• SteadyPay

  Participated · Seed · Mar 2023

  SteadyPay is a progressive lending platform based in London, UK that uses an AI-based solution to analyze open user data and predict creditworthiness. According to those forecasts the company tops up a user's bank account if their earnings fall below the average monthly income, calculating how much to loan to each client. The platform operates on a subscription model with users charged £7 per week and offers interest-free recharges repaid when users exceed their average monthly income. Average monthly replenishment per person is about £250, and the maximum balance a user can hold on SteadyPay at any time is £1,000. The platform currently has 12,000 active users, most of whom are between the ages of 22 and 40. SteadyPay intends to use the $3M seed funding to accelerate growth and expand operations. SteadyPay, founded in 2018 and based in London, offers an income-smoothing product that tops up a user’s bank account when earnings fall below their monthly average. Users pay a fee of £4 per week (described in the article as just over $5 a month) and can repay top-ups interest-free, repaying only when they earn above their average in a month. The company underwrites customers with an AI-based model that uses open banking data, transactional information and public social media; the average monthly top-up is about £250 and the maximum balance per user is capped at £1,000. Since moving to the AI underwriting model, customer default rates have stayed consistently below 10%. SteadyPay currently makes loans from its balance sheet to retain underwriting control but expects to partner with a local bank for capital in the future. The company has over 9,000 active users and plans to add an embedded B2B offering, expand its product set using its data for AI insights, target small business owners and micro-entrepreneurs, and enter at least one international market (the U.S. was cited as a favorable option). SteadyPay provides an FCA-licensed app for gig-economy workers that automatically tops up bank accounts when earnings fall below average and lets customers repay via easy, interest-free instalments. The subscription-based service uses open banking and a bespoke credit-decision engine to assess the creditworthiness of gig workers often excluded by traditional lenders. Launched in 2018 by co-founder and CEO John Downie, the article also notes the company was founded in 2017 and has nine full-time employees. SteadyPay intends to use new funds to scale up in the UK and target 5,000 customers in the next 12 months. The company raised £2.9m in equity and debt funding to support these plans.

• Sofant Technologies

  Participated · Debt Financing · Nov 2022

  Edinburgh-based Sofant Technologies is engineering low-power radio-frequency (RF) MEMS beam-forming antennas designed to improve the efficiency of satellite communications and future 5G and 6G networks. Its proprietary architecture aims to cut power consumption and size while boosting performance, making it attractive for defence, aerospace, satellite, and high-performance enterprise markets. The company has spent an extended period in research and development, refining its breakthrough hardware platform. With its latest financing, Sofant intends to transition from R&D into full commercial launch, scaling production and deployment of its technology. Management believes the solution represents a step-change in wireless system design, potentially redefining what is possible in low-power, high-performance connectivity. Financially, Sofant has just secured £6.25 million in fresh equity capital to fund this commercial rollout, underscoring investor confidence in its market potential.

• Nuclera

  Participated · Series B · Feb 2022

  Nuclera is a biotechnology company building eProtein Discovery, a desktop platform that integrates cell-free protein expression, digital microfluidics, and high-throughput screening to give researchers rapid access to purified proteins. The system reduces the time, cost, and uncertainty of protein production, allowing scientists to identify and validate candidates earlier in the drug-discovery process. With its latest focus on AI-enabled protein engineering, Nuclera is adding antibody-specific capabilities so users can perform end-to-end expression, purification, and binding validation of full-format antibodies on the same device. These new features are designed to generate large, standardized data sets suitable for training advanced machine-learning models in biologics R&D. Management positions the platform as a foundational tool for the fast-growing biologics segment, aiming to shorten therapeutic discovery timelines. The firm’s ongoing development is backed by considerable venture financing, now totaling $87 million in Series C capital.

• Leaf

  Participated · Equity · Feb 2021

  Leaf Grow is a Newcastle-based martech firm that provides end-to-end performance marketing services for eCommerce businesses. Its platform and Marketing Engineers reduce campaign management time from hours to minutes using smart setups, interest-based audience targeting, campaign budget optimisation, and real-time conversion-rate signals from client websites to enhance Facebook targeting and ad-spend efficiency. The company has worked with indie labels, gaming companies, crypto startups, events and membership organisations, retail, and e-commerce clients and reports strong commercial traction. Founded by Daniel Salas, Gilbert Corrales, Helga Alvarez, and Melvin Salas, Leaf Grow plans to invest in its engineering and data science teams, expand sales and marketing, and grow its Newcastle operations. It also intends to continue rolling out several product enhancements. Financially, the company secured £1.75M in new funding led by Maven Capital Partners, including support from the North East Development Fund and The Future Fund.

• Karakuri

  Participated · Equity · Dec 2020

  Karakuri develops the DK-One, a pre-production food-robotics system initially designed to make breakfast bowls and capable of producing high-quality hot and cold meals. The DK-One dispenses up to 18 temperature-controlled ingredients (wet, dry, soft or hard) onto plates, bowls or containers and uses robotics, sensing and control technologies. Customers tailor portions via an app that tracks ingredients, nutrients, calories and quantities, enabling personalized nutrition and real-time data on ingredients. The system is positioned to augment kitchen staff by taking on repetitive tasks, improve cleanliness and efficiency post-COVID, and reduce food waste through accurate portioning. Karakuri plans on further on-site customer trials of the DK-One in the first half of 2021. Financially, the company disclosed an $8.4M (≈£6.3M) investment round and has closed a total of £13.5M in funding. Karakuri develops integrated robotics and machine-learning systems—using optics and sensors—to prepare personalized, freshly made meals onsite. Its robots can match exact customer requirements (for example ingredient exclusions or specific dressing amounts) and aim to reduce food waste. The technology is positioned to enable restaurants, cafes and food retailers to move away from mass pre-packaged meals toward localized micro-manufacturing. Karakuri emphasizes menu personalization to meet growing consumer dietary requirements and changing eating habits. The company has built an advisory board with industry experts from ARM, Ocado, Imperial College, Bristol Robotics Lab and the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics. Leadership includes CEO and co-founder Barney Wragg, and the company emerged from the Founders Factory incubator.

No current team members are available.