Practica Capital

Lingotto’s Innovation Fund is a new $600mm+ AUM crossover (public & private) fund focused on making concentrated and long-term investments in companies operating at the cutting edge of technological and business-model innovation. Core to our investment thesis is the fact that market returns are dominated by extreme structural winners – we seek to identify decades-long secular trends and the management teams best positioned to capitalize on them in the early years. The senior team has a notable history of private investments including: OpenAI, SpaceX, Alibaba, Coupang, Stripe, Databricks, Spotify, Airbnb, Tempus, Recursion, Ginkgo Bioworks, Palantir, Epic Games, Joby Aviation, Indigo, Aira, Humane, H2 Green Steel. The Innovation Fund is co-managed by James Anderson (CIO & Managing Partner) and Morgan Samet (Co-Head & Managing Partner). James has over 40 years of investment experience – most recently as a Partner at Baillie Gifford, where he managed over £100bn in AUM throughout his tenure. As head of the firm’s flagship fund, the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, he delivered a +1,555% return vs. +354% for the FTSE all-world benchmark (between April 2000 and March 2022). He was instrumental in the firm’s move into private investing starting with Alibaba in 2012. Morgan has over 19 years of experience in private and public market investing. She has previously worked at Belfer Management, Pzena Investment Management, Thomas H. Lee Partners, and Goldman Sachs. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School. The Innovation Fund is a part of Lingotto, a $4.5bn+ investment management company supported with permanent capital from Exor and additional external LPs. Exor is one of Europe’s largest publicly traded holding companies. Its assets include companies like Stellantis (Fiat, Chrysler, Citroen), Ferrari, Philips, Juventus Football Club, the Economist and Christian Louboutin. Exor’s CEO is John Elkann (Chairman of Ferrari); its Chairman is Nitin Nohria (Executive Chairman of Thrive Capital and former Dean of Harvard Business School). Lingotto’s Chairman is George Osborne, former UK chancellor.

Muse Capital is an early stage venture fund investing in consumer tech, with a focus on large underserved markets poised for disruption. They focus on investing in products, services and solutions to meet the needs of tomorrow’s increasingly diverse society across how we care (women’s health, digital health, and childcare), how we live (wellness and sustainability), and how we play (gaming, entertainment, web3, and sports tech). Muse Capital’s expertise is sourcing and executing on business development opportunities for their entrepreneurs, leveraging the partners 20+ years of accelerating and operating businesses in both private and public sectors, with their global network of decision makers across F500's, entertainment, sports teams/owners, global investors, and world class tech entrepreneurs. Given their highly strategic value add, they are able to access oversubscribed deals and invest before or alongside some of the top funds in the valley including Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Forerunner, and Lightspeed to name just a few. Muse Capital’s current fund is a $45m platform dedicated to doubling down on their established track record across the consumer space, and a knack for spotting super-trends and talent early on. Their portfolio of 40+ investments includes Clarity Money (sold to Goldman Sachs), Mahmee (telehealth for new mothers, series A lead by Goldman Sachs), Midi (disrupting the $50B menopause space), Kinside (digitizing the $150B childcare industry), and Beekeeper’s Naturals (replacing the modern medicine cabinet with natural products). The team has also gained exclusive access for their strategic LPs to direct investments into prestigious later stage deals including Robinhood and Byju’s. As a female lead team of conscious capitalists, Muse Capital is a staunch advocate for diversity as better business, and proud to have a portfolio which is 50% minority/female.

Dream Capital (DreamCap) is the Corporate Venture Capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports, India’s leading Sports Technology company. DreamCap is a multi-stage investor, with cheque sizes ranging from $1 - $100M+ depending on the stage of the company, including larger ticket size global M&A deals. The core investment areas for DreamCap are sports and sports-tech, gaming, Web3, fintech and fitness-tech. The DreamCap portfolio includes Dream Sports incubated businesses FanCode and DreamSetGo, along with DreamGameStudios (formerly known as Rolocule), Rario, SoStronk, Fittr, Elevar, KheloMore and MarketWolf.

Chamaeleon is a new early-stage venture capital firm that brings together 3 partners that have long collaborated as investors, operators and entrepreneurs that will focus on investing in truly transformative companies. We have learnt from our experience to see near and far, to be global and local, to be strategic and pragmatic, all at the same time. Our “superpowers” have helped numerous entrepreneurs craft breakout successes and with Chamaeleon, we will take it to the next level. For an industry that is fueled by technology, its innovations and the sometimes stratospheric returns on its investments, venture capital - in particular in early-stage - is an industry surprisingly lacking in technology, at its core. Although the operating models and playbooks used to source and do due diligence on start-ups - in our opinion, the two most core activities in VC - have evolved over time, there are very few impactful innovations around the core technology stacks that VC firms actually develop or bring together. Therefore, we are bringing a full-stack approach to VC investing with our own early-stage investing technology stack at the center of everything we do. We will also use these platforms to create value to portfolio companies and our own investors/LPs. This partnership has invested in companies like App Annie, DraftKings, Gusto, Kakao, Outsystems, Robinhood, Rubrik, Virta Health, Cloudflare, Ometria, among many other “household” names. We have led and managed 5 VC funds between us with enviable returns, including top 2 to 5 percentile funds. We have created verifiable impact at-scale as operators in such household names as NCSOFT, McKinsey & Co, GSM Association, SK Telecom, Sonae. We have jumped off a cliff before and started our own companies… and we are doing it all over again, because we don’t rest on our laurels, because we have a fundamental new way of looking and executing in this space, because we love and feel blessed by being in venture capital… and because, deep down, we just want to do this, together. Last, but most certainly not the least, we are big believers that as much as technology will augment us… as much as our insights and instincts will support our decisions, people are still at the center of all of this. We have built unique networks of truly astonishing and generous people, not just in the geographies where we will have our offices, but around the world, where we will operate. All of us have worked in at least 3 different continents and will continue bringing to entrepreneurs all the resources that we have access to as individuals, as a firm, but also from our broader ecosystem of investors/LPs, advisors, friends. We will continue bringing a humanistic values-based approach to this profession (we don’t call it a job, around here): we will continue treating entrepreneurs’ start-ups as their babies… because they are; when we are tough, we will continue being thoughtful, fair and charitable.

We founded HOF in 2016 to connect the most relentlessly ambitious founders to the capital and resources that they need to succeed, thereby accelerating the march towards a society of technologically-enabled abundance. Progress towards this goal cannot be achieved by backing “safe” ventures - for example, companies using already-proven technology and applying a formulaic business model. It can only be done by backing the visionary founders who build nascent platforms and take on fundamental technology or business model risk. The Next Steps Towards Abundance We believe that technologies that advance the march to abundance can come from unexpected domains, so we approach each new opportunity with an open mind. At the same time, we are constantly refining our theses about the most critical next steps in this march. Below are some of the technologies that we believe will see meaningful advancements over the next decade. Freedom from repetitive work through AI and automation Utopia cannot be achieved if people are bogged down by rote work for the majority of their waking lives, and yet, repetitive unfulfilling tasks are crucial to the function of many of the most productive companies. Thankfully, AI now has the potential to eliminate large swaths of this work. For example, new technologies such as large language models can now complete various cognitive tasks at similar proficiency to a human. If AI capabilities continue to accelerate at a rate faster than Moore’s Law, then billions of person-hours of repetitive work will be automated each year, and in some cases, AI will be capable of completing tasks that were previously intractable to even the most skilled humans. A multi-trillion dollar opportunity lies in both the infrastructure that powers this AI, as well as in the applications that deliver it. Freedom to transact and financial security Access to financial services, such as banking, credit, and insurance, are a key underpinning of an abundant society. Given some of our team members’ roots in developing economies, we are sensitive to the fact that this access is not yet a reality for much of the global population. Even those who do have access to such services are often subject to low quality user experiences, archaic processes, and exorbitant fees, making it difficult for them to transact or build meaningful wealth. Thankfully, in the last decade, proliferation of mobile phones has expanded access to core financial needs for many. Furthermore, we are optimistic that applications built on decentralized networks will ultimately serve as an important medium to extend financial services to those who have been barred from legacy institutions. Freedom from genetic disease and biological limitations Perhaps one of the most unfair realities of life is that some people are born with unfavorable genetics that expose them to greater disease risk and overall poor health. For example, just a single base-pair point mutation in the hemoglobin-beta gene causes sickle cell anemia, resulting in a lifetime of discomfort and a significantly reduced life expectancy. However, in 2012, a landmark paper demonstrated that clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) could enable scientists to edit specific sequences of DNA in a faster, more precise, and more cost-effective manner, enhancing humankind’s ability to change the previously immutable coding of life. Genetic engineering technologies like CRISPR have the potential to eliminate genetic diseases like sickle cell for hundreds of millions of people, an important step forward in the march towards utopia. In the long-term, we believe that a deeper understanding of genetics and biology will enable mankind to surpass other previously insurmountable limitations, such as aging and infertility. Interconnection of humanity In utopia, people can freely connect, form relationships, and transact with peers from across the world. Those of us who live in vibrant cities often take for granted the benefit of our surroundings; we are surrounded by accomplished and intelligent people, as well as great workplaces, nature, and entertainment. However, much of the world’s population does not have this experience, as they are isolated or surrounded by relatively homogenous populations. Internet access through smartphones and desktop computers have helped close this gap to some extent, but our world is still a far cry from utopia. As they reach maturity, new mediums such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and, in the long term, brain-computer interfaces, will facilitate new forms of commerce, entertainment, and work. The clouded horizon Some naysayers push back against the idea that technology company founders can help bring us closer to abundance. Popular sentiment in the media and politics is that these founders do more harm than good for society, often citing examples of oversight or unethical behavior by certain founders and presenting them as the norm. However, we believe that such instances of social harm are rare and vastly outweighed by the good achieved by mission-driven and relentless founders. The fact that the advancement of technology has been of net benefit to society is supported by a variety of data, including declining global poverty rates and growing global human development indices. In the last 20 years, nascent technology companies have produced countless prosocial and beneficial advances. Game-changing technologies advanced by venture-backed companies include reusable rockets, widely-accessible genome sequencing, conversational AI, affordable electric vehicles, as well as faster and more convenient access to education, communication, and entertainment. Without the efforts of the founders who brought about these innovations, society would be at great risk of stagnating on its march to abundance. Unfortunately, founders today are often met with extreme skepticism, criticism, and opposition, so they must be more relentless than ever before. The founders we back Although we believe that the future will be built by founders from all backgrounds and walks of life, the truth is that the responsibility of being a CEO of a venture-backed company is not for everyone - in fact, our observations suggest that only a small fraction of the population has the traits necessary to succeed in such a position. Given the high expectations of growth for venture-backed companies, exceptional leadership ability, work ethic, and clarity under pressure are table stakes for successful founders. Moreover, since outcomes for venture-backed businesses follow a power law distribution, the most accomplished founders tend not only to be hypercompetent but also possess an incredibly rare technical skill or personal characteristic that enables their success. For example, founders with the outlier trait of having a voracious appetite for computer programming from a young age were at a fundamental competitive advantage during the past several decades (e.g., Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Bill Gates). Such an outlier trait can rarely be cultivated opportunistically - by the time the value of a specific trait becomes obvious, an oversaturation of competitors possessing that same trait usually emerges. This is why the best founders will include an overrepresented proportion of individuals who possess esoteric interests or neurodivergent tendencies in addition to exceptional communication ability and competence. This turns out to be a rare & zenlike combination of traits, hence why we are so excited to partner on the infrequent occasions when we come across individuals who possess it. Conclusion While headline news may grow increasingly pessimistic and certain groups may grow hostile towards technology, the march to abundance will continue thanks to the efforts of relentless entrepreneurs and the small army of employees, customers, and investors who take a chance to partner with them. Regardless of the distracting vicissitudes of market cycles, we remain dedicated to providing those entrepreneurs with not only capital but meaningful support and game-changing connections to help advance their missions.

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.