Oh-oh-oh, It’s Business Time
[Chorus]
It’s business, it’s business time
(Business hours are over, baby)
It’s business, it’s business time
(Oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, yeah-yeah, yeah
Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh)
This post is going to set out my goals for Kintsugi (Ad)ventures, a new seed fund investing in advanced technologies for people and planet, over the next 6 months:
🎯 Invest in ≥12 syndicated deals as Kintsugi (Ad)ventures Syndicates Ltd
🎯 Secure an anchor for ≥€2M invested capital of the €8M target for Fund I
🎯 Agree 3–5 advisory relationships with top tier VCs and exited founders
May the 4th was already with you and in 6 months it will be my 37th birthday and a full year since leaving my two roles with Kindred Capital and UCL.
As a status update, in the trailing 6 months since October we have now closed 5 deals:
🚁 VOLVE (Syncing human creativity & AI in a single engineering platform) — Arkadiy Serezhkin and Ismail Ahmad have very ambitious goals for this startup which start in partnership with Autodesk utilising the power of AI to design and manufacture a racing drone. Using generative design they decreased the frame weight by a factor of two.
📸 Captur (LiveOps software for physical operations teams) is now operating in 5 countries, the team has grown to 15 under the leadership of Charlotte Bax. They have hit their MRR targets, close a seed round led by MMC Ventures and now focus on building out the product offering and growth. They are currently hiring a Head of Business Development.
🌿 Phycoworks (Unlocking the potential of algae) led by Stefan Grossfurthner, who is a fantastic founder, has closed a £1.8M seed round led by Fly Ventures and won their bid as part of a €9M Horizon Europe grant. PhycoWorks will develop and implement machine learning and data infrastructure for the project.
💾 HACK Venture (Marketplace for investing in Climate, Health & Food) is a new matchmaking platform taking on AngelList and others. Arman Anaturk strongly believes that the best way to support the climate and health crisis is to start, work, join or fund private companies in this space. I share this belief wholeheartedly.
🦾 Ai Build (Enterprise software that unlocks the true potential of additive manufacturing) closed a Seed+ round and are finally hitting their rhythm in terms of enterprise sales. Daghan Cam and Michail Desyllas are awesome and the second time we’ve invested in their vision for the future of manufacturing.
In terms of fundraising I have have fairly serious conversations with multiple parties about anchoring Fund I.
So far this includes an awesome European seed stage fund that spun out of AngelList, a fund of funds being set up by an ex–operator at a global fintech investor and a number of exited tech founders mainly based here in the United Kingdom.
I have been working closely with my partner Jos Smart who alongside a full-time job has been a constant source of support.
I have been very lucky to have intermittent advice, sanity checks and introductions from some amazing investors such as hussein kanji, Leila Zegna, Philipp Moehring and Sitar Teli, each of whom I respect hugely.
So… All in all… Not a bad 6 months but definitely on my own report card it would say:
“Could do better.”
At times it’s lonely, isolating and feels impossible but my biggest challenge in this crazy thing (ad)venture called Life is remaining focused… Eyes on the prize.
The awesome and inimitable McKeever Conwell at Rarebreed kindly shared his fundraising story with me…
I am hoping by sharing this blog post publicly it will hold me accountable to myself, my partners, my advisors, the founders I’ve invested in and current and future backers of Kintsugi.
Life is a great balancing act and the last few weeks I’ve probably had too much play time swimming, cycling, hiking and not enough hard graft raising this fund.
But now… It’s business time.
N.B. If you’ve never watch The Flight of the Conchords this random video will be completely lost on you..
P.S. If you’re reading this and interested in investing in the next generation of great founders building a better future with advanced technologies or can help with referrals to founders, advisors or backer then get in touch via Twitter or LinkedIn!
