As winter thaws and Europe warms once more, we’re here to share some updates from the first quarter of this new decade a.k.a ‘The Roaring 20s 2.0’.
But first…let’s get a little deepfake in our new highlights film featuring Andre as Jack Sparrow and Alex as Rambo. Yes, we’re not kidding. Click the image below to dive in. And sound on if you want the Daft Punk (R.I.P) inspired music delights.
Onto the Q1 updates!
1.
We’re excited to announce our new investment in the cellular agriculture superstars Hoxton Farms. We think Max Jamilly and Ed Steele will completely change the meat alternatives game with their cultivated fat. You can read more about why we backed them here.
2.
We made 4 very exciting new Seed investments across Future of Work, food-tech and Black-focussed beauty / personal care. Watch out for the announcements in Q2.
3.
Meatable raised a $47M Series A round from Dr. Rick Klausner (former Exec Director Global Health @ Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Section 32 and others. Founders Daan and Krijn are confident their technology is adaptable to any cell-based species, including cows, pigs, sheep, and fish. And we’re with them. Read more here.
4.
Legl raised their Series A round from Octopus Ventures and others. Julia and her team are already working with over 100 law firms in the UK through their platform which offers digital tools to streamline core legal processes such as customer onboarding, due diligence and payments. Read more here.
Note: These are just two examples from the 10 follow-on rounds closed across the portfolio this quarter.🥳
5.
As most of you know, we’re on a relentless mission to be the best VC partner for Seed entrepreneurs in Europe. So a few chunky updates on that front…
1 . We launched a powerful custom built Network app for our companies to frictionlessly source and manage introductions from across our entire Network of investors, domain experts, service providers, customers and media contacts. Huge shout out to Daisy our polymathic Head of Networks for this one. Oh and she’s also tipped as one of Europe’s most promising female investors (Thanks Business Insider! though we’ve already known for some time).
2. We launched 5 new features in our Founder Experience Platform: the Inclusive Cultures workshop, the Values Development workshop, the People Ops Mastermind, Brand 101 and the Brand & Comms mastermind. Is it any wonder we’ve got such a strong founder-first reputation!? 💅
6.
On the Media & Content side:
1 . Daisy Onubogu: Underrepresented Founders Are Merely Collateral Damage
2 . Rachel Grahame: What a year of crisis taught me about company culture
3 . Pascal Suhrcke – The Future of HR Tech – Predictions for 2021
4. We’ve also launched a new Clubhouse format called ‘Deep Dives’ where we explore the NOW / NEXT / HOW of frontier technologies with visionary entrepreneurs. The first one was on the Future of Food with Max Bade and our friends from Mushlabs, Legendairy and Hoxton Farms. It was totally f__king awesome.
7.
We welcomed 5 new members into the warm embrace of our thriving Venture Community – which now sits at 50+ people based across Europe – sharing deals, connections, baby photos and startup regrets. Move over Sister Sledge…there’s a new family in town:
8.
Closer to home, Pascal Suhrcke has been promoted to Investment Manager and Rachel Grahame to Director of People Operations.
9.
We’re also going to have our first BACKED marriage! It was only a matter of time wasn’t it. Huge socially distanced hugs to both of you Emmanuel and Urenna – we can’t wait to celebrate with you.
That’s all folks.Can you tell we’re having fun?
Wishing you a wonderful Easter break,
Andre, Alex, Daisy, Dom, Pascal, Sonia, Rachel & Vinay
