Episode1 Ventures is a London based venture capital fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in the UK. It was created with a mixture of public and private money, including backing from a number of entrepreneurs including Alex Chesterman of Zoopla Property Group. It is one of the UK Government's Enterprise Capital Funds – set up to support fund managers who invest in small, high-growth businesses. The £12.5 million of private investment was matched with £25 million of public money. Episode 1 Ventures invests in seed and Series A rounds of up to £2m in software-driven businesses with the potential to transform industries. They’ve been entrepreneurs theirselves so provide a frank and fast approach to investing and they like to play a very hands-on supportive role in growing the businesses they back. They look for entrepreneurs with relevant experience ambitious to change their sector. They like to see that they can hire world-class talent and delegate to them effectively, and that they really know the customers and understand the problem. They also like entrepreneurs that are data-driven. But above all they like people with passion and ambition, that can execute at speed and overcome significant hurdles along the way. They are building a portfolio of companies that are using software technology to disrupt their chosen marketplaces. It is a diverse group across a range of industries, but with two common themes – a great founder and a big market.  They also like to invest once a company has launched their product and has some clients they can reference. Revenues are usually from zero to £50k per month when they first invest. They like to play an active role in helping the companies that they invest in, at least until their companies have secured one or more later financing rounds. They want to help entrepreneurs turn their early stage ventures into fast growing companies built to grow into significant and valuable entities.  They see every investment as a partnership. Indeed, they share their office with a number of portfolio companies so they work very closely with them.

Episode 1

M12 - Microsoft’s venture fund, invests in early-stage enterprise software companies with a focus on AI, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, developer tools, vertical SaaS, and Web3/Gaming. Since 2016, M12 has invested in over 100 companies, helping startups accelerate growth with unparalleled access to Microsoft.

M12 - Microsoft's Venture Fund

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a large number of startups twice a year. It created a new model for funding startups. Twice a year, the company invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups. The startup accelerator works intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.

Y Combinator

Cota Capital is an SEC-registered multi-stage investment firm focused on private and public enterprise technology companies. Cota has invested in more than 100 private and public technology companies since inception. Cota’s overall Mission is to deliver impactful outcomes through principle-guided investment in modern enterprise technologies.

Cota Capital

Samsung NEXT’s Q Fund is invest in early stage AI startups taking on Grand Challenges.

Samsung NEXT’s Q Fund

Webiny

The way we build, deploy and operate the web is evolving. Webiny is a developer-friendly serverless CMS powered by Node, React and a GraphQL API.

Webiny offers open source solutions for developers to build and deploy serverless apps and websites. The platform has two main offerings: 1) a content management system (CMS), and 2) the framework to build the CMS. The self-hosted CMS offers a GraphQL application programming interface (API) and a no-code builder which lets even non-technical developers build static pages and forms. The framework, on the other hand, offers the architecture to build and deploy custom apps, microservices, internal apps, and multi-database solutions, among others.

The innovative cost dynamics of serverless computing allow more customers onto the cloud without breaking the bank.

Serverless Computing

Building a CSS Tricks Website Clone with Webiny and NextJS

Webiny offers open source solutions for developers to build and deploy serverless apps and websites. The platform has two main offerings: 1) a content management system (CMS), and 2) the framework to build the CMS. The self-hosted CMS offers a GraphQL application programming interface (API) and a no-code builder which lets even non-technical developers build static pages and forms. The framework, on the other hand, offers the architecture to build and deploy custom apps, microservices, internal apps, and multi-database solutions, among others. As of August 2021, the framework was solely integrated with Amazon cloud and serverless services (such as AWS Lambda and Amazon S3), but Webiny intends to extend the integrations to Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure in the future. Moreover, the framework can also be integrated with third-party databases such as DynamoDB and MongoDB, and deployment services such as Pulumi. The company uses a freemium model with custom enterprise plans. It offers both its CMS and framework (even in the free tier), while the paid tier includes advanced training and support. Webiny raised USD 3.5 million in seed funding in August 2021, led by M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund) to invest in developing its two core offerings, building commercial products, and expanding its workforce.

SLAppForge offers support for companies developing serverless apps on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud through its Integrated Development Environment (IDE) “Sigma.” Sigma is the first completely browser-based IDE and offers a drag-and-drop framework for intuitive coding. The platform was also the first IDE to offer live debugging of Lambda functions, and also provides support for live debugging on NodeJS and Python functions. Sri Lanka-based SLAppForge incorporated its US entity and brought on CEO Wallace Wilhoite (former IT Manager at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) in January 2020.

SLAppForge

Altostra offers a development platform that allows developers to create serverless apps with or without the use of coding, and deploy it through any cloud/serverless vendor. The company provides a visual workspace for app developers to make the process intuitive, and also offers a cross-platform command line tool.

Altostra

<div>
 
 Triggermesh’s platform allows users to create serverless apps that integrate multiple cloud, data center, and on-premise software and environments, on top of Kubernetes. Through these integrations, the platform aims to break “silos” between enterprise customers and their software development and IT operations (DevOps) teams. The cloud and infrastructure integration development speed is reportedly enhanced by reusing connectors and customizable templates. 
 
 
 In March 2022, the platform announced broad support for KNative (an open-source platform to build and deploy serverless workloads) which includes any conformant Knative deployment, along with the provision of Knative distribution. TriggerMesh also announced broad support for creating event-driven architecture that runs on Kubernetes in Google Cloud, to enable users to create integrations to sync data or drive event-driven workloads. 
 Triggermesh went on to launch a service to enable enterprises using Kubeless migrate to Knative in May 2022.
 
 
 Funding and financials 
 
 
 The company raised USD 5 million in seed funding in July 2021, from Cisco, to invest in expanding its go-to-market strategy. Along with the funding, Triggermesh also noted that it would collaborate with Cisco to deliver improved enterprise automation solutions and cloud-native integrations, leveraging Cisco’s vast enterprise and cloud footprint. 
 
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Triggermesh

Iron.io offers multiple tools to assist development operations (DevOps) to focus on core tasks, without managing infrastructure. The company entered the serverless computing market in 2016, with the launch of IronFunctions, effectively an open-source platform that can be used by developers and uses containers as the base. It allows users to launch serverless applications and functions on private and public clouds, on-premise servers, and hybrid environments. IronFunctions can be written in a variety of programming languages including Ruby, PHP, Python, Java, Node.js, Go, and .NET. However, the company currently only provides helper libraries and integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda.The company has expanded its operations since 2017 by adding an office in Tokyo, expanding its engineering and customer success teams, and continuing to improve the company’s products (bug fixes, improvements to internal tooling, and adding concurrency graphs, etc.). Iron.io looks to continue ramping up the development of its products by improving performance and reliability and developing a new user interface.Iron.io also continues to invest in new cutting-edge technologies such as “Computerless,” which eliminates the physical machine altogether and allows for it to be fully encapsulated in fiber optic cable.Key customers and partnershipsIts key customers include Google, Harry’s, Philips, Whole Foods, Veritone, and Counsyl.

Iron.io

Elotl offers the “Elotl Milpa” serverless platform to deploy Kubernetes (container orchestration system) apps on the cloud (mainly AWS, Google Cloud, Azure cloud, and Oracle cloud). It allows users to run their Kubernetes workloads in a cost effective manner (around 60%-80% cost savings relative to traditional offerings), avoiding vendor lock-in, Its offering also includes multi-tenancy security.Key customers and partnershipsAs of January 2022, its customers included Robinhood, Ronin, and Symphony, among others.In the year leading to November 2021, deployments through Elotl expanded 5x YoY, and the company became a founding member of the “Mobile Native Foundation” (a space for developers to collaborate on open source projects and discuss topics).

Elotl

This includes all serverless software which does not fall into the other categories but are related to the serverless market (e.g serverless based database providers).

Software and services that monitor, optimize, and enable integrations to improve performance.

Businesses and organizations helping programmers transition to serverless platforms by reducing client dependency on vendor-specific offerings.

Businesses that fill in knowledge gaps between clients and serverless vendors for developing and running complex apps and programs.

Vendor platforms such as AWS Lambda and Azure Functions used by clients to run their program. Effectively the infrastructure for serverless computing.

Serverless database providers offer infrastructure for running Gen AI models

Webiny

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