Led · Seed · Nov 2018

The Drop is an online fashion tech company that produces menswear on demand, primarily custom suits. Customers receive consultations via an online chat and all suits are made to customers' measurements. Founded in 2016 by Jonathan Kruger and Stephen Stroud, the company is based in London. In November 2018 the company raised £500k in seed funding. The round was led by Sir John Hegarty’s The Garage Soho with participation from Paddy Byng. The Drop intends to use the funds to expand operations and broaden its business reach.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2018

Taylor&Hart digitises the custom jewellery process, offering bespoke engagement rings, wedding bands and recently launched women's jewellery created to customer designs. Orders are designed by in-house teams in London and produced via manufacturing partners in China and the U.S.; diamonds are sourced globally with ethical provenance checks and some sourcing activity in Sri Lanka. The company sells mainly in the U.K., with 15–20% of sales in the U.S., and operates showrooms in London and New York while maintaining a ~40-person team and development hub in Sofia. Taylor&Hart reported c.€11.7M in revenue for the prior year, 4,481 ring sales, and a 2022 reported turnover of £8.7M with a £1.9M loss. Planned uses of new capital include software development (including AI-enabled design and pricing features) and an aggressive push into European markets, using Sofia as the main channel for EU operations and hiring additional staff. The company emphasises faster lead times and competitive pricing versus legacy jewellers and maintains an ethical sourcing policy that excludes purchases from Russia since the war. Taylor and Hart is a London-based e-jeweller specializing in bespoke engagement and wedding rings that tell the story of customers. Led by founder and CEO Nikolay Piriankov, the company focuses on custom, story-driven jewellery. It currently delivers to over 20 countries. Taylor and Hart raised over £3.6m in funding to support growth. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach, enhance brand awareness, and open a brand-new showroom. Taylor&Hart, founded in 2013 and based between Sofia and London, enables customers to design bespoke engagement and wedding rings online with designer consultations and 3D previews. The company employs around 30 people and reported €2M in revenue in 2017, with management projecting a €4.4M turnover for 2018. Engagement rings account for roughly 80% of sales; prices range from about £1.5K to £50K with an average around £4K. The brand rebranded from Rare Pink to Taylor&Hart after participating in Techstars Boston, a move that the company says drove a 30% sales increase but coincided with the loss of a co‑founder. Taylor&Hart has begun moving from a primarily digital model to physical touchpoints, opening a London showroom and planning a New York location. The company targets the premium segment of the diamond jewelry market and aims to expand further into the U.S., which already represents about 30% of its customers.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2017

The Dots is a professional network positioning itself as a "LinkedIn for creatives," focused on connecting 'No Collar' creative professionals and teams. Its product collects data on complete project teams to create a "high-trust" network of members who have actually worked together. The company claims about a quarter of a million members and lists clients including Google, Burberry, Sony Pictures, Viacom, M&C Saatchi, Warner Music, Tate, Discovery Networks and VICE. The Dots plans to layer machine learning over its team data to offer personalized recommendations to clients and ultimately enable full-team hires rather than only individual placements. It raised a £4m investment round led by Hambro Perks, which the company says will be used to bolster its market position ahead of international expansion. Founded in 2014 by Pip Jamieson, The Dots says it is targeting an estimated 80 million 'No Collar' millennial professionals globally and cites recruitment costs of about £11 billion annually, according to some figures.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2016

Simba Sleep sells the SIMBA Hybrid® mattress, a dual spring and memory foam product that features four layers of proprietary cooling foams supported by 2,500 patented conical pocket springs. The company was founded in 2015 and operates from London, UK, and now employs 54 staff. To date it has sold 45,000 mattresses, holds an exclusive deal with John Lewis, and offers mattresses across standard UK and European sizes with a 10-year guarantee. Simba has launched in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, North America and the Middle East, and plans to roll out in 34 countries over the next 18 months. The company says it will use the new funds to scale growth and accelerate new sleep-innovation product development across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Simba is a UK mattress retailer that specialises in selling mattresses packaged in a box. The company opened for business in August 2015 and was described as a year-old business at the time of the article. Its product positions it against rivals such as US company Casper and UK start-up eve Sleep. Simba focuses on direct-to-consumer mattress sales through its specialist online retail model. The latest funding is intended to support overseas expansion. Financially, the company has raised a total of £8.5m to date following the most recent round.