange rates and real-time access to rates to streamline bookkeeping. In 2024 the company achieved full coverage of the Dutch B2B banking landscape, forming a foundation for broader European expansion. Open Payments serves clients such as Monitor ERP, Treasury Systems, Juni Technologies, Bjorn Lunden and Speedledger. The company raised new funding to support continued growth, product development, and further expansion across Europe. Open Payments offers an Open Banking platform that shifts online banking functionality from banks to customers’ business systems and interfaces, enabling end users to approve and make secure, direct payments without logging into their online bank. The platform connects to commercial banks via API technology to enable services such as payments, account reconciliation, and cash management, and is designed to be embedded in client applications like ERP systems, payment providers, and fintechs. Its product is developed based on the European PSD2 directive. The company focuses on business-to-business (B2B) transactions and aims to support embedding online-banking functionality directly into clients' systems. Open Payments was founded in 2017 and is based in Stockholm and Vasteras, Sweden; CEO Louise Brandt previously held senior positions at Zettle by PayPal (formerly iZettle). The company plans to use recent funding to expand its European business reach and advance product development. Open Payments provides a modular Open Banking Platform that offers PSD2 API aggregation through a single, secure API, enabling businesses to integrate with banks and other financial services via pure APIs. The company is an FSA-licensed Payment Institute and allows third-party providers and business partners to develop products under their own brand while owning the user journey. Open Payments has launched services in Sweden and Finland and supports an ecosystem where partners can further enhance platform development. The company is led by CCO Louise Brandt and CEO Jonas Kjellin. It raised €3M in seed funding led by Industrifonden, with participation from existing investors Brightly Ventures, Luminar Ventures and angel investors. The firm plans to use the funds to grow the team and establish the platform across the Nordics and broader European market by the end of the year. Open Payments, founded in 2017 and based in Stockholm, has developed a PSD2 aggregated platform that initiates account-to-account payments and retrieves account information and transaction history on behalf of third-party providers with end-customer consent. The company exposes this functionality via a single API and provides a white-label development portal where third-party providers and business partners can build and deploy products under their own brand. Open Payments plans to grow its team and launch the platform across the Nordic and wider European markets. Its strategy emphasizes building an ecosystem of third-party providers and partners to enhance the development portal over time. Co-founders include former iZettle executive Louise Brandt (CCO) and Jonas Kjellin (CEO). The company raised seed capital to support team growth and market launch.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2022

Rest Less is a London-based digital community and advice platform focused on empowering the over-50s. Founded in 2019, it started as a work and careers site matching age-inclusive employers and expanded to provide thousands of tailored articles, guides and advice across work, health, pensions, relationships and money. The company has launched Rest Less Mortgages (fee-free later-life lending advice) and Rest Less Pensions to help close the financial advice gap for its members. Today the platform serves over one million members, equivalent to roughly one in seventeen UK 50–70 year olds. The business targets a demographic that controls more than 75% of household wealth and is described in the article as chronically underserved by mainstream tech. Rest Less plans to use new funding to accelerate investment in its financial services and fintech capabilities. Rest Less is a digital community launched in early 2019 that provides content, guidance and resources for members in their 50s, 60s and beyond on topics including jobs and careers, volunteering, learning, money, health and lifestyle, and dating. The platform has grown to more than 550,000 members in the UK, with an average age in the mid-to-late 50s. Founders Stuart Lewis (CEO) and Sara Stephens (CTO) built the service to support over-50s with both content and community features. The company recently made senior hires including Lori Vokes as COO and Andy Collings as General Manager to scale operations. Rest Less plans to use new funding to expand member services, grow its member base, broaden commercial partnerships and extend its Financial Services offering to members. The business recently closed a £6.1m Series A to support those growth initiatives. Rest Less is a UK-based social enterprise operating an online platform that connects people over 50 with jobs, volunteering and career guidance. The company was launched in December 2018 by Stuart Lewis, its Chief Executive Officer. The platform offers fulfilling opportunities to work, volunteer or find a new career path. In its first year Rest Less amassed more than 100,000 members in the UK with an average age of 55. The company intends to use the funds to continue to build and enhance the platform and expand quality services to its users. It recently secured external capital to support those product and service expansion plans.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2022

FloodFlash is a London-based parametric insurance technology company that combines computer models, cloud software and internet-of-things sensors to provide flood cover. Customers select a flood depth and payout amount for their policy; when flooding reaches the chosen depth the policy pays out, typically within 48 hours. The company is a registered coverholder at Lloyd’s of London and is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority. Led by CEO Adam Rimmer, FloodFlash raised $15m in a Series A to fund growth. The company intends to use the proceeds to accelerate international expansion, targeting the US, Germany, Australia and Japan. FloodFlash offers event-based, parametric flood insurance: an internet-connected water sensor triggers an automated payout of a pre-agreed fixed sum as soon as a predefined flood level occurs. A slice of the premium pays for the sensor plus FloodFlash's automated underwriting and claims services. The startup is regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority and is running a live pilot with a select group of SMEs in parts of the UK, including Carlisle. Insurance capacity for FloodFlash policies is provided by Everest Re through their syndicate at Lloyd's of London. Founders Adam Rimmer and Ian Bartholomew developed the product after studying parametric catastrophe bonds to make similar benefits available to SMEs. FloodFlash has been working as part of the InsurTech Gateway incubator since mid 2017.

Participated · Series B · Apr 2020

Secret Double Octopus builds a workforce passwordless authentication platform designed to secure employee access while simplifying the user experience. Led by CEO Raz Refaeli and based in Menlo Park, CA, the company emphasizes broad enterprise use cases, ease of deployment on any infrastructure, and customizable transition paths to full passwordless operation. Its platform leverages multiple patented technologies, supports common standards and protocols, and offers deep integrations with other IAM vendors. The product is positioned for heavily regulated sectors, including financial institutions, defense contractors, critical infrastructure, and government agencies. The company says it will use the new funding to accelerate delivery of its solutions and services and to expand the reach of its platform into new markets and verticals. Secret Double Octopus offers an enterprise-grade, multi-factor passwordless authentication platform that eliminates passwords to reduce cyber risk and improve user experience. The platform is deployed at hundreds of global enterprises and is used by hundreds of thousands of employees across industries including finance, defense, government, and manufacturing. It facilitates more than a billion authentication requests annually and is recognized as a best-in-class vendor for workforce authentication. The company emphasizes phishing-resistant authentication and high-scale performance in mission-critical environments. Secret Double Octopus is pursuing expansion into new markets and recently appointed Timothy Youngblood to its board to support growth and enterprise adoption. The business closed a Series C round, raising $15 million to help meet increasing demand for its workforce-focused solutions. Secret Double Octopus is a Tel Aviv, Israel–based passwordless authentication platform led by CEO and co-founder Raz Rafaeli. Its Octopus Authentication Server allows employees to forego passwords when logging into workstations, cloud services, legacy applications and other common workplace tools. The platform supports biometrics, mobile devices and FIDO security keys and also offers integration with on-premises Active Directory systems. The company delivers enterprise security solutions designed to protect company assets. It currently serves mid-sized companies up to Fortune 50 customers around the globe. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach. Secret Double Octopus is an Israeli cybersecurity startup offering keyless authentication and post-computational ("quantum-safe") data-in-motion protection. Its core product models authentication on the multi-piece consensus used for nuclear launch codes, combining passwordless factors with device biometrics and other parameters to produce a single identity. The company positions the approach as more secure against computational and quantum attacks while providing a seamless user experience compared with conventional two-factor methods. It says the technology can be deployed alongside existing security solutions and is developing related algorithms for IoT devices and network packet protection. Founded by academics and industry executives — Professor Shlomi Dolev (chief science officer), Dr Shimrit Tzur-David (CTO), Raz Rafaeli (CEO) and Chen Tetelman (VP R&D) — the startup recently completed a new funding round. The funding will support expanded R&D and business development in the U.S. and Europe.