AlbionVC

😎 In case you missed it, here is a round up of all the spring work we've been up to at AlbionVC ⤵ Egress Software Technologies has been acquired by KnowBe4, creating a leading force in Adaptive Security and Human Risk Intelligence. Egress, co-founded by Tony Pepper and Neil Larkins, has grown impressively since its Series A in 2014, boasting over 2,500 customers worldwide. Watch Tony's fireside chat with Ed Lascelles. 🎈 Summary of software and deeptech investments in 2024 so far: ✳ Treefera - we led a $12m Series A in an AI-driven nature data platform ✴ Gridcog - £3.3m seed round for clean energy software ❇ Mondra - £3.6m seed round into an environmental insights platform ✴ OpenDialog AI - $8m Series A for conversational AI in regulated industries ✳ Oriole Networks - £10m seed round to build AI 'super brains' out of light ✴ Stanhope AI - £2.3m seed round to bring AI into robotics ❇ Echopoint Medical Ltd - £4.2m Series A for cardiovascular diagnostics Binge through our 'Founder Stories University Edition' featuring inspiring academic entrepreneurs from the leading UK universities with Raza Habib, Rosalyn Moran, Amit Nathwani, Adrien Desjardins & Malcolm Finlay. 📺 Finally keep an eye out if you're in London as Jane will be at SaaStr Europa, Ed & Jay are heading to Amsterdam for Money20/20, while Andrew, Christoph and Molly will be there at HLTH Europe later in June! 💯 Stay on top of all things AlbionVC 👇 and join our newsletter

Today, with great pleasure we announce multiple team promotions including four new homegrown Partners - Adam Chirkowski, Cat McDonald, Nadine Torbey and Paul Lehair.    Since joining AlbionVC, they've backed and supported multiple founders and their teams, led investments in category leading companies across SaaS, Fintech, Deeptech and ClimateTech. They’ve played pivotal roles in notable VC exits including Credit Kudos acquisition by Apple, and most recently Egress, a KnowBe4 company acquisition by KnowBe4. Ed Lascelles, Partner at AlbionVC added: “At AlbionVC we pride ourselves on having both deep domain expertise and the know-how to support founders in their scale up journeys. These promotions expand and celebrate that expertise across high growth areas from ClimateTech to AI.” Congratulations to Molly Gilmartin for being promoted to Investment Director, and to Kibriya Rahman and Valérie Aelbrecht for being promoted to Investment Managers. More here: https://lnkd.in/eHGvHruG #team #announcement #partnership #AlbionVC #promotions #growth #venturecapital #investors #founders

🌞 Flash back to last week's AlbionVC Summer Party! 😎 We had an incredible time bringing together some of our favorite people at our favorite spot to enjoy the best of the British summer. From champagne, zesty margaritas to cheesy pizzas and the magical beats from our regular DJs, it was an evening of thoughtful catchups and fun. Special thanks to everyone who joined us and made the event memorable. ⚽🍹 #AlbionVC #SummerParty #networking #community #founders #investors #venturecapital #VC #knowhow #ecosystem

Instinct Digital, a SaaS solution for funds and investor reporting, announced a £5 million Series A funding round led by us at AlbionVC. The global investment reporting software market is valued at around $10 billion, with asset managers struggling due to poor data quality, multiple sources, and outdated solutions. This has led to a demand for digital middle and back-office services and improved customer reporting. Instinct Digital addresses these issues with a cloud-based platform that enhances report production, distribution, and analytics, resulting in significant time and cost savings. The new funding will help Instinct onboard new clients, strengthen partner integrations, and expand into new markets, including the US. Robert Whitby-Smith, Partner AlbionVC said: “When the market-leading solution meets a large market with an urgent need for innovation, great things happen. The team behind Instinct Digital have a track record of success in both the industry they are providing a solution for, and in scaling enterprise software businesses. Cassian is an ambitious CEO with an exceptional team who is executing at pace, motivated by the large market opportunity. We are delighted to partner with Cassian and Team Instinct as they build the category leader in investment communication and reporting." Valérie Aelbrecht, Investment Manager, AlbionVC has more on why we invested in Instinc here: https://lnkd.in/e6VFYaMS Congratulations to Cassian Scott, CEO and the whole team at Instinct Digital! Read more on EU-Startups here: https://lnkd.in/eW3hg_fx #reporting #Instinct #funds #investment #communication #assets #digital #platform #assetmanagement #SaaS #seriesA #venturecapital

I’m delighted that the acquisition of Egress Software Technologies by KnowBe4 has now closed! As you can imagine, this huge milestone has been an opportunity for reflection and I wanted to share a few personal highlights.   A leap of faith When a founder makes that life-changing decision to start something new, it’s more hope than expectation that you’ll make it work. Looking back at our product launch in 2009, as well as the Christmas parties and events that followed, I find myself staring intensely at the photos trying to remember what was going through my mind at that time. I don’t recall being scared by the risks we were taking; it felt like an adventure.   What I know now is this; as a first-time founder CEO, I didn’t truly appreciate the time it would take to build and scale a global business…   Raising capital and expanding into new markets We first raised outside capital in 2014 with AlbionVC. We were only 30 people and super niche but Ed Lascelles believed in us, which became a pivotal moment in our history.   Together, we started building out the team, adding Malcolm Locke as CFO in 2014 and Martin Hiscox as Chairman in 2017. I couldn’t imagine how things would have played without these two. By December 2018, we’d added David Quantrell to the Board and completed our Series C round, led by Kyle Griswold and Richard Liu at FTV Capital, with participation from Albion. I’m incredibly grateful to Vishal Marria, who introduced me to FTV Capital, opening the door to an amazing six-year partnership.   What I’m most proud of Without hesitation – our team. It’s given me tremendous pleasure to see so many people flourish personally and professionally. It’s the greatest feeling in the world to have played a small part in helping such incredible talent realize their true potential. There are too many to thank in this post, but it’s important you know how humbled I am by your loyalty, sacrifices, and relentless commitment over the years. You will always have a very special place in my heart!   Special thanks A founder’s journey is unique (to put it mildly!). Your life and soul goes into the business; it becomes your absolute identity. I was lucky to go on that journey with John Goodyear and Neil Larkins. We grew up together, started our own families at Egress, and sadly lost loved ones along the way. In truth, nothing can prepare you for the journey, but sharing those highs and lows creates an unbreakable bond for which I’m eternally grateful.   Looking to the future As Dr Seuss wrote: ‘Don’t cry that it’s over, smile that it happened.’ While our adventure as an independent company is over, I’m delighted that #TeamEgress is part of the KnowBe4 family. I want to particularly thank Stu Sjouwerman, Greg Kras, and the KnowBe4 leadership team, as well as the amazing folks at Vista Equity Partners, namely Rod Aliabadi and Alan Glass. We’re all so excited about the opportunity ahead to create something truly special– and we plan to grasp it with both hands!

💬 We recently hosted an 𝗔𝗹𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗩𝗖 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 session for healthtech companies with Professor Sneh Khemka, who has had a long career in health insurance, to share insights and experiences about the payor landscape in the UK - from PMI (private medical insurance) to cash plans and the increasing self pay market. 🗣 We also discussed the milestones that payors in the UK and US want to see from early stage healthtech solutions, along with other motivations for payors to be exploring new technologies. Than you so much to Sneh for hosting the session and everyone for joining! AlbionVC Studio is a know-how event series for founders and leadership teams, led by partners and experts. If you’re interested in hearing more about how we support our teams connect with Lauren Apostolidis or sign up here to join our studio network: https://lnkd.in/e9veUBq8 #healthcare #health #insurance #medicalinsurance #healthtech #solutions #network #founders #leadership #startups #entrepreneurs #venturecapital

1-1 with Gabriele Lignani on gene therapy innovations, EpilepsyGTx, and entrepreneurship. Gabriele Lignani, EpilepsyGTx co-founder and scientific advisor, joined AlbionVC partner Simon Goldman for another episode of our founder stories. The biotech startup recently raised $10m in a seed funding round led by us via the UCL Technology Fund. Aside from his role at Epilepsy GTX, Gabriele is also a professor of Translational Neuroscience at UCL and, in this chat, he shares how his journey started with UCL's renowned epilepsy research programme in 2014. Through the relationship with Simon and the collaboration at UCL, Gabriele realised the need to prioritise the translational pathway and early patenting, integrating clinical applications with theoretical research to align research with patient needs.    He advises combining basic and translational research, engaging with commercialisation experts, and collaborating across disciplines.   Watch the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/ej6XjCvY    Founder Stories University Edition is a captivating series of fireside chats featuring academic founders backed by AlbionVC, which has invested in over 30 UK university spinouts.    UCL Technology Fund UCL Business Ltd #lifesciences #genetherape #research #epilepsy #biotech #UCL #lab #tech #founders #cofounder #startups #entrepreneurs #venturecapital #founderstories

Huge congratulations to EpilepsyGTx, a late preclinical-stage biotech developing cutting-edge gene therapies to treat focal refractory epilepsy (FRE), on its recent milestone $10m seed raise to advance their lead gene therapy program EPY201. The financing was led by us via the UCL Technology Fund, with participation from HTH Simon Goldman Partner AlbionVC who has worked with the team since the start said: “EpilepsyGTx has an objectively world-leading pipeline of genetic therapies for a common and damaging neurological disorder with few treatment options, developed by a globally-renowned clinical, scientific and translational team at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. We are enormously pleased to have Nicolas Koebel on board as CEO, with a track record of building exceptional global biotech companies from inception to commercial launch. We are excited that this industry-leading team now has the opportunity to translate medicines that have the potential to change the lives of patients with epilepsy and other CNS disorders.” Read more here: https://lnkd.in/e9yaXzJ7 UCL Technology Fund, UCL Business Ltd #lifesciences #epilepsy #biotech #UCLspinout #lab #tech #uktech #founders #cofounder #startups #entrepreneurs #venturecapital

👆 Female underrepresentation is a well-known issue in the founders' ecosystem. Speaking with Forbes, Ed Lascelles reflects on AlbionVC's investment portfolio and points out the issues around the low volume of female-fronted companies coming through the pipeline.   As a result, VC funds are missing out on a large pool of untapped talent. Aside from the moral and societal reasons, failing to attract women means missing out on good ideas that could ultimately become world-beating businesses.   Rather than simply waiting for female founders to walk through the door, AlbionVC and Speedinvest are addressing this systematic issue with the return of the Radia Accelerator 2024 programme.   “The accelerator aims to fill two gaps. The knowledge gap and the network gap… If you have a network, you have a better chance of raising money” says Ed Lascelles, partner AlbionVC. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/d23QpAkh 📢 Are you a UK-based early-stage female entrepreneur in the B2B software space? Join Radia to learn from fellow founders, operators, and investors to accelerate your startup growth from inception. 🤙 Apply now here: https://lnkd.in/eApkFrzw #Radiaccelerator24 #entreprise #female #entrepreneurs #founders #radiaccelerator #SaaS #startups #growth #venturecapital #B2B #tech

There’s no denying that America represents a new (and exciting) horizon for European health companies. Andrew Elder, AlbionVC healthtech partner, moderated a panel discussion at HLTH Europe this week, exploring the challenges in trying to successfully scale a health startup in the US. The panel include:  Umar Afridi, CEO, Foundation Health Andrea Berchowitz, Co-Founder, Vira Health Thomas Luby, Director, Texas Medical Center Innovation Maria-Helen Maras, Venture and Growth Investor, Kinnevik Key learnings emerging from the discussion: 🔵 Founder-led sales are crucial in the early stages of entering the US market. 🔵 Expect major structural challenges, including the need to potentially relocate to the US. 🔵 US health tech founders and advisory networks are generally open to engagement—don't hesitate to seek help. 🔵 Establish an advisory network to navigate the US market’s complexities, as each state can differ significantly. 🔵 Winning contracts is just the beginning; prioritize marketing and ensure alignment with partners to build traction and avoid project failures. #HLTHEurope #2024 #healthtech #scale #startups #scaleups #tech #health #US #expansion #investors #entrepreneurs #network