1. Home
  2. Companies
  3. Blenheim Chalcot
BC

Blenheim Chalcot

About

We are the UK's leading digital venture builder.

Our approach to transforming industries has always been the same. We identify high growth sectors, typically undergoing some market, technology or regulatory discontinuity, and look to build scalable platforms that satisfy a real customer need. We aim to build profitable companies, with sustainable business models.

We are venture builders, not venture capitalists

We invest more than just funds; we invest our knowledge and experience, our ideas and our infrastructure.

Working alongside entrepreneurs and co-founders, we support our ventures from startup to scale to exit, giving them access to the global networks and services they need to grow.

This support is bolstered by the innovative partnerships we forge with big businesses. Our digital experience helps our ventures be more agile, while our partners' global scope helps them scale faster.

Founded in 1998 Blenheim Chalcot traces its roots back to Netdecisions, the internet services group. Already back then we set out to build companies to transform industry sectors. And since then we’ve become the UK’s leading venture builder, with portfolio sales of over £350m, more than 3,000 employees, and a successful track record of over 40 companies.

Similar companies

PV

Pléiade Venture

Pléiade Venture est une Société de Capital Risque Française. Elle investit sur le long terme, sans horizon de sortie prédéterminé. Elle soutient les entreprises innovantes de tous secteurs, hors biotech. Elle dispose de plus de 100 M€ d'actifs et investit de 0,5 à 3 M€ par opération. Elle est financée par des entrepreneurs qui forts de leur expérience désirent contribuer activement à de nouveaux succès. Elle est animée par une équipe en liaison étroite avec une vingtaine d’entrepreneurs contributifs. Nos différencesEvergreen: Pléiade Venture, à la différence des fonds, investit ses fonds propres et réinvestit ses plus-values, sans horizon de sortie prédéterminé. Actionnaire stable et pérenne, Pléiade Venture s’adapte au projet long terme de l’entrepreneur. Contributif: Notre capital est constitué d'entrepreneurs issus de secteurs variés. Ils réinvestissent une partie de leur patrimoine et partagent leur expérience avec les dirigeants de nos participations. Un quart de nos actionnaires sont d’ailleurs les fondateurs d'entreprises que nous avons financées. Galaxie: Pléiade Venture s’inscrit dans un ensemble de structures indépendantes : Pléiade Investissement (Capital Développement, LBO et retournement) Pléiade AM (Fonds d'actions cotées) autour d’une idée commune : « Faire ensemble, et faire autrement, ce que nous ne ferions pas seuls ! ». Nos CritèresStade: Seed, Series A Secteurs: Tous sauf : Biotechnologies, Entertainment, Immobilier Montant: 0,5 M€ à 3 M€, Seul ou en coinvestissement

BV

Blume Ventures

Bold. Brave. Brilliant. Brazen. The founders we back are all this, and more. They are unreasonable, they are crazy ambitious, obsessed with solving hard, gnarly problems. Problems whose solutions transform lives and impact society. And, it takes a revolutionary founder, and a transformational company to solve these problems, and effect change. We back these transformational companies, and their revolutionary founders early, and remain lifelong partners. How does Blume evaluate early stage startups? In our framework, we look at three criteria to evaluate startups – size of market or opportunity, team quality and finally, investability or probability of the next round of capital. Our approximate weightage for Opportunity : Team : Investability is 40 : 40 : 20. Let us double click on these three criteria. Market size or opportunity: Pick too small a market and even the best team can’t build a large scalable business. The best founders know how to reshape a market opportunity and build solutions to fit the largest of the market opportunities. That said, one has to begin with the aggregate opportunity being very large. For example, are Ola and Uber a ride hailing app or a large scale urban transportation business? The market size expands 5-10x when the latter is applied. At Blume, we try to find a portfolio balance between founders who can chase a large market opportunity domestically or build a tech-led differentiated product for global markets (which increase Founding teams: These are the most important variables for us or even most VCs at our stage. In every decision, once the other two factors are seen as a go, the clincher element in a yes/no decision boils down to the founding team – their expertise in solving for this space, as well as the integrity, mission, passion and persistence that one can gauge at this early stage of business. Investability or probability of next rounds of capital: The reality of how the later stage funding market is shaped to take risky bets in the ecosystem is important to consider while funding, especially in young and concentrated ecosystems like India, and that’s why we attribute 20% weightage to this element in India. We force ourselves to evaluate how much capital may be required to build to exitable scale and how challenging it is to raise that capital. As the funding ecosystem matures, we may shrink weightage of this in the future. Great founders overcome all of this but if we can select such that we have better odds at the starting point, why not? The above framework helps us shortlist but finally, it is a (increasingly improving) trained gut call that ends up building out the portfolio. What is Blume's investment criteria? Blume prefers ventures that have achieved some degree of customer validation, where the product is already launched in market and we are getting customer signups and feedback. We do make exceptions on the above for seasoned operators and second-time founders, but typically with first-time founders, we do not do idea stage or pre-MVP investments. If you are a B2B startup or an ecommerce / consumer transaction play, an annualised revenue rate (or revenues) of $375k (₹3cr) and above is a good milestone to reach out to us. If you are a marketplace startup, then reach out to us when you are nearing or have crossed a monthly GMV of ₹50 lacs a month. If you are a consumer app that isn't monetising yet, then ping us when you near or cross MAUs of 25k / DAUs of 5k. The above are broad guidelines, and not hard rules. We do make exceptions. If in doubt, reach out! How much does Blume invest? We are a seed / pre-Series A fund. While we are fairly flexible on the investment quantum, typically we have seen our investments range across from $1.5 to $3m (₹12 to 24 crs). We do optimise however for a stake of anywhere from 12 to 20%. These stake requirements reflect the depth and extent of support we provide to the startup – from fundraising and hiring to business development etc. We also anticipate the rounds of dilution that every successful startup will undergo, and the desired holding that we need to hold at the point of exit. Does Blume invest in international startups? We invest in startups that are Indian at heart or origin, but are willing to conquer the world market if needed to build scale. About a third of our portfolio is of this nature – taking Indian engineering skills to build products for global markets. Unfortunately, We DO NOT invest in startups that are international and have NO strong Indian connection / founders. We are also strong believers that to invest as a ‘generalist tech VC’ as we are, we need to be more and more focussed on a particular geography. We need to see as much of the available annual pipeline to know that we’ve truly picked 10 great founders / startups to invest in. We have no such advantage when we are looking outside the country; which is why we stay away from the temptation of looking at pipeline from international markets. What kind of sectors does Blume invest in? With our new Fund, our fourth since inception, we are looking to invest about 60-65% of the new fund in domestic-heavy sectors such as healthcare, financial services, commerce and brands, jobs and education, and digital media and gaming. The other 35-40% of the fund will focus on SaaS, and DeepTech (including CleanTech, manufacturing, blockchain) companies, typically in B2B, that can innovate and engineer with local talent pools, and yet scale globally. Does Blume have a preference between B2B and B2C? We like both. India is a consumer market that is poised to explode, as people move to the digital economy to spend an increasingly larger share of their wallet’s purchasing power. That makes it attractive to build a strong consumer proposition in India. And thus our B2C portfolio. We are also now very good at taking our science and engineering skills in software and other areas, and building commercial applications at scale, often for the global market. These constitute the majority of B2B ideas in our portfolio and we like this space a lot. Where do I send my pitch? How do I reach out to Blume? We get anywhere between 4,000 to 5,000 ideas pitched to us annually, across the team, across all formats. This includes referrals, cold mails, DMs on social channels etc. We have given up counting :) We invest in about 10-12 of these per year. As Blume has grown, we've looked at the empirical data and discovered that the vast majority of our investments were referrals from our contacts in the ecosystem. You can count the exceptions to this rule with one hand in every cycle, and still have a few fingers to spare! These referrals come from our own founders we have backed, other founders who know that we will do right by their angel investments and our extensive set of friends, investors and well wishers in the ecosystem. The exceptions, while not impossible, are indeed rare. Ceteris paribus (all things considered), you are better off reaching us through a trusted common friend. In a highly networked startup ecosystem, it is not that hard to reach us through the strongest possible mutual connection. But if that is not possible, do reach out to us cold. Your email will certainly be read, even if it is not always responded to. We have ensured that our internal systems catch every pitch - cold or warm or hot. When writing in cold, a considered and researched mail (much like a quality college application) is the only way to attempt such a reach out. Please check out the team page, find the best person in the Investment team who has invested in and / or covers the sector you're building in. Do check out their social profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter) to access their contact info. Our email ids are not hard to guess as well! Preferably write to one person at a time, in the firm. The above are good principles for you irrespective of which firm you approach / pitch to. Nothing works better than a warm, referred introduction - it always gets the rightful attention. Please note that we have done away with a pitch form, or a common email id. From our experience, we found that the volume of inbound traffic was indeed high, but not always relevant, and thus almost impossible to assign a resource to just monitor these inbound gates.

WC

WENVEST Capital

WENVEST Capital is a private investment firm and emerged to become an entrepreneurial minded Venture Capital investor for Growth. The team of WENVEST Capital is dedicated to support the digital leaders of tomorrow with capital, know-how and network. We are based in Munich and are looking for investment opportunities primarily in the GAS region. STRATEGY & INVESTMENT CRITERIA We are entrepreneurial minded investors and partners, investing into pre-growth and growth companies, typically around Seed phase. With our first investment into a company, we usually invest in the range of EUR 0.25m to EUR 1.0m and reserve further capital for future financing rounds (we are flexible to join an existing consortium or lead a financing round). From joining your board, to supporting in future fundraising, strategic & operational sparring or hiring, we can be your partner of choice. Note: Our initial check size does not correlate with investment phase and is excluding of any follow-on commitments. Areas of Investment in B2B Technology Digital Transformation Next generation of Financial Instituions & Governance Business process optimization & increased productivity Cloud based solutions around Data & AI Digital Health Digital health solutions & healthcare system revolution FoodTech & healthy living Climate Solutions Enabler for CO2 reduction across industries Waste reduction & alternative resources Solutions towards reporting, monitoring and offsetting Further Investment Criteria First Revenues and Proof of Concept Significant USP and Defensible Technology Excellent Founder and Management Team Scalability Potential

FV

F2 Venture Capital

F2 Venture Capital is a Tel Aviv-based VC firm that invests in early-stage technology companies on the cutting edge. Our team members have been investors, operators, and engineers in startups and multinational giants that changed the game over the last twenty years. With $500 million assets under management, F2 powers visionary founders on their bold missions with personalized support. F2 also operates The Junction, Israel's most active pre-seed investment platform, to back founders with guidance, network, and capital from day zero. What does F2 stand for? F2 stands for “Power to Founders”. Our team is here to augment and support your team with the guidance, network and capital to hit your milestones and realize your vision. What are our core values? Our core values are trust, boldness and efficiency. All of our team members share these values that are inspired by the values that Israel’s special forces use to accomplish daring missions against all odds. When was F2 established? We launched our first fund in 2017. Our founders spun out of Genesis Partners, one of Israel’s most established and respected VC funds over the last 25 years. We are currently investing out of our second fund raised in 2019. Which notable companies have we backed? Our partners have previously backed Bizzabo, Click Software (Acquired by Salesforce), Crossrider (FTSE IPO), eToro, FundTech (NASDAQ IPO), Innovid, Kidaro (Acquired by Microsoft), Monday.com, Neebula (Acquired by ServiceNow), ObserveIT (Acquired by Proofpoint), Optimove, PrimeSense (Acquired by Apple), R2Net (Acquired by Signet) and Simplex, among many others from seed stage to exit. Who backs F2? We are backed by institutions and family offices on every continent except Antarctica. Many of our investors are successful founders themselves and routinely help our portfolio companies with advice and support on the ground. F2 is also supported by InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments. Where do we focus? We back deep technology companies at the junction of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Connectivity. These are B2B or B2B2C enterprise software companies with R&D in Israel. Do we focus on particular industries? We believe technology will disrupt every market, so our approach is industry agnostic. We back companies in cyber security, digital health, financial services, HR, insurance, media, real estate, retail and software infrastructure, among other areas. We do not invest in hardware or biotech. At which stage do we invest? It is never too early to get in touch with our team. We love sharing ideas and tailor our approach to support founders at the concept, pre-seed and seed stages. How much do we invest? F2 typically leads seed rounds with checks of up to $4M. We reserve additional funds for follow on rounds in high growth companies. What do we look for in a startup? In order to take our investment decisions, we evaluate the team, market, value proposition, technology and commercial validation. The team is by far the most important factor for us. What do we look for in the team? We are looking for authentic entrepreneurs – women and men who could not imagine doing anything except their venture and have a large vision for their company. Founders should also complement each other in terms of technical and commercial skills. We also love to back “first timers”. What do we look for in the market? We are interested in game changing startups targeting large, existing markets like financial services and healthcare, or small but rapidly growing markets like artificial intelligence. What do we mean by value proposition? We are looking for compelling concepts with a clear business model and a unique approach to solving big problems. Timing is also critical; we ask, “why now?" What do we mean by technology? We look for startups whose technology can provide a moat or barrier to entry for competition and support a great product and user experience. What do we mean by commercial traction? We look for evidence of product-market fit. At the early stage, this usually comes in the form a small but passionate set of customers who view your service as “mission critical”. What is our investment process? Our investment process generally follows five steps: First meeting with our team. In advance of our first meeting, we will review any materials you want to share. This will help us ask the right questions to ensure there is a fit. Our first meeting (or call) will be 45 minutes to cover the basics and feedback. Follow up meetings with our team. Most of our “passes” happen after the first meeting. Follow up meetings mean we are genuinely interested in your startup and want to learn more. You will meet additional team members to address questions and concerns. It’s also our chance to share more about F2 and how we can help. Meetings with outside experts. Over the last 25 years, we have had the privilege to work with founders across every sector. We will match you with domain experts from our network who help us to build conviction and respond efficiently. Meeting with our Investment Committee. Our general partners comprise the investment committee of the fund. We meet every Monday and will invite you back to share the entire story and address the questions that arise in our process. Final Decision. We take all investment decisions as a team by unanimous vote of the general partners. Our goal is to give you a final decision within 24 hours following the meeting with our Investment Committee. How long does our process take? While we follow the same steps for every company, the timing of our process varies based on the investment criteria and our level of conviction. It can range from two weeks to two months but generally we strive to complete a thorough process as fast as possible. Is there a fast track? The Junction is our fast track to investment. The program is designed for strong founding teams that are still developing one of or more parts of their business plan. We can move as fast as one week to provide pre-seed funding in these situations. Does F2 only back companies from The Junction? No. F2 invests in the seed stage in companies from The Junction as well as directly into companies that do not start at The Junction. We harness the network of founders and partners around The Junction to support all of our companies. What is The Junction? Established in 2011 at Genesis Partners, The Junction is our pre-seed investment program to help founders achieve technological, product and business targets in an accelerated time frame. What are some notable companies from The Junction? The Junction has launched more than 200 companies including AppsFlyer, HoneyBook, Simplee, ClarityRay, HouseParty, CyberX, Mobilize and many others that have raised close to $1 billion from top VC funds and realized multiple exits to tech giants. What value does The Junction provide? Over a 6 month period, startups in the program receive tailor made support in strategy development, positioning, sales & marketing and recruitment, among other critical areas. The Junction provides 5 layers of support to founders: Guidance. Expert guidance from investors, alumni and industry experts. Network. Access to multinational partners for commercial pilots and investment. Capital. Pre-seed funding from F2 on founder-friendly terms. Operations. Support in positioning, business development and HR from industry experts. Perks. Free workspace, credits and discounts for cloud hosting and additional services. What are the terms of the program? The terms of the program are simple. F2 invests on a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) that converts into your seed round at a discount with no cap on the valuation. In addition, F2 has the right to participate in your seed round, on the terms of the round. How do you apply to The Junction? Contact us with your background and vision and we will follow up with you within 48 hours. If your focus fits our areas of focus, we will invite you for a meeting and give you a decision within 7 to 14 days. Does F2 continue to invest in companies from The Junction? Yes. We can lead or join the seed investment round in companies from The Junction. In fact, this is why we run the program – to get to know you, add value and give you the opportunity to get to know us – to build a strong and successful partnership with you for the long term. How much do we invest in a company? F2 typically leads seed rounds with checks of up to $4M. We reserve additional funds for follow on rounds in high growth companies. Will F2 join a round with another VC? Yes. We often partner with other top funds, multinationals and strategic angels from our network and yours to build the best possible team and support your growth. What makes F2 different? F2 is a specialized fund with a clear mandate to back seed stage, deep technology companies in Israel. We are totally aligned to help you reach your milestones and bring additional top global funds for your round. In addition to our team of investment and HR professionals and portfolio companies, The Junction community with hundreds of founders and partners pay it forward to support you with collective wisdom and partnership. How do you support your companies? The companies we have previously backed have raised billions of dollars in follow-on capital. We leverage our experience and relationships – built over decades – to help you build the right pitch and connect with your ideal partner. As market conditions shift and Series A pools shrink, this kind of resource becomes a serious advantage to our founders. Will F2 support you in future rounds? On day one we set milestones together and help you achieve them. We want to be your first call when you hit an obstacle so there are no surprises, and we continue to invest in your Series A round and beyond as you execute on plan or pivot with the market. How does F2 help you with HR? Our Head of People is dedicated to help you connect and screen top talent to build your team. As a trained psychologist, she also coaches our founders through inevitable tensions and challenges in order to perform at your best, as individuals and as a team. Does F2 take board seats? F2 takes a board seat in companies when we invest at the seed stage and are most active helping you build your company in the first years. Outside of the board, we prefer to meet one-on-one to help you navigate challenges and opportunities on your growth trajectory.

MV

Metagrove Ventures

We invest in founders disrupting the future of industry . Early-stage investing is our game and we’re here to support founders looking to upend the status quo with a global vision from day one. The Mission Our primary objective is to back diverse, passionate and never-say-die founders to become world-class entrepreneurs who can leverage technology to build global companies and disrupt industries right from the early stages, and support them fully on their journeys. Our fund operates on an effective, but simple four-point mandate: 1. Disruption & Innovation We look for companies who can find and build solutions to problems that address inefficiencies across industries with the potential to create inflection points in the market and pave a new way forward for society. 2. Technology Leverage We believe in the power of technology to make the world as we see fit. This is why we understand that technology enablers play a significant role in shaping the future of industries. Some of the enablers we're interested in include; blockchain, automation, 5G, AR/VR, machine learning, exabyte storage, robotics, IoT, accelerated computing and much more. We fully support founders who can find ingenious ways to use technology to create new markets and open the industry to innovation. 3. Global Vision Our goal is to help bring founders and their companies onto the world stage by collaborating with our key strategic and incredible network across Silicon Valley and beyond towards exponential growth. We’re starting off ANZ and the USA for now, but will soon expand out to South-East Asia 4. Early Stage Backing We're here to help support and nurture founders from the very beginning on their journey. We know it's incredibly tough creating a company, so we are backing those folks who need it the most. For us, it all starts off with just a seed.

SC

Sageview Capital

We focus on founders building technologies that are redefining legacy industries Long-Term Capital We invest for the long-term; we’ve guided many of our portfolio companies to IPO or acquisition - and beyond. Concentrated Portfolio Making just four to five investments per year, we run a concentrated portfolio to ensure every company we back receives the resources it requires. Value-Add Partner We leverage our Global 2000 network, extensive experience, and operational expertise to drive value. Target Investment Criteria We've been partnering with founders of industry-disrupting, fast-growing tech businesses since 2006, working with companies that have strong product-market fit and generate $5 million to $100 million-plus in annual sales. We typically take minority stakes, investing between $20 million to $100 million. Investment Size $20 million to $100 million Company CharacteristicsEstablished product-market fit Substantial customers & a large TAM Strong teams with shareholder alignment 20%-100%+ growth Generally recurring or reoccuring revenue High customer retention Strong market position, with competitive moats Solid unit economics Structuring ApproachWe support without seeking control. We are minority investors, with a lead investor mindset who take board representation. We provide capital for growth/expansion, acquisition financing, optimizing capital structure and shareholder liquidity needs.