News
12th February 2024
New Portfolio Company Alert!
Avonmore is delighted to join several fellow Cambridge Angel members and Discovery Park Ventures in providing seed funding of £330k into BugBiome, a company with a mission to address agricultural and human pest protection with naturally derived solutions that harness the microbiome as a sustainable source of alternatives to synthetic and bio-accumulative chemicals. This investment also provides matched funding for a £330k Engineering Biology Grant from Innovate UK.
30th January 2024
Portfolio company, Xampla, has announced its recent $7M funding round! This money is intended to help expand its biodegradable, food-safe Morro Coating for takeaway packaging, sachets and cups into new markets and support the transition away from single-use plastics. Among the new investors were clean tech backers CIECH Ventures. Existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Horizon Ventures, Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Enterprise, and Martlet Capital also invested further.
24th January 2024
We are delighted to annouce that portfolio company Vinehealth has exited to Sciensus. The Vinehealth app, developed by founders Rayna Patel and Georgina Kirby, is an award-winning oncology platform designed to allow users to report and track symptoms of disease progression in real time, whilst allowing that same data to be shared with clinicians. The app joins Sciensus’ roster of telehealth and remote patient monitoring apps. We were delighted to have backed this company since its initial funding round in 2019 and wish them every success in the future!
30th October 2023
New Portfolio Company Alert!
Avonmore is delighted to join several fellow Cambridge Angel members, including Pete Hutton, former Arm President of Product Groups and Rajat Malhotra of Wren Capital, in providing seed funding of $5M for ZeroRISC. Founded in April 2023 and comprised of original OpenTitan project team members from Google, including founder and CEO Dominic Rizzo, ZeroRISC will use this funding to deliver the first commercial cloud security service for silicon built on the OpenTitan open-source silicon root of trust (RoT) project with Nuvoton as its first integration partner.
25th September 2023
Congratulations on the team at Continuum Industries on the announcement of their $10m Series A funding, led by Singular. Their product, Optioneer, is becoming vital in accelerating the planning process for linear infrastructure products, such as linking renewable energy projects to the grid and speeding our journey to net zero. Amazing news for a fantastic team!
6th September 2023
Congratulations to the team of Shop Circle, one of the first aggregators of eCommerce tools, who have just announced a huge Series A raise of $120M in a mixture of debt and equity. We first invested into the company in their angel pre-seed round in 2021 and have continued to back the company since then.
6th September 2023
Delighted that home care management software firm CareLineLive has acquired the business behind CareFor IT and Ulysses. Working with the home care agencies and industry, CareLineLive provides home care operators a cloud-based management system. This acquistion increases CareLineLive's number of home care customers to 600 and it will now be managing more than 15,000 carers in total across the UK, Ireland, Jersey and Australia.
28 August 2023
We are delighted that Oncology Ventures has recently invested into Avonmore portfolio company Concr, a techbio company, applying statistical learning and advanced modelling adopted from astrophysics to aid in precision treatment of cancer patients.
19th April 2023
New Portfolio Company Alert!
Avonmore had recently completed an investment into ManholeMetrics as part of their £300k pre-seed round alongside Ascencsion and some leading industry angels. Over the last year the team have developed a low-cost, easy-to-install, long-life sensor and analytics platform that gives infrastructure owners and operators the real-time data they have previously lacked to both anticipate and respond proactively to flooding events. With the UK government's decision to remove the cap on fines to combat the increasing sewage pollution of English rivers and coastlines, ManholeMetrics is already feeling the pull of the market (and the problem is global!).
31st March 2023
Huge congratulations to Avonmore portfolio company Concr on the closing of their $1.5M seed funding led by Cambridge Enterprise and existing investor R42 Group. Concr uses techniques from astrophysics to link disparate and messy oncology data and thereby allows scientists to accurately predict biomarkers of drug response, with a fraction of the data required previously. These biomarker predictions can then de-risk pivotal clinical trials and improve patient outcomes.
29th March 2023
Congratuations to the team at French Insurtech, Koala Insurance, on the closing of its €2M fundraising round, in which we invested again. This company has gone from strength to strength and it is a testiment to the whole Koala team that they have become profitable in such a challenging economic environment. Last year alone their automated and exclusion-free travel insurance products protected 100,000+ travellers and they signed 30+ travel partnerships 👊
21st February 2023
Avonmore has invested once again into the wonderful team at AeroCloud, alongside Playfair Capital and Stage 2 Capital, in their $12.6M Series A. Since our initial pre-seed investment back in 2020, Aerocloud, which provides modern, modular, in-cloud airport management software solution vs the legacy on-premises incumbants, now counts dozens of European and US customers as customers. These includes the likes of Manchaster and Tampa International.
18th January 2023
New Portfolio Company Alert!
We are delighted to announce our significant investment into Kuai Commerce’s pre-seed round (now known as Yaso). Led by by our great collegues at Playfair Capital and with participation of some prominent domain experts - such as the ex-MD of Alibaba UK - Kuai’s tech-enabled services provide both market entry and brand acceleration options for emerging western D2C category-leaders who would otherwise find the complexity of selling into China prohibitively challenging. Led by 3 founders with almost two decades of combined tech and Chinese market experience, we are excited to see what they can achieve!
17th January 2023
Congratulations to portfolio company CareLineLive the all-in-one home care management software, on the annoucement of their £3M investment by Oakglen to support their international expansion. With operations already in the UK, Jersey, Ireland, and Australia, the Oakglen investment will help CareLineLive fuel even further growth.
6th December 2022
We are delighted to announce that portfolio company Chattermill has successfully raised a $26M Series B round led by new investor Beringea with participation from all previous VC investors and new investor Blossom Street Capital. Avonmore director Simon Blakey led their pre-seed round in 2016 and was on the board until this round. Chattermill is now 80 people and works with global brands such as Amazon, Uber and H&M to analyse and provide actionable insights from their customer feedback data. Congratulations to the whole Chattermill Team!
7 November 2022
It has just been announced that portfolio company Worldr has now raised its seed round, led by Molten Ventures, bringing its total seed funding to $11M. Avonmore was delighted to follow on in this latest round.
9 August 2022
Huge congratulations to portfolio company Aerocloud Systems on its merger with Flight Solutions. Aerocloud has been growing very rapidly since we initially invested and the combined entity can now provide a 100% cloud-native, end-to-end solution for airports operations, in what is a multi $bn sized global market.
28th June 2022
New Portfolio Company Alert!
Delighted to announce that Shop Circle, a company we initially provided pre-seed funding for in May 2021, has just come out of steath with the annoucement of the $65M that it has now raised to become a powerhouse in the world of ecommerce tools.
13th June 2022
Epoch Biodesign (formerly Mellizyme) a company that we invested into in 2021, has officially come out of stealth mode and just announced their $11M seed round led by Chris Sacca’s Lower Carbon Capital. We are incredibly excited by their mission to develop enzymes that transform plastic waste into everyday chemicals - both their technical progress and commercial engagement has been extremely rapid.
9th May 2022
Congratuations to portfolio company Trouva on the annoucement of their exit to MADE.COM. Avonmore had a successful partial exit from this business several years ago, having partially funded the business in their initial pre-seed round back in 2013, but this represents the divestment of our remaining stake.
27th April 2022
Congratulations to portfolio company OneDay (previously Dorm) on the annoucement of their £2.5M funding round, led by Brighteye Ventures, a leading European Edtech fund. Their aim is to provide a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs and Avonmore invested in their pre-seed round back in 2020.
15th February 2022
Portfolio company and Cambridge university spin-out Xampla has annouced a £1M partnership with Britvic to develop a new technology which can protect vitamins within fortified drinks from sunlight. The company, which has developed a revolutionary pea-protein based alternative to single use plastic flims, has also recently trialled an industry-first, edible stock cube wrapper with Gusto.
3rd December 2021
We are delighted that portfolio company Vinehealth, a digital health startup that offers personalized support for cancer patients while also making it easier to gather patient-reported outcome (PRO) data, has just announced its $5.5M seed round, led by Talis Capital. We have been hugely impressed with the progress VineHealth has made since our initial investment in 2019 and have commited significant further capital into this round.
2nd November 2021
Huge congratulations to portfolio company Permuative on the announcement of their $75M Series C funding lead by Softbank. We made a small investment into the company in their first funding round in 2013 and are naturally delighted for both founder Joe Root and the rest of the team!
20th July 2021
New Portfolio Company Alert!
We’re delighted to announce our participation in the $3M funding round for Worldr, led by IQ Capital. Worldr has developed both a platform and a Microsoft Teams ‘wrapper’ with data self-sovereignty at its core; necessary for many organizations to comply with regulations where they are handling sensitive information on a daily basis. They have a wait-list of 200 companies/600,000 employees and Worldr’s founders, Max and Dima, have already pulled together an awesome team to support them. Excited for the journey with this one!
19th May 2021
We are pleased to announce the sale of portfolio company Roadmap Systems to Huber+Suhner. We initially invested in Roadmap in 2018 alongside several other members of Cambridge Angels and this is an ideal exit for both the Roadmap team and the technology. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
5th May 2021
New Portfolio Company Alert!
We are pleased to announce Avonmore’s investment into Macclesfield-based Aerocloud Systems seed round of £1.7M, led by Playfair Capital. The company’s cloud-based solution uses predictive AI, with up to 97% accuracy, to help airports better plan their gates and runway utilisation, increasing their operational capacity and, therefore, their profitability. Aerocloud Systems has already sold their solution to several US based airport operators and this funding allows them to scale up and expand sales coverage into the UK and European markets.
17th April 2021
New Portfolio Company Alert!
Avonmore is delighted to have participated in the small pre-seed funding round of ConcR, a graduate of the KQ Labs accelerator, alongside some other members of Cambridge Angels and R42 Group. The ConcR proprietary framework allows a greater breadth of data to be integrated into software models to predict both how and why a cancer therapy will behave.
16th April 2021
Congratulations to portfolio company CareLineLive, a leading UK provider of cloud-based home-care management software, on the announcement of their latest funding round of £1.2M. The company has shown strong growth over the last year and this funding, led by Haatch Ventures, comes fast off the announcement of their £175,000 Innovate UK grant to enable their expansion into remote monitoring.
18th February 2021
Portfolio company VineHeath have just annouced that they have secured a £1m Innovate UK Grant to improve cancer patient self-management and data collection across four NHS Trusts. Vinehealth will be delivering their innovative cancer companion app to four NHS trusts within a randomised controlled trial, thus generating robust evidence of the platform’s clinical and cost-effectiveness in improving patient self-management and data collection. A huge win and massive congratulations to the whole team.
8th January 2021
Congratulations to portfolio company Xampla who have just closed a £6.2m seed finance round to accelerate the roll-out of its next generation plastic replacement. This follows Avonmore’s initial investment into the £2m pre-seed round announced in April last year and we have also invested in the current round. This round was lead by Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Mr Li Ka-shing and a leading backer of several unicorn companies including Impossible Foods and Spotify. We are delighted to be supporting Xampla in the next stage of its extremely exciting growth story!
2nd December 2020
Delighted to have taken part in the £1M initial funding round for Dorm, who’s founders are creating an education platform for influencers, entrepreneurs and creators in the passion economy, an industry that reportedly stood at $38bn (£28.5bn approx) in 2019. Simon Blakey has joined the board as an observer.
30th November 2020
Congratulations to portfolio company Virtual IT on its latest acquisition of JSPC Computer Services, a multi-million £ turnover Managed Service Provider (MSP) focussed primarily on the educational market. The combined businesses will mean that Virtual IT now turns looks after around 14,000 computer users, primarily in the SE of England and employs 115 people.
23rd November 2020
2020 investment, Xampla, has just announced that it has become the very first UK university spin-out to be accredited B Corp status. B Corps are for–profit businesses which commit to create a material positive impact on society and the environment through their operations and certification is administered by Standards Analysts at the non-profit B Lab.
Xampla is a spin-out from Cambridge University, based on the ground breaking work of Professor Tuomas Knowles. The company is on a mission to replace the everyday single-use plastics you see around us, like sachets and flexible packaging films (as well as the less obvious, such as microplastics within liquids and lotions) with a natural alternative.
31st July 2020
We are delighted to announce Avonmore’s exit from Specle through a MBO. From our initial investment 11 years ago into just a ‘man with a business plan’, Specle has grown to become the UK market leader in print and digital advertising delivery portals. It has been a fascinating journey and we wish the management team all the best for the future.
9th July 2020
Congratulations to portfolio company Permutive on the announcement of their £15M Series B financing. Another strong success story from the Entrepreneur First talent accelerator.
7th July 2020
New Portfolio Company Alert!
We are delighted to announce Avonmore’s latest investment into Paris-based Koala Insurance. This is our second Insurtech deal (the first being Reposit) and our first start-up investment in France. Focussing on the travel insurance space, Koala tracks all journeys in real-time, instantly informing passengers as disruption occurs and issues cash compensation on the spot, whatever the cause of the delay might be. This is part of a €1.6M seed-round led by London based incubator and fund Insurtech Gateway alongside Playfair Capital, Techstars Ventures, and private investors.
26th June 2020
Huge congratulations to Playfair Capital, the £25M UK seed-stage fund advised by Avonmore partner Simon Blakey, on winning the “Hottest Seed Fund” category at the Europas Tech Startup Awards. They are a fantastic team to work with and it is a very well deserved award.
14th May 2020
We are delighted to announce that Avonmore has formed part of a syndicate into the £1.5M seed round for Edinburgh-based Continuum Industries, alongside Credo Ventures, Techstart Ventures and Playfair Capital. The company provides a cutting edge software solution that significantly reduces both the planning time and build costs of large linear infrastructure projects and is already seeing a growing pipeline of signed customers across different infrastructure verticals in Europe.
29th April 2020
Avonmore has just made a new seed investment alongside Amadeus Capital Partners into Cambridge University spin-out, Xampla (further details here). Xampla is developing a plant-protein based product to replace environmentally damaging synthetic microplastics that are currently added to everyday items, such as home and personal car products. A great team tackling an huge and important problem and we are delighted to be supporting the company.
24th April 2020
Congratulations to the great team at portfolio company VineHeath who, alongside a world-leading NHS cancer centre, has won the NHSX’s Techforce challenge - aiming to scale digital innovations that have the highest potential to support the Covid virus effort. A huge achievement.
24th February 2020
Huge congratulations to portfolio company Chattermill on the raise of their $8M Series A. The company has come a very long way since our initial seed funding of the company in 2016 on an MRR <£5k. Mikhail and Dmitry the founders are fantastic to work with and we’ve been impressed by the importance they've put on company culture, meaning almost zero employee churn. Customers include the likes of Zappos (owned by Amazon), Hello Fresh and Uber.