Pentech Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on finding category defining software companies. Their passion is helping founders develop their startup into an internationally successful organisation. They have done this multiple times, partnering with leading VCs, corporations and investment banks along the way. They consider any opportunity capable of becoming a market leader but are most comfortable being the first venture investor, supporting founders through the early stages of proving product and market fit. Their initial investment is likely to be £500K to £2M, with up to £10M invested over the lifetime of the investment. They invest in founders who are ambitious to build a global company, have the passion and ability to attract the best team and who are focused on the data and understand the key drivers in proving and building their business. They support the founders they invest in to develop and grow with their business.

Pentech Ventures

Ascension is an early-stage VC built by exited entrepreneurs to back the next generation of tech and impact founders. Run by an experienced and diverse team of successful entrepreneurs, we have been relentlessly dedicated to finding the UK’s best Seed-stage startups since 2014. Ascension benefits from the active industry connections essential for the sourcing and development of deal-flow and due diligence. The team has co-invested with the UK’s leading angels and VCs, key to securing follow-on funding as the portfolio businesses move to their next stage of growth. We believe in building an inclusive, community driven brand that can benefit the wider UK tech ecosystem and strive to work with conviction, integrity, humour, and humility.

Ascension

Stanford Angels of the United Kingdom is a Stanford University alumni group provides investments in early-stage and growth ventures.

Stanford Angels of the United Kingdom

We are serial founders with a mission to back fellow founders with capital, connections and expertise.  We seek ventures boldly reimagining our world via deep, defensible innovation –fuelled by deep tech, scientific breakthroughs or business model disruptions.

Apex Black

Founders Factory builds and funds startups together with exceptional entrepreneurs and the world's leading companies. We invest across four key themes - fintech, health, climate, and deeptech. Founded in 2015 by Brent Hoberman, Henry Lane Fox and George Northcott, Founders Factory combines capital and bespoke support from a team of over 70 specialists with a broad network of corporates and established entrepreneurs. Founders Factory has backed over 300 technology companies globally. Corporate partners include Aviva, L’Oreal, Guardian Media Group, easyJet, Reckitt, Marks and Spencer, CSC Group, J&J, Deutsche Telekom, Fastweb, Pico Global, Mediobanca and Standard Bank.

Founders Factory

Insight Partners is a global software investor that partners with growth-stage technology and software companies. Insight has a deep focus in Fintech, Cybersecurity, AI/ML, DevOps, and Healthcare sectors. Across their people and their portfolio, they encourage a culture around a core belief growth equals opportunity. As of December 31, 2022, the firm has over $75B in regulatory assets under management. Insight Partners has invested in more than 750 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO.

Insight Partners

IP Group's core business is the creation of value for its shareholders and partners through the commercialisation of intellectual property originating from research intensive institutions. Their strength lies in managing this process from finding suitable intellectual property to commercialise to either helping develop businesses and create value out of them, or identifying and establishing appropriate commercial partnerships to do so. IP Group's extensive expertise in this area combined with its inside knowledge of both industry and finance have enabled the group to create a formidable track record of consistently delivering excellent results for their companies, for their partners and for their shareholders.

IP Group

TouchStone began with an idea to create one-stop financial solutions by connecting and consolidating financial and industrial platforms.

TouchStone Capital Group

Monolith AI

Monolith AI is a software company that uses machine learning and data science to help engineers improve the product development process. It enables companies to monetize on their old simulation and test data by using it to anticipate the behavior of new products. Companies can optimize their R&D process by reducing the number of simulations, tests, and prototypes required to develop a new product delivering faster and better products. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in London, England.

<div><p>Monolith AI is a British software company that offers a no code platform for users to use AI in product engineering. The platform enables product engineers to anticipate behavior of their new products as well as optimize and validate their designs. The company claims its platform reduces the number of required simulations by 90%, and the necessary testing and design iterations by 70%. Monolith was used by multiple large enterprises across the globe, including BMW, Siemens, Altair, L’Oreal, and Honda as of August 2021.</p></div>

Now anyone can become a software developer.

No-code Software

<div>
  <p>
    Monolith AI is a British software company that offers a no code platform for users to use AI in product engineering. The platform enables product engineers to anticipate behavior of their new products as well as optimize and validate their designs. The company claims its platform reduces the number of required simulations by 90%, and the necessary testing and design iterations by 70%. Monolith was used by multiple large enterprises across the globe, including BMW, Siemens, Altair, L’Oreal, and Honda as of August 2021.
  </p>
  <p>
    In February 2021, the company announced its partnership with Siemens Digital Industries Software, to integrate simcenter data sources and simulation environments with Monolith AI’s platform.
  </p>
  <p>
    Monolith raised GBP 8.5 million (USD 11.7 million) in Series A funding in August 2021, led by Insight Partners, to invest in expanding its international client base and continuing the development of its 3D machine learning technology.
  </p>
</div>


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  <p>
    Index offers a no-code platform for enterprises to build dashboards for internal use to obtain insights on business metrics, investor updates and operation overviews, among others. As of June 2021, the product remains at beta, with a limited early preview. The platform provides prebuilt templates, and also has tools for users to build their own dashboards.  
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
    The dashboard can be integrated with multiple apps including Hubspot ((customer relationship management data), Stripe (payment data), and Postgres and MongoDB (databases), slack (remote working) and Google Sheets (spreadsheets), among others. 
  </p>
  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
    The company raised USD 2.6 million in Seed funding in October 2020. It intends to invest the funds in hiring two engineers (in addition to the two founders) and continuing to refine and develop the product. The founders aim to reach USD 1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and expand their product distribution. 
  </p>
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Index

<div>
  <p>
    Pico offers an audience management tool for media enterprises (newsrooms, trade publications, fan clubs, and others) which allows users to improve CRM. It provides a no-code platform to implement paywalls, checkouts, memberships payments, and analytics, among other functions. The tool is built for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to convert users from anonymous readers to paying customers with the goal of improving retention.
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  <p>
  </p>
  <p>
    The company raised USD 4.5 million in Seed funding in May 2019, which it intended to invest in improving its analytics and revenue tools. 
  </p>
</div>


Pico

<div>
  <p>
    Stencyl offers a drag-and-drop no-code platform that enables users to create and publish web and mobile games. Users can build their game logic using the platform&rsquo;s pre-built code blocks, design visual elements via an in-built graphics editor, and publish across a range of platform&rsquo;s such as IoS, Android, Windows and Mac. Moreover,&nbsp; Stencyl also enables users to embed ads into their games as a secondary source of revenue.&nbsp;
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Key customers and partnerships</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    As of February 2024, Stencyl was used by over 500,000 registered developers. Apps created on Stencyl have reached top slots in the Apple App Store and Google Play, and its most successful web games have been sponsored by major publishers including ArmorGames, Kongregate, and Newgrounds.
  </p>
</div>


Stencyl

<div>
  <p>
    PlugXR Inc offers a no-code platform for users to produce AR, VR, and MR (mixed reality) apps. Its platform offers cross-platform development for both Android and iOS and supports software development kits (SDKs), collaboration, and report and analytics on the apps. The company operates in the US, Sweden, and India.
  </p>
  <p>
    As of 2019, its customer base rose to 37 clients (from 14 in 2016), while its workforce grew to over 30 people (from 14 in 2016). PlugXR raised pre-seed and angel funding in 2019.
  </p>
</div>


PlugXR

<div>
  <p>
    Universe offers a no-code platform for users to build websites that can be added to social media pages. Websites can be built using drag and drop blocks to add images, videos, and other content to create a mobile-first website. The Platform offers creative controls, 30 pre-made themes, and block features to allow users to create a custom site and/or open an e-commerce store directly from a mobile phone.&nbsp;
  </p>
  <p>
    The company began as a landing page builder and progressed to developing websites, which include tools for adding shopping blocks. Universe targets micro businesses that are not tech-savvy.
  </p>
  <p>
    <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20509">
      <u>In July 2023</u>
    </a>
    , Universe launched the beta version of Generative Universe Sites (GUS), an AI-powered website designing tool. This solution provides a conversational interface for users to dictate their requirements for a website and then generates a customized web page.
  </p>
  <p>
    <b>Funding and financials</b>
  </p>
  <p>
    In December 2021, Universe raised USD 30 million in a Series B funding round led by Addition to develop the company&rsquo;s block-based system for website building named &ldquo;GRID,&rdquo; expand its commercial offering for startups, and extend GRID to more platforms and devices. 
    Additionally, the company used the funds to&nbsp; expand its reach in new markets and grow its employee base.&nbsp;
  </p>
</div>


Universe

Offers solutions for building internal applications and automations for enterprises

Many solutions enable users to leverage AI/ML for predictive analytics

Offers solutions for building enterprise-specific applications and automations

Some solutions leverage GenAI to enable users to build application and website templates without coding

Allows users to create apps for their own businesses by using their data and ideas and converting them into apps to improve their workflow.

Monolith AI

No-code Software

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