Amar Shah

Congrats to my TenU colleagues for the launch of their USIT (University Spinout Investment Terms) Software Guide, for streamlining the launch of UK startups based on software from UK universities. This follows their launch last year of the USIT Life Sciences Guide, and is similar in principle to the US-BOLT term sheets that some of us in the U.S. have created for life science and climate startups. Streamlining the negotiating process for university innovations = more and stronger startups, faster! This USIT guide also has particularly interesting contextual info throughout, such as explaining some of the arcane terms entrepreneurs might see in these license deals, plus advice on how founders' equity should be distributed amongst the operating members of the startup. An excellent document, well worth a download (link below). Congrats in particular to Ananay Aguilar of TenU and Simon Hepworth of Imperial College London, who lead this effort on behalf of the UK universities. I'm proud to be a member of TenU, and happy to have had the chance (alongside my U.S. TenU colleagues Karin Immergluck and Lesley Millar-Nicholson) to celebrate with them in London this week. Just to be clear, though: I had nothing to do with the creation of this document, all credit goes to the U.K. folks! I'm just amplifying their achievement.

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🚀 Join Us at AI Forge Incubator: Meet Solo Founders Seeking Co-Founders! 📅 When: Wednesday, 29th May 📍 Where: The Old Street Gallery, 62 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4DQ 🕒 Time: 5pm-9pm Are you a visionary CTO, CPO, or commercial expert ready to make your mark in the AI start-up space? Here's your golden opportunity! ✨ What's Happening? Our solo founders are in week 5 of a 12-week intensive incubator program. They are actively seeking co-founders to join them as CTOs, CPOs, or in commercial roles. These companies will be pitching to 450 investors during the week commencing 8th July, with a high probability of securing funding. 🌟 Why You Should Attend: Dive into the world of promising AI start-ups. Contribute your skills immediately by joining an existing business. Be part of the prestigious AI Forge incubator program. Potentially integrate your own business ideas into an evolving proposition. Network with talented individuals and successful entrepreneurs. Gain invaluable insights and advice from seasoned founders and mentors. 🔎 Types of Businesses Seeking Co-Founders: Our 9 solo founders are leading ventures in: EdTech SalesTech LegalTech FemTech MedTech MarTech 🎉 Event Highlights: 💬 Speed Dating Sessions: Quick, focused interactions to maximize connections. 🔍 Pre-Matchmaking: Initial meetings set up to streamline the matchmaking process. 🤝 Networking Opportunities: Explore collaboration possibilities with like-minded entrepreneurs. Don't miss out on this unique chance to partner with innovative AI start-ups and accelerate your career in the tech industry. Register at Seeking AI Co-Founders · Luma - https://lu.ma/f22d1ih9 #AIStartups #CoFounders #TechInnovation #Entrepreneurship #Networking #AIForge

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I recently read an article by Charles Plant here on LinkedIn about the correlation, or lack thereof, between patent ownership and scaleup success. According to Charles [link to Charles’ LI post ]there is no significant correlation between the number of patents and key business metrics such as scaleup ranking, financial velocity, or employee growth rate. My own experience on the subject is mixed.. For clean tech and life sciences firms, patents can help, leading to higher employee growth. However, for unicorns and health tech companies, the absence of patents seems to not affect the outcomes. Even for software tech firms, patents don't significantly impact success. Our stance at RiSC usually follows that if the company plans to pursue patents then we like to ask “Please tell us your strategy.” If it’s just registering IP randomly then we don’t think it adds value to a company. If it’s thoughtful and in support of future defense/offense of IP then we’re interested in learning more. If the company is competing in a litigious market then it’s great to hear that they’ve thought it through in advance. In technology and venture media, particularly coming from governments and economic development agencies, often emphasize patents as a growth strategy, but the data suggests that effective marketing and sales are more crucial for business success in the long run. Founders should focus on understanding their markets and customers rather than solely on intellectual property. For many deep tech founders who are responsible for the core technology innovation and need help navigating the market risks from a business perspective, that’s where we come in nicely at RiSC Capital. #ScaleupSuccess #Deeptech #Innovation #Patents #StartupGrowth

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Numbers & insights from a deep tech venture studio that launched 11 companies (all are active) in the last 7 years, reaching £85M valuation across the portfolio: 1. Post Urban, initially bootstrapped by Luke Robinson, an academic with a PhD in physics from Cambridge, now operates with external funding from a UK-based fund. 2. Launched 5 companies during the first 5 years and 6 companies during the last 2 years. 3. All 11 completed pre-seed rounds; 1 of them got Series A, 2 of them are approaching their Series A. 4. The startups have collectively raised ~£25M in venture capital, in addition to receiving grants. The total valuation of the 11 companies is ~£85M, half of which have not yet undergone subsequent funding rounds. 5. Initial equity splits: the venture builder 20%, CEOs of startups 35% (vests over 4 years), CTOs – 20-25%, employees 10-15%. 6. The initial valuation of startups was £2 million, with £300K invested by the venture builder. The last 2 startups were at £3.5-4M initial valuation. 7. Building deep tech ventures requires significantly higher initial funding because these projects need more time to develop demonstrable products. Two portfolio companies hit £1M in ARR. 8. The venture builder has increased the capital for the last 2 startups to ensure they reach meaningful milestones. The CEOs of the startups were able to secure additional funding through their networks, £350K and £450K, respectively. 9. The deep tech investor pool is smaller than that for sectors like SaaS, which requires a stronger proof of concept and market readiness to attract funding. 10. 3-4 times, potential customers became investors in Post Urban Ventures. This is a great approach because it secures investment and validates the concept by gauging whether these potential customers truly believe in the solution and its market necessity. 11. They don't start with a technology or an idea; instead, they integrate insights about global problems and, by actively engaging with advisory boards, founders, and industry experts, identify pain points and align them with technological solutions. 12. They do not bring universities in as co-founders but source scientists or professors to contribute to research and development. This involves leveraging academic expertise to support the technical aspects of startup projects until a prototype is developed. 13. The studio maintains strong connections with major academic institutions, including Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, and UCL, supporting its deep tech focus and facilitating access to new technologies and potential founders. 14. Areas of focus in deep tech: AI (Knowledge Graphs, NLP, DNNs, Computer Vision, Edge AI, Active Learning), Quantum Technologies, Biotech, AgTech, Enterprise SaaS. Watch the full interview to gain insights into the portfolio companies, handling IP collaborations with universities, key challenges, and team construction: https://lnkd.in/dCi7fZ7G

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🚀 Antler UK’s Latest Investments: 7 Startups Shaping the Future Curious to get an inside view into Antler's latest investments in the UK? We've made seven investments following our Spring residency in London. Check out their one-liners and latest traction below. Comment "Invest" if you want to book time with the founders, and I'll message you a link privately. 1. AI-powered post-trade processing: Running pilots with UK financial service providers and already raised follow-on funding from VCs, angels, and industry experts. 💹 2. Transforming hotel communications with conversational AI: Pilots with prominent hotel groups, will cover over 900 rooms by October, a waitlist of over 1,500 rooms. 🏨🤖 3. The automated data stack for early stage companies: Already revenue-generating, and saving their customers thousands of pounds weekly on analysis and data maintenance work. 📊💼 4. AI property manager: Pipeline of 13,000 units, 1,700 actively using the platform. Strategic partnerships with leading UK property developers. NPS of 91 from early users. 🏠🧠 5. Automating the back-office admin of trades businesses: Gained first paying customers, and signed strategic partnerships for access to 29,000 UK trades professionals. 🛠️📋 6. Business development automation for recruiters: Within weeks of being onboarded to their MVP, early customers generated over £60,000 in additional revenue. 💼💰 7. AI-powered insect rearing system for pest management: A sustainable alternative to chemical pesticides, running 2 pilot trials with farms that operate in the UK, Europe, and Africa. 🌍🐜

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Introducing the Alinia AI Alignment Platform. From their announcement: "Alinia AI enables companies to evaluate the performance of their GenAI applications and obtain evidence on how aligned these are to their values, policies, and business preferences. Following the performance assessment, Alinia AI recommends the best next actions to further guide and control LLM output and improve alignment."

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One of the worst things about VC is having to pass on amazing startups because they don't quite fit our thesis at 7percent Ventures. It's always a great when we get to shout out people building such transformative technologies - even when we've not invested. Thanks Kai Nicol-Schwarz for collating this list of startups in the #Cambridge ecosystem. My picks: Prospectral, Signapse, Tenyks. Who else should be on the list?

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Founders, this is a great checklist to optimise your seed deck. 👇 I tend to ignore the issues highlighted in point 1 and 2, rather than view them as negative signals. One of the repeat pieces of advice I share with founders on decks: focus on your "minimal viable story". And remember every investor has a different checklist. Great post Adam Shuaib, PhD Happy raising! #vc #fundraising #founders #scalebridge

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