Participated · Series B · Mar 2021

Cognism offers a global B2B sales intelligence platform that pairs premium contact data with contextual signals such as technographics and buyer intent to help revenue teams connect with prospects. The company serves over 1,000 sales teams and has customers in 40+ countries. It employs 250 people across seven countries, including the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, Croatia, Macedonia, and Germany, and opened a Boston office in 2021. In 2021 the business posted ARR growth of 100%. The new funding is intended to solidify its US position and expand across continental Europe through organic growth and planned acquisitions. To date Cognism has raised a total of $123.5 million. Cognism offers a sales‑intelligence platform that delivers globally compliant B2B contact and prospect data using patented AI to make prospecting faster and more accurate. The company emphasizes compliance across the 30 countries in which it operates and serves over 1,000 customers. In May 2020 Cognism acquired email signature marketing platform Mailtastic and now has about 200 employees across seven countries. FY2020 ARR grew 60% year‑on‑year from $7M to $11M, and January 2021 saw new‑business ARR and revenue both surpass $1M for the first time. Cognism plans to expand further across Europe, grow its presence in the U.K. and continental markets, and enhance its product suite with additional functionality while continuing to invest in data compliance. Cognism provides a globally compliant B2B prospecting solution powered by patented AI, offering compliant B2B data and a suite of sales-acceleration tools. The platform is used by over 500 clients across sales, marketing, recruitment, events and technology. The company recently opened an office in New York and expanded its three offices in the UK, Europe and Asia. It enhanced its AI expertise with the hire of James Hodson, former Head of AI at Bloomberg, as Chief Science Officer, and is led by CEO James Isilay. Financially, Cognism raised $12M in a round that was an extension to a prior $10M raise with PeakSpan Capital. The company intends to use the funds to open more offices across Europe and deepen its localized regulatory expertise. Cognism is a SaaS end-to-end sales acceleration platform that uses patented AI technology to provide a blend of real-time company, people and event data. Its product is designed to streamline prospecting and enable B2B sales teams to find and deliver new revenue. The company was founded in 2016 by James Isilay (CEO) and Stjepan Buljat (CTO) and is based in London, UK. Cognism plans to use the new funding to expand adoption, open offices in Boston and Singapore, and grow its machine learning team. The company raised $10m in a Series B that brought total funding to just over $16.5m. It reported rapid growth since initial funding in 2017, including ARR growth of over 4x in 2018. Cognism delivers a SaaS sales acceleration platform, combining a data asset and a compliance engine to help teams enrich CRM records and stream leads into the funnel. The company uses artificial intelligence to surface opportunities and identify customer trends. It is headquartered in London, UK and Skopje, Macedonia, and was founded in 2016 by James Isilay and Stjepan Buljat. Cognism’s product is aimed at enterprise sales teams and includes features to improve prospecting efficiency. The recent funding will be used to enhance the enterprise solution and expand the offering into the Financial Services sector. The company announced a £2.8m raise from a mix of existing and new backers.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2020

Farewill provides an online platform to write wills, organise probate and order cremations and other funeral services. It is currently live only in the U.K. but has longer-term plans to expand to more countries. In five years of operation it claims a 10% share of the U.K. will-writing market and says its cremation service is now the third or fourth biggest cremation provider in the country. The company reported 800% revenue growth last year (pre-COVID) and has facilitated over £200 million in pledged legacy income with a target of £1 billion by 2023. Cremation, funeral and probate services were launched in December 2019, and Farewill positions its cremation offering at roughly one-fifth the cost of a typical funeral. Founders Dan Garrett (CEO) and Tom Rogers (CTO and CPO) built the business with a design-led approach aimed at destigmatizing death and simplifying administrative processes for grieving families. Farewill provides an online platform that asks users a few questions to create a will, with live chat and phone support available. After users complete their will, one of the company’s legal experts checks it to ensure there are no issues. Once finalised, users print and sign the will, with two witnesses required to sign as well, and are advised to store the will safely and inform executors of its location. The company has partnered with insurance firms such as Legal & General and Aviva and charity partners including Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support. Led by co-founder and CEO Dan Garrett, Farewill intends to use the new funding to expand its team and improve the service. Farewill provides an online, question-driven will-writing service that algorithmically generates legal wills and offers live support from wills specialists. The product is sold as a subscription: £50 for a will with one year of updatability and £5/year thereafter to retain update capability. It is currently available in England and Wales, with Scotland planned next, and the company says it has about 2,500 users and drafted over 1,000 wills during testing. Farewill targets 28–50 year olds (first-time will writers) and emphasizes a simpler, more human experience versus DIY packs and traditional solicitors. The team is pursuing partnerships with employers, charities, and is in discussions with two large UK banks to drive customer acquisition. Farewill also states technical safeguards: will PDFs stored on Amazon S3 in Ireland, AES-256 at rest, expiring URLs for access, transport-level encryption, restricted developer access, and a pledge not to sell or share user data.

Participated · Equity · May 2020

Scoota provides an automated omni-channel digital branding platform that allows users to deliver ad campaigns across out-of-home (OOH), mobile, desktop and beyond. Led by CEO James Booth, the company says it has delivered campaigns for over 500 tier-1 brands, including Ford, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Unilever and P&G. The company is based in London and New York. Scoota raised £2m in growth funding from Notion Capital, the Angel CoFund (ACF) and VentureFounders. It intends to use the funds for rapid U.S. expansion during 2020 and early 2021. Rockabox is a software-as-a-service provider of video engagement technology, offering a platform that combines distribution, engagement and analytics for brands, agencies, publishers and broadcasters. Its platform includes Shutters™, an innovative HTML5 content media format that synchronizes video content with brand messaging, interactive features and ecommerce functionality. Launched in 2008 and co-founded by James Booth (CEO) and Torie Chilcott, the company counts clients such as Honda, Diesel, Estée Lauder, Hackett and House of Fraser. The company completed a £3m Series A funding round to support growth. Rockabox plans to use the funding to expand into new markets, further develop its SaaS platform and consolidate its market position. Rockabox Media develops cross-media entertainment formats supported by a marketing methodology and technology platform, including Shutters video technology and the Viewshare online content distribution platform. The company creates content across traditional television, online and mobile formats to help brands reach fragmented audiences and track campaign effectiveness across PCs, smartphones and tablets. Rockabox works with brand clients—its recent client is Nokia for a campaign tied to the N8 smartphone. The new funding from Frog Capital is earmarked to enhance Shutters and Viewshare. Rockabox was founded in 2008 by James Booth and Torie Chilcott and leverages senior executive experience from TV, online video and online video advertising. Founders’ backgrounds cited include Booth’s founding of Tangozebra (acquired by DoubleClick/Google in 2007) and Chilcott’s TV-format work at FremantleMedia, including creation of The Farmer Wants a Wife and co-writing Pop Idol.

Participated · Equity · May 2019

Flagstone is a London-based cash deposit platform that helps UK savers, SMEs and charities access over 200 savings account offerings from 60 cash savings providers. Co-founded in 2015 by Andrew Thatcher and Simon Merchant, Flagstone distributes savings through direct channels, fintech partners, financial advisers and brand partnerships, and powers products at firms such as Saga and Revolut. The company serves more than 600,000 customers and has over £11 billion in assets under administration. It also operates an international subsidiary and has established distribution relationships outside the UK. The primary portion of the recent investment will be used to further consolidate Flagstone's position in the cash deposit market, while the secondary portion will enable early backers to realise returns. Estancia will take a board role and the transaction is expected to close in Q2 2024 after regulatory approvals. Flagstone operates a cash deposit marketplace that provides individuals, wealth managers, businesses and charities access to hundreds of cash deposit accounts from 44 banks. The platform includes high-street banks such as HSBC and Nationwide as well as challenger banks. Flagstone supplies its cash deposit platform to Revolut’s UK clients and is the exclusive cash deposit platform for Charities Aid Foundation, St. James’s Place, Quilter Cheviot, Tilney Group and other wealth managers. The company is FCA authorised and regulated. Founded in 2013 by Simon Merchant and Andrew Thatcher and based in London, Flagstone plans to use new funding to extend penetration of the UK market to new customer segments. The article notes a $15m financing round to support that expansion. Flagstone operates a cash deposit platform that gives individuals, wealth managers, SMEs and charities access to over 550 deposit accounts from 30 banks through a single application. The platform requires a minimum deposit of £250k to open an account. Clients include St. James’s Place, Quilter Cheviot, Tilney Group and other wealth management firms. The firm is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Reference Numbers 676754 and 605504). In May 2019 Flagstone raised £11m in growth funding and intends to use the proceeds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. Founded in 2013 and based in London, the company serves institutional and private clients.

Participated · Equity · Dec 2018

Lightpoint Medical develops intraoperative imaging products, notably a robotic laparoscopic probe designed to detect cancer in real time and the LightPath® Imaging System. The LightPath system has already achieved commercial sales throughout Europe. The laparoscopic probe is intended to bring real-time cancer detection to minimally invasive and robotic surgery to improve tissue-sparing and clinical outcomes. The company will use new funding to commercialise the laparoscopic probe and support commercial growth of the LightPath system. It has secured a £5 million financing and previously raised more than £3 million in grant funding from the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument and Innovate UK. Management says the funds will prepare the company for commercial scale-up and a commercial launch of the laparoscopic probe. Lightpoint Medical, based in Rickmansworth, United Kingdom and Cambridge, Massachusetts, develops the EnLight™ fiberscope system that uses molecular imaging to reveal microscopic cancer deposits. The technology is intended to enable surgeons to identify cancerous tissue during procedures. The company will use the awarded funds to support clinical trials of EnLight™ in lymph node cancer and a range of gynecologic cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). Lightpoint will collaborate on the research with MSK’s Drs. Jan Grimm and Nadeem Abu-Rustum. The company is led by Founder and CEO Dr. David Tuch and is backed by business angels and other private investors. Lightpoint Medical develops surgical imaging technologies, including its lead products LightPath™ and EnLight™, to help surgeons detect cancer in real time and reduce the need for repeat operations. The company has clinical trials underway in breast, prostate and stomach cancer. Led by CEO Dr David Tuch, Lightpoint is UK-based and completed a Series A raise of £2m ($3.1m). The company intends to use the funds to bring LightPath and EnLight to the US and European markets in 2015. Its technology is positioned for intraoperative cancer detection to improve surgical outcomes and reduce follow-up procedures. Lightpoint Medical is a Rickmansworth, UK–based developer of innovative imaging technologies for cancer surgery. Founded in 2012 by Dr David Tuch, the company is developing a novel molecular imaging technology based on Cerenkov luminescence imaging. The technology is intended to help surgeons detect cancer in real time during surgery, providing more accurate treatment while sparing healthy tissue. In June 2013 the company raised £175K (approximately $270K) in seed funding. The round involved a mix of institutional and angel investors led by Oxford Technology Management.