Cultivation Capital

Playfair Capital is one of London’s leading seed stage investors We’ve been helping ambitious and exceptional entrepreneurs build brilliant technology businesses since 2013. We’ve backed the founders of more than 60 companies including Mapillary (acq. Facebook), CryptoFacilities (acq. Kraken), Omnipresent, Orca AI, Ravelin, sprout.ai, Thought Machine, Trouva and Vinehealth. We were founded by an angel and our values drive everything that we do. Like the best angels, we are supportive, passionate investors. Nothing excites us more than working closely with founders to build successful companies. We invest early and enthusiastically in founding teams around the world, with a focus on the UK. We thrive being a generalist tech fund with the flexibility to look at a broad range of companies. Each member of our team has particular areas of interest and focus. It’s never too early for a first conversation.

Focused on the rising consumption story in India and Indian SaaS companies catering to a global market. CONSUMER TECH Backing tech native businesses for India’s internet users and middle-class. AgriTech EdTech HealthTech SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS) Backing product-led SaaS startups that can reach a global scale. Automation, Collaboration and Intelligence Vertical SaaS SaaS enabled marketplaces FINTECH Backing companies which manage finances in the most tech efficient way Vertical neo banks, lending Embedded Finance, infra APIs Insurtech Alternative investing DEEPTECH Backing companies solving deep engineering problems Artificial Intelligence Robotics / Drones Space tech and Semiconductors OUR APPROACH We invest in people rather than companies. From great entrepreneurs emerge great brands and companies. We are good listeners and that is a trait needed in our profession to grow. We have a non-intrusive approach and we completely believe in the entrepreneurs we have backed. An entrepreneur can think of us more as a resource and a sounding board. WHAT WE LOOK FORWe prefer to invest in mission driven founders who have relevant work experience and domain expertise Significant growth potential over the next 3 to 5 years. We prefer backing founders with at least 4-5 years of prior experience. Differentiated products or services that have strong ‘moats’ built around it. HOW WE INVESTWe invest in pre-seed and seed rounds. We invest ~US$ 250K per startup in the first round and then in follow-on rounds We are open to investing through convertible structures and instruments, however, we prefer straight equity. We generally prefer to co-invest along with other VC funds and micro VC funds In a larger round of fundraising – we co-invest with our select Limited Partners.

We are in the midst of the greatest period of innovation civilisation has ever seen. This century, technology will revolutionise our lives more powerfully and more rapidly than the industrial revolution did. This time we have an opportunity - and an obligation - to ensure technology is a force for good, that improves the lives of future generations without collateral damage. We’re optimistic this is possible, and we choose to focus on the possibilities of great teams setting out on meaningful missions, rather than obsessing about what might go wrong. The defining companies of our generation will be addressing fundamental issues in climate, energy, health, and equitable society. These are the companies we want to make possible. These are the founders we strive to serve. This is our reason for being. Our focusTechnologies: We look for frontier technologies across deep tech, life sciences, and software platforms that are unlocking unprecedented innovation. The convergence of diverse disciplines is where we see breakthroughs take place. Mission: We invest in solutions to the world's most pressing challenges across climate, energy, health and society. Sustainable initiatives such as carbon capture, energy transition, food & agriculture and new materials will pave the way for a cleaner future, as will fostering the circular economy and exploring space for alternative resources. New tools and models for drug discovery and precision medicine will benefit health and longevity, while AI-supported software tools, financial inclusion and upskilling will boost productivity, creating a more equitable future for all. Geography: We recognise that Interdisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs bring together diverse perspectives and expertise, leading to breakthrough ideas and solutions. The brightest minds often gravitate to these intersections and each other, and that can happen anywhere. We are always open to exploring new regions and building relationships with entrepreneurs and investors across the globe. Stage: We are primarily focused on investing in pre-seed and seed rounds, supporting startups at the early-stages of their development. We may also consider later-stage companies that are showing strong growth potential and are a good fit with our investment strategy.

As capital becomes a commodity with more early-stage investors flocking to Africa, what will make us stand out will be our networks, relationships, and reputations. What we look forLarge Markets: A clear market opportunity that is massive and growing, captured through a scalable business model. We aim at reaching sustainable impact across a large audience by addressing deep markets, or investing in market-creating innovations. Scalable Economics: Tech-enabled businesses with proven, highly leverageable and defensible revenues, coupled with the ability to improve unit economics through cost and capital efficiency are able to achieve top-trend growth more easily than less efficient business structures. We are disciplined in ensuring the unit economics of the business we invest in are sustainable and attractive. Strong Agile Teams: We are looking for founders that combine strategic vision and executional capacity. Strong teams tend to be bound by a cohesive, inclusive, all-hands-on deck culture. We are seeking founders and teams guided by a clear value proposition and differentiated position in the market. Repeatable Growth: Solutions with highly replicable growth models and transferable problem-solution sets can most benefit from our growth investment and market expansion facilitation. As African markets are not uniform, we carefully model and test solution-market fit. How much funding will you get? If you are an African founder of a tech enabled startup that is solving a significant African development challenge please apply here. If you have little or no revenues, we will refer you to our Angel Fund for $10k to $100k funding consideration. If you have meaningful revenues with high growth potential, we may invest $50k-$250k.

We combine investment focus with active and specialized support to help you succeed. Faber is a founder-first firm looking to invest in teams with a global vision starting from Europe. We are looking for: Talent driven by mission and values: Starting a company is a challenging and complex problem. That’s why we believe in partnering with highly specialized tech teams aiming to build a diverse, balanced and inclusive culture with an open mindset, endless curiosity and relentless ambition to make a positive impact and conquer the world. The future is powered by deep tech: Our thesis is based on the belief that entrepreneurship is a core engine for innovation and positive change and deep technology is a powerful accelerator. We focus on the intersection of science and technology to drive digital transformation and climate action. We offer specialized funds with dedicated investment teams and expert advisor networks to actively help founders build global companies powered by AI/data, climate/ocean technologies, or Web3. Impactful solutions for large industries: AI/data science, climate technologies and Web3 will be transformative across industries, adding unprecedented velocity, value and positive impact to economies and societies at large. We believe that using deep tech to solve some of the most urgent and valuable challenges will result in innovation across industries, from healthcare to financial services, from manufacturing to agro-food and retail. However, we trust your insight and expertise to guide us into large opportunities in any relevant industry. Pre-series A: Our initial ticket size ranges from €100K to €1,5M. We invest with industry standard terms and specialize in helping companies become series A ready. While we tend to lead, we have an extensive track record of partnering with VCs and angels in Europe and the US. Iberia as a scale-up launchpad: Actively looking for companies starting from Iberia with a firm belief in local tech talent and infrastructure potential to become a world-class benchmark, and selectively investing in companies across Europe. We know what it takes to go from pre-seed to series A. Expertise Resident core team with entrepreneurial expertise and specialized board-level support. Expert advisory network of founders, professors, scientists and industry execs available for problem solving on demand, coaching and continuous support. Value-added Working with founders on: company setup, back-office, legal and finance, hiring and team formation, business planning and development, product tech/strategy, structuring rounds of financing. Modus Operandi Our collaboration with founders and teams starts before an investment is even made. Our continuous work includes special purpose workshops and dedicated sprints, thematic portfolio meetups, promoting cross-company synergies, sharing best practices, and industry connections. We focus on the intersection of science and technology to drive digital transformation and climate action. AI/data Our thesis is based on the belief that industry digital transformation at scale will be driven by data-centric companies, more specifically with the application of breakthrough technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, NLP, Voice, Computer Vision or Distributed Databases, among others. We are looking for science-driven founders developing AI-powered vertical industry solutions or cross-industry next-gen AI/Data management platforms to increasing intelligence, automation or transparency across value chains. Climate/ Ocean tech Our thesis is based on the belief that deep tech is an urgent accelerator of innovation for high positive impact on ocean sustainability, climate action and decarbonization of the global economy. We are looking for the new generation of mission-driven entrepreneurs - "blue pioneers" - developing innovative climate/ ocean technology solutions with global ambition in areas such as blue biotech, food and feed from the ocean, ocean health, earth intelligence or the decarbonization of multiple industries. Web3 Our thesis is based on the belief that the decentralized web represents the next major iteration of the internet and will disrupt multiple industries. We are looking for the new generation of entrepreneurs working on hard engineering such as cryptography, blockchain technologies or distributed systems to build new protocols, tools, infrastructure services or applications to drive Web3 use cases.

Ananda Impact Ventures is the leading impact venture capital fund with a pan-European investment remit, managing ca. €200 million in four Core Impact Funds, with backing from notable institutional and private investors. Ananda backs technology businesses committed to having a positive impact that answers the most pressing social and ecological challenges of our time, in a way that is both scalable and sustainable. The active portfolio includes Klim (Carbon Farming), Open Bionics (bionic prostheses for children), IESO Digital Health (online psychotherapy) and Ororatech (which uses satellite technology to combat forest fires). Ananda is certified as a Level 2 firm under the Diversity VC Standard. Why us? We have been entrepreneurs ourselves. We have lived it and we want you to live it even better. We understand that you are looking for someone who deeply gets you. Someone that’s aligned with your vision and values. Someone who helps you grow to your full potential. Someone to be there for the many bumps in the road. How we invest We invest in founders who want to build solutions that truly matter. We back early-stage enterprises based in Europe but with the potential to grow global. Our focus is on companies based on DACH, UK, Benelux and the Nordics.