• Curiscope

  Participated · Seed · Oct 2017

  Curiscope builds AR and VR educational content, including The Virtuali-Tee — a high-quality t-shirt paired with a free app that animates the human body in 3D — and a virtual reality experience called Great White Sharks. The Virtuali-Tee app uses the camera to trigger immersive anatomy scenes, supports a selfie mode and can be used with Google Cardboard for full VR immersion. The company was founded by CEO Ed Barton and Ben Kidd and has previously run crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo for The Virtuali-Tee. Curiscope sees a market opportunity in the early-stage AR/VR space where content is still limited and aims to build both consumer products and branded partnerships. Management says the recent investment will be used for growth and to take advantage of platform advances such as iOS 11 and Android updates. The company positions itself as wanting to be akin to a Discovery Channel for AR and VR experiences.

• Hoop

  Participated · Equity · Sep 2017

  Hoop is a UK-based family app that operates a marketplace for parents to find and book organized local activities for children. The platform also helps activity organizers increase their profitability by enabling bookings and connecting them with families. Led by CEO Daniel Bower, Hoop has been downloaded over 750,000 times. The company secured £4m in Series A funding led by Edge Investments with participation from Business Growth Fund and other investors. Hoop plans to use the funds to scale operations and solidify its market share in Britain. It also intends to expand into the US market. Hoop is a family-focused mobile app that helps parents discover and book activities and events for children 11 and under using location, time and age filters. The app emphasizes privacy by asking only for postcode and children’s ages rather than dates of birth. Hoop includes social features and personalized lists to surface suitable local offerings, and it provides a digital marketing platform for activity providers. Launched in London in 2016 by the entrepreneurs behind VoucherCodes, Hoop has expanded across Britain and was named one of Apple’s Top 10 apps in 2016. It lists more than 50,000 different activities each month and has over 600,000 users. The company is targeting the multi-billion pound market for family activities and aims to serve millennial parents who prefer on‑demand, smartphone-first solutions.

• READBUG

  Participated · Seed · Nov 2015

  Readbug aggregates and digitizes indie, cult and classic magazine titles into a mobile-first subscription app that offers all-you-can-read access for a monthly fee (currently £9.99 in the U.K.). The product reproduces full magazine issues cover-to-cover, preserves publishers’ fonts and color schemes, and can augment issues with related digital content like embedded video or audio. Readbug splits reader revenue 30:70 with publishing partners and currently offers about 50 titles with plans to expand to 125 within a year. Device usage is heavily skewed to phones (circa 95% of reading), and the app has seen roughly 9,000 downloads and 3,000 registered users without major marketing. The team plans product additions including free channels, a buy-it-now function to drive print sales, more publisher collaboration on enhanced digital content and some original in-house content.

• Marvel

  Participated · Seed · Aug 2015

  Marvel started as a simple prototyping and wire-framing app for web and mobile and has expanded into an all-in-one design platform. It supports the full design workflow, from wireframing to user testing, and includes collaboration features for individuals and teams. Growth has been driven partly through acquisitions, including the assets of POP and the design tool Plexi, which Marvel has integrated into its product. The company reports over 1 million registered users and around 35,000 new signups per month, with its largest markets in the U.S. and U.K. The new capital will be used to build out Marvel as a company—investing in sales and customer support, expanding into new markets, and developing new products. Investors participating in the round include BGF Ventures, Index Ventures, Connect Ventures, Inreach Ventures, Andy McLoughlin, and Richard Fearn. Marvel provides web, iOS and Android apps that let users convert paper sketches, wireframes and Photoshop/Sketch files into interactive, tappable prototypes by adding hotspots and transitions. Mobile apps let users photograph paper sketches or draw directly on screen with a finger or stylus; the service also syncs with Dropbox and supports Google Drive and Sketch. Recent product additions include a free user testing feature (integrating with Lookback) and an online community area called Explore for publishing and discovering prototypes. Marvel also added embed support so prototypes can be placed on sites such as Medium, Square and Behance. The company plans to use the new funding primarily for hiring, doubling headcount to 16 and expanding design, development, customer success and content teams. The article notes Marvel famously survived a Wonga loan in its history. Marvel provides web, iOS and Android apps that turn sketches, wireframes and Photoshop files into tappable (or clickable) app prototypes by letting users add hotspots and transitions. Mobile apps let users photograph paper sketches and, in the latest update, draw directly on iPhone and iPad screens with a finger or stylus. The service is built on the Dropbox API so changes to screen images are synced and Marvel can offer its core service free without cloud-storage costs. The company’s stated mission is to “lower the barrier” to prototyping so non-designers and founders can bring ideas to life quickly. Marvel has grown rapidly: the service reached 60k users (about 200 users per day) and has synced over 2 million images. After earlier cash strain and a short-lived Wonga loan, the team plans to use new funding to expand its developer and design headcount and advance the product.

No current team members are available.