Episode one has been a stalwart of the first stage funding scene in London for the previous few years, finance in eminent startups like Carwow, Triptease and AimBrain. It’s currently closed its second kingdom “seed-to-Series A” fund that usually aims to steer rounds of £500k to £2m. The fund could be a £60m ($81m) Enterprise Capital Fund (ECF), raised with the support of British people Business Bank, the united kingdom government’s economic development bank. several kingdom funds area unit turning to the BBB within the wake of Brexit, that has effectively transitioned the EU funding faucets.
Several new establishments together with monger liveliness and ADV joined the ranks of the fund’s existing LPs. monger liveliness, the publicly-listed VC firm primarily based in London, proclaimed its investment in Episode one back in Oct.
Episode one aforesaid the new fund is hour larger than its 1st fund, and was sold, despite the uncertainty caused by things like Brexit.
Founding Partner Simon Murdoch (pictured left) emphasizes that the “enormous quantity of expertise at Episode 1” — which incorporates his early position of Amazon kingdom — is what attracts early stage founders to the fund. In Gregorian calendar month the fund invested with in AimBrain, a London startup that provides “biometric identity” as a service to assist fintech corporations and alternative money establishments fight fraud.
Murdoch told me: “The macro surroundings is touring plenty. I’m not an exponent of Brexit. It’s inflicting issues with startups with achievement. however it’s higher in early stage than being invested with in huge corporations. There’s still lots of innovation. Startups area unit still associate exciting place to be, even with this macro surroundings.”
“It’s terribly onerous to lift a fund without delay. even if we’re still quite documented, it’s still onerous to induce cash from ‘fund of funds’, therefore it’s nice to check Diamond State and ADV invest and we’ll see a lot of of that patient capital get entangled within the market, particularly with Brexit.”
He added: “We area unit preponderantly concerning Enterprise and Marketplaces. We’re shying far from B2C because it needs deeper pockets. We’ve done variety of AI/ML corporations already. One key factor is that the startup aiming at huge markets. we tend to area unit keen on mega-markets like property, cars, producing. therefore we tend to area unit targeted on being ‘seed to Series-A’ specialists, wherever the entrepreneurs area unit usually technical founders. The factor to try to to is hunt for nice individuals.”
On ICOs he said: “ICOs area unit nice for corporations if they'll raise cash that approach. however investors ought to take care and solely put ICOs wherever they're assured that the demand can outstrip provide within the future.”
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