Notice

Investor partners for: Immersive Technology Investment Accelerator competition: phase 2, SME projects

Updated 5 October 2022

1. Creative England

Website: www.creativeengland.co.uk
Contact email: Matt.browning@creativeengland.co.uk

Creative England uncovers, invests and grows the best creative talent across the country.

Our vision is for England’s creative businesses and talent to be the most successful and innovative in the world; building economic growth that benefits our nation and creating opportunities for new voices, products and services. If the UK is to take advantage of its capacity to be a leader in creating new intellectual property (IP) across games, film, TV, and digital platforms, it needs to ensure it can attract and grow the best talent and scale its businesses and creative capacities. Through our investment and wrap around support we attract and support this talent. We connect these businesses to investment, provide them the routes to existing and new markets and showcase their potential to the world through our advocacy and networks. Our activities are particularly focused on supporting businesses in the English regions with investment and support who may not have the same opportunities and access to finance as those in London.

Creative England’s focus is on spotting and supporting talent and investing in creative individuals and ideas, particularly those who face difficulties realising their project, growing their business or accessing commercial finance. We provide strategic advice and guidance to local, regional and national stakeholders and partners looking to grow their creative sector. Through our talent and content programmes we provide a platform for new voices and initiatives that create new IP. Our investment activity helps to fill the recognised “access to finance gap” and we work with a range of commercial finance providers to demystify and increase investment in creative enterprises. We are a flexible funder able to provide loans, equity and revenue-share finance and pride ourselves on being client-led rather than product-led, tailoring our finance to meet the needs of the businesses who need our help.

Our investment offer includes loans, mezzanine finance, equity and revenue or profit stage arrangements.

Our equity and revenue share investments are for early stage creative businesses and we generally invest up to £250,000 per round of investment. We are open to pre-seed, seed and series A investment rounds. We usually co-invest with other equity investors but are happy to lead a round if appropriate.

Alongside our investment, Creative England provides bespoke, industry- led business support and training to the business owners and teams we invest in. This is delivered in several ways, including one to one advice sessions with mentors and specialists; masterclasses;, networking events and practical hands on courses and workshops. Through our national and international reach, we also connect these businesses to the networks and markets they need to grow and export. Creative England has a number of partnerships with major purchasers of creative and digital services and applications including Microsoft, Sony, BBC, Sky and Disney among others, helping businesses to access routes to market. Our aim is to connect small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in the English regions with global brands; opening up new markets and investing in new supply chains and giving larger companies’ access to a pool of fresh talented SMEs.

Our interest in immersive technologies

Creative content is driving the creation of new platforms and has helped to establish new consumer markets whilst transforming the consumer experience through newer and more innovative business models demonstrating a dynamic and entrepreneurial opportunity for the economy to grow. Immersive technologies and the application of immersive is becoming ever more prevalent with PWC forecasting that virtual reality (VR) in the UK entertainment and media industry alone will reach a value of £801 million by 2021, making it the fastest growing and largest VR industry in EMEA. However, here remains a gap in the funding required to seed some of these ideas and to create viable deal flow for the private sector to take notice of the investment opportunities of these technologies. Creative England has a track record of working with companies from this sub sector and other related sub-sectors of the creative industries, including gaming; narrative film-making and companies developing content and applications using VR or augmented reality (AR).

We have a rolling investment pot and invest between £3 million and £4 million a year into circa 25 to 30 companies. Approximately 75% of our investments are into new companies and rest as follow on investment into our existing companies

We are interested in a wide range of immersive propositions including content, experiences, products, platforms, services and software. We do not invest in the development of hardware/devises associated with immersive. Recent examples of relevant investee companies with immersive technologies at the heart of their offering, include Hammerhead VR, Coast link, Totem Learning, Evidential among others.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

Alongside investment, Creative England provides, bespoke, industry led business support and learning to the business owners and teams we invest in. This is delivered by both in-house experts and an extensive network of specialist advisors through one to one advice sessions with mentors and specialist professionals, masterclasses, networking events and practical hands on workshops. Following a far-reaching diagnostic exercise, our support is designed to be a bespoke approach to each company’s needs including investor readiness, leadership, growth planning, finance, HR, exports, sales & marketing, IP, legal and product/market fit. Through our national and international reach, we also connect these businesses to the networks and markets they need to grow and export. Creative England has delivered several programmes of investment and support specifically focused on gaming and immersive companies such as GamesLab and Greenshoots. Our team comes from within the industry and has expertise in the gaming and immersive space. Our wider team is expert in identifying and investing in creative and digital technology businesses and has a real understanding of challenges and opportunities these businesses face.

2. GC Angels (GC Business Finance)

Website: www.growth.co.uk
Contact email: gcangels@growthco.uk

GC Angels brings together angel investors, co-investment capital and an advisory service to support innovative, high-growth businesses. With over 400 associate investors, early stage VC’s and in-house funds GC Angels has the ability to invest capital managed on behalf of third parties such as the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

We invest in early-stage tech, digital and creative companies that are seeking to start up or scale up within Greater Manchester and the wider North.

Managed by an authorised and regulated FCA fund manager and driven by experienced equity specialists, GC Angels supports associate angels alongside early-stage investment partners for investment rounds of up to £2 million.

We invest with a long-term view and have supported companies with investment from pre-seed through to multiple follow on rounds.

To date GC Angels have raised over £25.5 million into over 30 companies with 30% of businesses raising follow on capital.

As part of the Growth Company we can leverage services from the wider group including GC Business Growth Hub. Together we have supported a number of companies in the immersive technology space with equity investment, investment readiness, market access and training.

Smart Capital. Smarter Investments. Partners for the long term.

Our interest in immersive technologies

GC Angels work with a wide range of companies and sectors, immersive technology is key sector in to the high-growth early stage market. GC Angels have made several investments in the immersive technology market the most recent company uses VR to enhance education with ‘near-life’ immersive training. This business received support from GC Business Growth Hub with business planning as well as investment readiness and then GC Angels went on to invest with a round close of over £250,000 alongside other capital partners.

Immersive technology has many important applications and continually evolves; we have seen this demonstrated across a number of recent businesses we’ve supported including:

• a 3D visual learning tool for Dentists using Augmented Reality
• a VR product which allows patients to take a virtual tour around the hospitals that they have been referred to before they are admitted
• a VR product which allows clients to view prestigious yachts or vessels without going on board and the ability to design their own interiors.

In the first four months of 2019, GC Angels completed six investments and are currently working with over 10 additional companies to help them obtain investment.

Along with our colleagues at GC Business Growth Hub, we receive over 100 enquiries a month from companies looking for access to finance; more and more of which are in immersive tech.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

GC Angels are uniquely placed to provide additional business support and experience as well as capital investment as part of the wider Growth Company. As part of the established Growth Company offer GC Angels can leverage complementary services for your business from businesses planning and forecasting to training, market access and access to both debt and equity finance.

The wider group support over 30,000 businesses annually in areas such as product innovation, business regulation, leadership, exporting, skills and talent as well as having access to specific sector specialists, with our Creative, Digital and Tech team being well versed in supporting companies in the Immersive Technology space. With a wealth of experience within the market, GC Angels support businesses to become pitch ready, make introductions to our associate investors as well as knowledge sharing both with our team of investment directors and associate investors.

Through leveraging the additional grant funding available from this accelerator, and the wider Innovate UK grants, businesses will be able to grow and evolve new technologies whilst retaining more equity than would have previously have been possible, standing them in a better position for future investment rounds.

A recent report from Beauhurst showed that those businesses whom had receive Innovate UK grant funding had a much greater chance of receiving equity investment, at a higher average valuation than those without.

3. HTC Europe (Vive X)

Website: http://vivex.vive.com
Contact email: dave_haynes@htc.com

Vive X seeks to cultivate, foster and grow the global XR ecosystem by supporting startups and providing them with education, investment and mentorship. As well as funding we run programs in London, San Francisco, Taipei, Beijing and Tel Aviv. We invest in startups from pre-seed to Series A.

Our interest in immersive technologies

The core mission of its Vive X group is to foster, cultivate and grow the global XR ecosystem. We are the world’s most active investor in immersive tech with over 90 portfolio companies. We are looking for scalable products, platforms and tools across VR, AR and 5G. Our most recent investments include LIV, KageNova, Immersive Factory, Modal, Primitive, Visby and YBVR.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

HTC Vive is a global leader in virtual reality and related technologies. As well as giving you access to investment, the Vive X program provides hands-on support, from product expertise to market access and future fundraising.

4. London Venture Partners LLP

Website: www.londonvp.com
Contact email: innovate@londonvp.com

LVP is a venture capital seed fund with a difference - we are experts in the games sector, and we only ever invest in the games ecosystem. That means we bring real experience and a deep understanding. We speak the same language, share the same references, comprehend the same challenges and we believe in the same future.

We know instinctively where the opportunities lie; where there are strengths to be harnessed and risks to be mitigated. In candid and concise detail. We know when to bide time, when to iterate, when to pivot and when to open up. And how.

First and foremost, we invest in highly talented individuals. That means founders with the potential to build the best in class; teams with exceptional creativity or innovative ideas for revolutionary games technology and >services…coalescing around a unique vision that sets them apart.

We’ve done our 2-guys-in-a-garage start-up. We’ve helped companies transition from back-of-an-envelope concepts to multi-billion-dollar champions. It isn’t an insoluble problem for us; our passion is helping start ups to flourish strategically and operationally.

We’ll have thoughts that we want to share, pitfalls we’ll gladly warn of, and solutions to challenges we’ve overcome through hard experience. Success is never easy, but we’ve been privileged to be among the earliest investors in Supercell, Unity, Playfish, NaturalMotion, and a host of other leading immersive entertainment companies that have created over $13 billion in value.

Our interest in immersive technologies

The founders of LVP share a collective passion for all things gaming, nutured over the past 30 years through senior executive positions at Atari, Electronic Arts and Gumi. With our exclusive focus on the games ecosystem, we have been at the forefront of investing in innovative immersive technologies for over a decade and have enjoyed immense success helping the very best in creative talent to launch and transform their businesses. Network, processing, screen and graphics technologies have all developed dramatically during this time, with such advances opening up exciting possibilities for games developers to imagine and conceive endlessly enthralling, interactive experiences.

Each year we seed in region of 8 new enterprises operating across the games sector, from the creation of original content and production tools through to the provision of support software services and distribution platforms. Additionally, we make follow-on investments into circa 80% of our existing portfolio holdings to further their development and accelerate expansion.

Examples of existing portfolio investments that we have made in the field of immersive technology include Polystream (cloud-streaming of 3D software without GPUs), Hadean Supercomputering (developing a proprietary cloud-OS to enable massive simulated worlds) and Sensible Object (voice-augmented table top gaming).

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

The LVP team possess diverse experience in helping new ventures to successfully launch and mature to become pioneering global enterprises. Through our extensive network of industry relationships and deep understanding of the interactive entertainment sector, we are able to confidently guide fledgling companies to overcome hurdles (prototyping, resourcing, logistics, distribution, market visibility, regulation and taxation, IP protection) whilst simultaneously fully exploiting opportunities (overseas expansion, product diversification, partnering and monetisation) as they rapidly scale.

We work very closely with each of our portfolio companies to ensure that the warm introductions we make to our key strategic partners are effective and deliver significant value, be this in helping to solve difficult technical issues, gaining footholds in core markets or even simply providing practical advice on how to best approach product development. Furthermore, the broad skills and knowledge of the LVP team mean that we can quickly digest complex problems or identify optimal solutions to ensure our investments maintain momentum and maximise the resources they have to hand, especially important in a fast evolving field such as immersive technology.

All of our past and future investments centre on creating and leveraging innovative intellectual property to deliver, enhance and customise the elite that software entertainment has to offer. As such, we are hugely proficient - technically, commercially and financially - with the development and application of immersive technologies and collectively the LVP team is able to draw on a wealth of experience that dates back to the inception of the video games industry.

We view the combination of capital and time we invest as rocket fuel to propel those businesses we believe offer the very best chance of becoming the next billion dollar companies. Our investors genuinely expect us to identify such enterprises as we have done it before, and more than once.

Collaborating with Innovate UK enables us to quicken the speed to market of our selected investments, alongside providing added breathing space so that teams can be truly innovative and ground-breaking in the immersive field.

5. Mercia Technologies PLC

Website: www.merciatech.co.uk
Contact email: www.mercia.co.uk/get-in-touch

Based in the Midlands of England, Mercia is one of the UK’s most active venture capital investors focused on the identification, creation, funding and scaling of innovative businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions. Initial investments are made via Mercia’s managed funds and then selectively scaling the highest potential businesses through its own balance sheet capital.

Mercia has over £500 million in assets under management and a portfolio of nearly 400 companies across a number of sectors including software and the internet, digital and digital entertainment, electronics, materials, manufacturing and engineering, and life sciences and biosciences.

Mercia manages a range of equity and debt funds and has the ability to fund companies from the Proof of Concept and Seed stage through to Series A/B. Mercia has a particular focus on investing in high-growth innovative technology companies based in the Midlands, North of England and Scotland.

In addition to capital, Mercia provides its portfolio companies with strategic support, access to well established networks and operational expertise.

Mercia is an active investor in the immersive technology sector having made investments in nDreams, an interactive entertainment developer, Gorilla In The Room, an immersive technology tools company for the market research sector, and Luminous Group, specialists in 3D digital technology in the architecture and construction industries.

Mercia is now actively looking to build upon its portfolio of companies in the immersive technology sector.

Our interest in immersive technologies

An area Mercia is particularly active in is the immersive technology sector, having invested in a number of companies operating across virtual, augmented and mixed reality.

Given that these technologies have broad market applicability across a wide range of sectors, including digital health, digital manufacturing and the creative industries, we view the immersive technology sector as one of the most innovative and valuable sectors to invest in right now.

At Mercia we invest across a wide range of sectors, including software and the internet, digital and digital entertainment, electronics, materials, manufacturing and engineering, and life sciences and biosciences. We view immersive technologies as being relevant across all of these sectors. We are particularly interested in companies that are building innovative, commercially-focused and most importantly scalable applications of augmented, virtual and mixed reality for non-entertainment purposes, such as training and development.

Mercia has made a number of investments into the immersive technology sector, including: * nDreams, a leading interactive entertainment developer working with first parties including Oculus. * Gorilla In The Room, an immersive technology tools company for the market research sector. * Luminous Group, specialists in 3D digital technology in the architecture and construction industries.

We are actively looking to build upon our portfolio of companies in this sector and we view the Investment Accelerator as a great opportunity to help us do this.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

As well as capital, Mercia provides portfolio companies with sectoral expertise, general business guidance and operational support.

As well as having invested in a handful of companies in the sector, last year we partnered with the Digital Catapult’s “Augmentor” programme to support early-stage immersive technology companies from across the UK regions. This was a 10-week programme that provided the cohort of companies with access to technical and business mentorship from industry partners, experts and investors, including Mercia. Our investments in and support of the immersive technology sector has allowed us to build a broad understanding of and network within the industry, which we are looking forward to providing to new investee companies that operate in the sector.

From a general operational and support perspective, at Mercia we have a “Platform” team, comprised of full-time in-house legal, corporate finance, research and recruitment resource. As well as supporting Mercia’s investment team, our Platform team actively provides support to our investee companies across these areas when relevant. We also supplement this through our trusted network of both service and product providers. In terms of the latter, Mercia has partnered with a range of cloud service providers, such as Amazon (AWS), IBM, Google Cloud, HubSpot and Zendesk, amongst others. These partnerships allow our investee companies to unlock discounts and access workshops, webinars and office hours hosted by our partners.

By providing equity capital alongside Innovate UK grant funding, we can ensure that the total amount raised (including both our and Innovate UK’s commitment to the round) is deployed in the most efficient and appropriate manner. Our investment team has considerable board-level experience supporting seed, early- and later-stage companies. We understand how to support these companies, introduce the appropriate level of corporate governance as the company matures and both build and retain a highly engaged, efficient and functional board and management team.

As well as investing in the immersive technology sector in particular, we have a strong track record of investing in the wider software and digital sectors, having invested in over 150 software and digital companies across the UK to date.

6. Northstar Ventures Ltd

Website: www.northstarventures.co.uk
Contact email: stephen@northstarventures.co.uk

Northstar Ventures is a regional venture capital business located in Newcastle upon Tyne. For 15 years we have managed early stage technology funds supporting entrepreneurs in the North East of England. During that period we have invested in hundreds of start-up and scaleup businesses and been a major player in the local innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our investment interests are broad and reflect the experience and expertise of our diverse team. Whilst much of our investment activity is focussed on disruptive digital technologies across multiple industry verticals we also have particular skills and experience in healthcare, biotech, cleantech and materials. Although we are regionally focused, we are nationally connected and have a large network within the UK venture capital industry and business angel community.

We are members of the British Venture Capital Association and the UK Business Angels Association. Co-investment is core to our investment thesis and we always look to work alongside other value-add investors wherever possible.

In May 2018 we launched our latest fund, the £27 million North East Innovation Fund. This fund is part of the North East Fund and is backed by the North East of England European Regional Development Fund programme, the European Investment Bank and from returns on previous North East based, publicly supported investment funds. The fund invests from pre-Seed to Series A and is seeking to support regional companies with experienced and ambitious management teams developing disruptive technologies and/or business models with the ambition of rapidly growing big businesses. In addition to the direct experience of our investment team which is brought to our portfolio companies, we also have a wide network of advisors and non-executive directors to call upon. We routinely introduce our network to portfolio companies and see this as a key value add alongside our investment finance. We have many examples where experienced individuals have been introduced to investees, have joined the board and been instrumental in supporting the executive leadership team in many aspects of growing their business. As we have been operational within the North East for 15 years we have a particularly good network locally including many service providers and intermediaries. Our local network also includes the many companies that we have supported over the years and we always encourage portfolio companies to interact, learn from each other and share best practice.

We are HubSpot and AWS Activate partners and our portfolio can enjoy the benefits and discounts that these offer. We pride ourselves in our professional but informal and founder friendly approach. We understand that choosing an investor is an extremely important decision and we aim to be a supportive and pragmatic partner for entrepreneurs.

Our interest in immersive technologies

As technology investors we are of course interested in the potentially disruptive impact of immersive technologies. We believe that factors such as:

• the continuing reduction in processing cost
• massive availability of compute power (both in the cloud and at the edge)
• ongoing hardware platform cost reductions and
• the inexorable rise in big data and artificial intelligence

are creating the conditions required for acceleration in innovation and adoption of immersive technologies. We are excited by the potential for these technologies to radically transform experiences and enable new products, services and business models in all market verticals including education, entertainment, retail, construction, healthcare and travel.

More specifically, our interest in this sector has grown recently by what we see as a growing cluster of activity in the North East area and the opening of PROTO: The Emerging Technology Centre. PROTO is part of the Digital Catapult North East Tees Valley network, and is home to the North East Tees Valley Immersive Lab which includes state of the art hardware and software facilities for R&D in AR, VR and MR, providing cost effective access to SMEs along with office space creating a hub for immersive technology businesses. The North East is home to one of the largest clusters of immersive technology businesses in Europe and the community is vibrant. VRTGO Labs has been established for several years and is Europe’s first collaborative, industry-led immersive technology network. Early April saw the latest annual immersive technology conference (XRTGO 2019) at the Baltic Art Gallery in Gateshead. Established in 2014, this conference is a high quality, curated immersive technology conference and exhibition and a key date in the North East technology calendar. We firmly believe that the North East will produce leading examples of emerging immersive technology companies and we expect exciting investment opportunities to emerge. Our key interest will be in software platforms and production tools which allow for rapid and scalable growth of immersive technology based products, content and businesses. We are aware of over 35 local businesses in this sector and expect this number to increase rapidly. We have already invested in several companies in this space including Zerolight (a leading North East technology business), Skignz, TryLife, Whispering Gibbon and Flo Culture.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

At Northstar Ventures we understand that the provision of capital is extremely important but that companies often look for additional value from their investors. There are a number of ways that we deliver added value to our investees. Firstly, our core investment team has over 80 years of collective investment experience. Every investor at Northstar has experience of supporting multiple early stage technology businesses and has a wide experience and knowledge of the typical challenges that such companies face. Every Northstar investee forms a close relationship with the particular investor who recommended an investment into the company and that investor will typically take a board observer position with the company. This investor will be the first point of contact with Northstar but will act as a conduit to the wider investment team and ensure that the collective experience of the team is at the disposal of the company. In addition to the experience and knowledge of the investment team, Northstar has a wide network of advisors and non-executive directors whom we routinely introduce to our investees. There are many examples where we have introduced experienced individuals to an investee to supplement the skills and capabilities of management teams either for short term support or for longer engagements such as board appointments. We strongly believe that the strength of the senior leadership team is a key factor in the success of rapidly growing early stage technology businesses and supporting our investees with our talent network is a key value add that we bring. We also have a very strong network of intermediary and professional services organisations that we bring to our investees. We often introduce investees to providers such as marketing agencies, recruiters, lawyers, corporate finance and other financial services, depending on needs. In the North East particularly we have excellent networks with local innovation ecosystem including local universities, technology parks and catapults. These connections can often be extremely valuable to our investees as they look for specific technical or market expertise. Finally, whilst we are rooted in the North East ecosystem our core strategy of co-investment means we are very well networked throughout the UK venture capital and angel investment community. As such we are well placed to connect investees with relevant follow on investors or syndicate partners and we work with all of our investees to ensure that they are best prepared to raise further rounds of finance, with our support and participation. Much of our experience is in supporting digital technology businesses and this does include a number of immersive technology businesses, e.g. Zerolight, Skignz and Flo Culture. As the sector develops in the region we will ensure that our investees are connected with the local cluster and have access to the facilities at PROTO and beyond. Leveraging our relationship with PROTO and these facilities, alongside investment and grant, will help investees to scale and grow rapidly.

7. Oxford Sciences Innovation plc

Website: www.oxfordsciencesinnovation.com
Contact email: accelerator@oxfordsciences.com

OSI plc started operations in June 2015 since when it has invested in 69 companies that have spun-out from Oxford University. Investments are made at every stage of a company’s development from translational funding, to seed and later stage Series A, B etc. including through to IPO. It is probable that OSI will invest in every stage of a companies development. There are no time limits on how long investments are held and therefore OSI is prepared to take a long term view aiming to allow companies to achieve their maximum potential. OSI can only invest in companies that have or will spin-out from Oxford University or are based on Harwell Science Campus or Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire.

The company has over £600 million of capital with around 25% committed since it began operations in June 2015.

By providing significant capital in a timely manner from OSI, our shareholders and contacts, it is expected that the portfolio companies are more likely to succeed. In addition our shareholders and network take an active interest in providing advice and tangible support to the portfolio companies. Beyond capital this may be immediate tangible help such as an OSI Investment Principal sitting on the Company’s Board or office space in our Oxford incubator. In addition our shareholders (including Google, Temasek, Sequoia, Tencent, Invesco, Lansdowne) offer strategic advice, market contacts, introductions and management help to the investments.

Our interest in immersive technologies

OSI believes that immersive content and the creative industries are an important part of the UK’s economy. OSI will invest in any projects that qualify at any funding stage as long as they meet our investment criteria. It is difficult to predict the likely number of suitable ideas in any year generated from Oxford University but it is likely to be at least two new investments judging by past investments.

Overall OSI are investing in around 15 new spin-outs a year in the seed round. As OSI develops it is expected that there will be around 12 investments p.a. in Series A and around 7 in Series B. It is too early to predict the number of investments in funding rounds later than Series B. In Immersive Technologies we would expect circa 1 seed investments each year and the same number in each of the later funding rounds, though with a slight decrease due to technological and market failure. OSI is interested in all areas of Immersive Technology and would invest in any that met our investment criteria.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

OSI helps with property, preferred supplier contacts and partnering with the right advisers.

Each investment also receives the attention of an Investment Principal who has worked in the relevant area for at least 3 years and has access to considerable sector knowledge from senior members of the OSI Board. In addition, the shareholders and network of OSI frequently attend Oxford and will help portfolio companies where possible including giving strategic advice, making introductions and helping with market contracts. The OSI shareholder list includes GV, Sequoia, Redmile, Wellcome Trust, Invesco, Woodford Patient Capital, Fosun Pharma, Temasek and Lansdowne amongst others.

OSI has been developing expertise in the area of immersive technology from developing its existing companies in addition to drawing on the knowledge of shareholders, the wider network and the Oxford University Academic community. This knowledge is captured in the Investment Principals who are the key point of contact for each investment.

The companies in our portfolio and new investment ideas are in a very early stage of development and therefore are extremely risky investments. It is probable that a significant majority will not reach commercial viability. By having Innovate funding available it is likely that more projects will be funded and to a high degree. The Innovate funding will also speed up the rate of investment by attracting further capital into the companies. The higher level of funding and increased speed of investment should improve the possibility of commercial success of the investments.

8. R/GA

Website: www.rga.com/services/ventures
Contact email: https://www.f6s.com/rgaventures/apply

Capital. Creative. Connections.

We don’t just help companies build their products. We help them build their brands.

A new model for acceleration.

Many accelerators are programs designed to help start-ups rapidly develop their product and attract investment. We’ve developed a unique offering that goes beyond the traditional mentor-intensive, co-location model, providing real value to companies at every stage.

Creative capital

We match each of our start-ups with the right experts across our global network, providing consulting, strategy, design, copywriting, business development, brand transformation, and more.

Financial capital

We invest in each of our program companies at current valuations. Deal terms vary depending on the stage of each start-up as well as the terms of funding raised previously.

Partner and client capital

We give start-ups exposure and access to R/GA’s global client network and industry-spanning corporate partners. These organisations participate in our programs not only as mentors, but advisors, pilot partners, customers, and investors.

Our programs

We build our programs around strategic themes; ?IoT, Commerce and Retail, Marketing Tech, Sports and Entertainment Tech, Media Tech, and more; ?and build cohorts to support them.

We curate a purpose-built team for every start-up, drawing from agency disciplines ranging from strategy and experience design to technology and branding. These experts then work alongside the founders, helping them build better products and brands.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Is my start-up at the right stage? Yes. We are stage-agnostic and have designed our programs to help companies of all sizes develop their brand, improve their product, identify partnerships, and raise capital. We’ll work with you to create a custom program plan that allows you to continue running your business efficiently.

When can I apply? We are always looking for the right start-ups for our corporate partners. At any point during our yearlong Studio, we might identify a matchmaking opportunity and lay the groundwork for a pilot or testbed. Tell us about your company here.

If accepted, would I need to move my team? Our global studio model does not require founders to move their team, although space is always offered to start-ups across R/GA’s global network throughout the entirety of the program.

Our interest in immersive technologies

The field of Immersive Technology and Spatial Computing is set to revolutionise our lives.

It requires a new language and gesture-based control system, a sophisticated balance of hardware and software working in harmony, and it requires a contextual understanding of an individual’s needs to ensure the right information is presented at the right time and in the right place to avoid information overload, confusion and complexity.

As we map out experiences that augment the real world and build new virtual worlds on top of it, we need to create the tools, content, experiences, products and services, hardware and devices necessary to enjoy them. Some of our current immersive-specific investments include Cognitive3D, which captures human interaction through VR, AR, and MR experiences, enabling real world insights to be captured from digital realities.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

There are three ways in which we are able to add to your company beyond capital. Firstly, unique access to our team of talented crafts men and women from across our global network, including experts in consulting, strategy and business development as well as our core creative, ux and design teams. Secondly, we give start-ups exposure and access to our global client network and industry-spanning corporate partners. And thirdly, a network of mentors, advisors and potential pilot partners, customers, and investors.

The expertise we’re able to bring to a company specifically in the field of Immersive technology includes developers and individual team members who’ve worked on active immersive software platforms including McDonald’s Happy Studio AR, Siemens VR and Magic Leap PoCs and demos. We have an in-house VR Studio and a selection of hardware devices to demo and develop on. We also have industry contacts with Unity, Microsoft, Magic Leap and Facebook.

9. Station12

Website: www.station12.co
Contact email: innovate@station12.co

We believe that the UK Media, Entertainment and Knowledge sector has the power to create businesses that compete on a global scale. This is why we created Station12, a unique specialist, to identify, found and build world-class companies addressing a global market worth $2 trillion.

We back the best, the most ambitious and scalable See to Series A through Growth stage businesses in the sector, with a particular interest for those businesses which embrace new technologies to create or enhance innovative and compelling content propositions or experiences, or which enable consumers to access knowledge in a more dynamic engaging way.

Our investment track record captures investment in the sectors across multiple stages and business models. We are also venture builders where we have started businesses ourselves, seeded them, set the strategy and the operations and prepared them for scaling. Being entrepreneurial ourselves allows us to see eye to eye with founders as we are hands on and we know the hurdles and challenges of starting and scaling a business.

Station 12 also has an advisory business, allowing us to capture market intelligence across the sectors, engaging with the larger businesses that ultimately may be the strategic investors or acquirers of the early stage businesses we invest in.

Our interest in immersive technologies

We are seeing the convergence of new technologies like virtual/augmented/extended reality resulting in new ways of creating and experiencing content.

We particularly like those businesses which embrace immersive technologies to create or enhance innovative and compelling immersive content propositions, experiences, platforms, services, softwares production and distribution tools, or which enable consumers to access knowledge in a more dynamic engaging way.

Our scope for investments in the immersive sector is in startups developing tools, products or services for creating and delivering immersive content, or startups demonstrating innovation in software and/or development methodology.

We define immersive experiences as multisensory narrative or interactive experiences through technologies including virtual, mixed and augmented reality, haptics, advanced visualisation, and other sensory interfaces. Our sub sectors capture advertising and marketing, design (product, graphic and fashion), TV, video, radio and photography, computer games and services, publishing, museums, galleries and libraries, music, performing and visual arts, education, learning and sport.

Early stage investing is risky and needs specialised, knowledgeable capital. We strongly believe that we can fill the gap and provide that independent source of knowledgeable capital, allowing companies to grow to full market value before exiting.

This also requires an active approach to investing, so we are not a ‘bulk’ investment house. We stock pick carefully and limit the maximum number of investments we will do at any one time to between four and six.

We have businesses in our investment pipeline focused on VR and in differing areas of immersive, that we are in early stage discussions with. The availability of grant funding to these companies would be a significant influence on our decision to invest. All these businesses are early stage (such as SEIS or early stage EIS).

We intend to invest across the UK with a good geographic coverage as we are well networked with creative hubs in Bristol, South East England, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Dublin and Belfast.

We aim to significantly increase our investment pipeline across the immersive technologies.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

Early stage, innovative companies need active, networked investors who are aligned with them and who have a patient long-term outlook. We are that investor as we have proprietary deal flow, a deep understanding of the industry, operational backgrounds, an outstanding advisory board of high level, connected individuals. We also combine financial skills (in terms of how the companies are financially managed, capitalised) with deep knowledge of the sectors created by working only in those sectors alone. Cash flow is king, so we work with companies to mitigate their risk exposure and access grants and other support wherever possible.

Our operational knowledge gives us a good sense of what our companies should be achieving by when, and the operational challenges they need to overcome. We are better able to anticipate their problems and advise on strategies to work around them, making us better board members.

Our investment track record captures investment in the sectors across multiple stages and business models. In addition, because Station 12 also has an advisory business, we capture market intelligence across the sectors, engaging with the larger businesses that ultimately may be the strategic investors or acquirers of the early stage businesses we invest in.

We are Experts and Rapporteurs for the Horizon2020 SME Instruments programmes at the European Commission, where we see what latest innovations are coming to market.

We act as a trusted access point to an opaque sector and we have worked operationally in the world of Media, Entertainment and Knowledge, as well as acted as investors and advisors.

Because we are specialists, we see the best the opportunities in the market and we are a desired partner. We receive a high volume of approaches for investment, but we seek to filter this down to 100 high quality deals, of which we expect to execute 4 to 6.

We are also venture builders where we have started businesses ourselves, seeded them, set the strategy and the operations and prepared them for scaling. Being entrepreneurial ourselves allows us to seeing eye to eye with founders as we know the hurdles and challenges of starting and scaling a business.

We are hands on investors and always ask a board seat when offering capital.

We are partners and mentors at different immersive incubators such as the Realities Centre and we also helped design the Augmentor VR Incubator at the Digital Catapult in London. We regularly help founders even if we have not invested in them yet.

Innovate would be a great partner bringing additional expertise and network in the sector and give a wider access of resources and publicly recognised support to the founders we decide to back.

10. Techstart Ventures LLP

Website: www.techstart.vc
Contact emails: NorthernIreland@techstart.vc or Scotland@techstart.vc

Techstart Ventures is a seed stage venture capital investor for the best and most ambitious entrepreneurial founding teams in Scotland and Northern Ireland. We seek to be trusted peers who help founders realise their vision through experienced and timely support. With our capital and backing, founders can focus on customer development, validating their business model and growing sales. Techstart provides support for early stage, innovative SMEs and univeristy spin-outs through its equity funds.

Our investment strategy and operating model have been developed by investment and operational staff with decades of directly applicable experience.

Our proven combination of high volume deal flow sources, commercial founder friendly terms, speed of operation, and highly developed Series A networks mean that we are uniquely placed to deliver a high-volume added value seed investment strategy. Our strategy involves seeking to syndicate at the seed stage followed by a move towards external Series A.

Our interest in immersive technologies

Techstart invests in a wide range of innovative technology companies addressing large market opportunities. We are more interested in the problems that immersive technology is addressing than the specific type of technology (AR/VR/MR). With the diverse use cases for immersive technology we expect it to impact numerous sectors in the future. We currently have 4 portfolio companies which could be classified as immersive.

Our preference would be to engage with opportunities which include, but are not limited too immersive: devices, products, platforms, software and/or hardware.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

Techstart has taken the time to develop a unique strategy and operating model developed by investment and operational staff with decades of directly applicable experience. Our team’s credentials include experience gained in high growth export orientated companies that have raised local and international investments, created high value jobs and gone on to exit. This underpins our ability to provide support around common early stage challenges including:

• organisational development, including issues around growth, leadership and focus
• hiring and board building, especially the “sleeves rolled up” mentors who can help less experienced founders;
• achieving product/market fit, refining business and revenue models
• strategy development; and
• funding strategy development

Specifically, in the area of immersive technology, 3 of our team currently sit on boards of immersive companies and are well versed in helping these companies identify and tackle start up issues. Also, one of our team is a Director of UK Games Talent and Finance CIC which runs the UK Games Fund and Tranzfuser programmes. In this role Mark Hogarth has been involved in reviewing close to 1,000 video game projects, of which c.150 have gone on to receive support or funding from one of these programmes. Many of these projects include immersive elements and several companies that have gone through these programmes have successfully developed and sold immersive projects into both creative and enterprise sectors. Mark’s relevant network includes contacts that span investors, developers, publishers and platform owners.

Our investment would complement Innovate UK Grant funding to help companies grow and scale with a particular focus on those looking to further develop their product offerings and grow their teams.

11. Warner Music UK

Website: www.wmg.com
Contact email: wmg.boost@wmg.com

Warner Music Group is a major entertainment company with interests in recorded music, music publishing and artist services, operating some of the most successful labels in the world and businesses as varied as concert-listing platform Songkick, digital media publisher Uproxx and online retailer EMP Merchandising. As a corporate investor we bring over a century of in-market experience, leadership and resources to any investment we make. We have recently launched our WMG Boost venture fund, specifically aimed at targeting early-stage companies where we believe we can have a large multiplier effect in helping them grow.

Our interest in immersive technologies

Entertainment is becoming interactive and immersive and as one of the top music companies, we believe that music can become a more holistic experience than ever. With that in mind we need to be in the forefront of new immersive technologies leading by example and fostering new use cases by investing in content and experiences around our content, with a special interest in platforms and services that can distribute it all.

The value we can add to your company beyond capital

As a corporate investor we bring over a century of in-market experience, leadership and resources to any investment we make. We are a company boasting 3.500 worldwide experts in fields as far as audio engineering, marketing, supply chain management, etc. In every investment we make we seek to use our global footprint across over 50 countries to scale their operations and with the Immersive Technology Investment Accelerator we can validate more startups to push globally even faster. We have launched some of the most interesting immersive experiences for artists, such as Gorillaz’s Spirit House, have invested in an immersive theatre company and are developing an Innovate UK supported immersive audio project with technological and academic partners.