Downing
Ventures EIS
Portfolio book
Downing Ventures EIS
Portfolio book
We believe there has never been such
an attractive time to invest in early
stage technology enabled companies.
The fundamental structure of the
internet has been built – the sky is
full of communication satellites and
the oceans with fibre optic cables.
This makes it possible for the smallest
business to have global reach and
there are public companies such as
Facebook and Google ready to acquire
successful technology businesses at
exciting exit valuations.
In addition to the attractive investment
fundamentals, through the Downing
Ventures EIS Fund wrapper, we can
add significant tax advantages (subject
to personal circumstances), which
include 30% income tax relief (subject
to EIS rules).
The Downing Ventures strategy is
investment, rather than tax led. We
back management teams that are
passionate and talented. We look for
opportunities to disrupt large markets
with game-changing technology and
business plans that we understand.
We carefully consider the exit options
before investing; and maintain strong
relationships with the large US
technology companies to this end.
We strongly believe in the opportunity
for Downing Ventures and invest our
own money alongside our investors
in every company. Each investment
we make is with a view to generating
a big capital gain for our investors
and ourselves. In our opinion, the
Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is
perfect for a high risk, high potential
Downing is owned by its partners,
has 75 staff, and its main office is in
Westminster, London.
We have specialised in tax efficient
investments for over 25 years and
have raised in excess of £1.3 billion
from over 30,000 UK investors.
Matt Penneycard
Matt is an experienced venture capitalist
and heads Downing Ventures. After
graduating from Durham University with
a degree in Law, Matt started his career in
venture capital as one of the early hires
at Octopus Investments in 2002. After
four years with Octopus and two years at
Hermes Private Equity, Matt moved to the
US in 2009 and co-founded DTI Capital,
a technology focused VC investment firm
based out of New York. Matt has been an
active angel investor in the UK and US
early-stage technology sectors.
return investment strategy like this,
because we will enjoy untaxed gains
on the winners and loss relief on the
unsuccessful investments.
I hope you enjoy being a part of
Downing Ventures as much as I do.
Our
portfolio
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Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
The 14 companies listed in the table
below form our current portfolio.
Please turn overleaf for a more detailed
overview of each investment.
Portfolio company
1.
2.
22+22+146
Enterprise SaaS
E-commerce
Social media
Education technology
Life sciences
Social data
Date invested
Sector
Stage invested
Location
Page
Twizoo
02 Apr 2015
Social data
User growth
London
6
WeTrack
01 Apr 2015
Enterprise SaaS1
Early revenues
London
7
Nursery Book
01 Apr 2015
Ed. tech.2
Product development
London & Bristol
8
Zenstores
26 Mar 2015
E-commerce
Early revenues
Bristol
9
Natter
23 Mar 2015
Social media
V13 user growth
Bath
10
EdPlace
02 Mar 2015
Ed. tech.
Breaking even
London
11
Happiour
26 Feb 2015
E-commerce
V1 user growth
London
12
Glisser
18 Dec 2014
Enterprise SaaS
Early revenues
London
13
3 Kinds of Ice
11 Dec 2014
Social media
Beta testing MVP4
London
14
Adaptix
(FKA Radius)
28 Nov 2014
Life sciences
Proof of concept
European Space
Agency, Harwell
15
Duel
(Dardevil Project)
27 Nov 2014
Social media
V1 launch
Bristol
16
Touchlight genetics
30 Oct 2014
Life sciences
Product development
London
17
LoyaltyLion
26 Sep 2014
E-commerce
Early revenues
London
18
Miappi
25 Sep 2014
Enterprise SaaS
Early revenues
London
19
SaaS: Software-as-a-Service
Ed. tech.: Education technology
3.
4.
V1: Version 1
MVP: Minimum Viable Product
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
5
Twizoo
Summary
Twizoo is a mobile app that gives
users live information about
restaurants and bars, based on Twitter
sentiment analysis. The Company
developed intellectual property (IP)
that analyses all of the tweets about
a specific subject – currently “London
restaurants” – and displays the
aggregated sentiment as a heat map to
assist users in deciding where to eat
or drink.
There have been a number of articles
published suggesting a lack of trust in
review services such as TripAdvisor.
Some users believe these products can
be gamed, and are often providing
out-of-date information. Twizoo
was built to take advantage of this
changing dynamic in how we make
decisions, initially in the bar and
restaurant market in London. The
Company does this by buying tweets
from the Twitter “Firehose” and then
using a series of algorithms to analyse
those tweets for sentiment analysis.
flown out to San Francisco by Twitter
to spend time at the company. Twizoo
is expected to launch a second market
in San Fransisco in May 2015. The
Company is developing community
features for the apps that will enhance
the user experience significantly.
Twizoo is a rare investment opportunity –
a big data analytics company with a fully
built, consumer-facing product that users
love. We are excited by what the Twizoo
software algorithms can do and proud to
be backing this great team.
Management
Madeline Parra, Co-Founder & CEO
Formerly Head of Digital Strategy for
HIV at GlaxoSmithKline. Included in
Sunday Times 35 Women Under 35 in
2014.
Business Model
Twizoo is free for users, and charges
restaurants and bars a monthly fee to
access a dashboard of performance
data, and to use marketing features.
Twizoo’s programme covers over 90%
of Central London restaurants. Twizoo
will shortly start charging businesses
£20 – £45 per month for premium
services, such as data collection and
sentiment analysis.
John Talbott, Co-Founder & CTO
Previously in tech. roles at UBS and
London 2012 Olympics.
Twizoo has recently recruited a USbased Sales & Marketing Manager and
has a further five team members, all in
technology roles based in London. The
Advisory Board includes Frank Moss
who built and sold Bluefin to Twitter
for $80 Million.
Progress & Strategy
Since launch of V1 in September
2014, Twizoo’s big data machine
has analysed over 1 million Tweets.
The app has been downloaded over
20,000 times and has a highly engaged
Monthly Active User base of c. 10,000
Londoners.
Twizoo recently became an official
Twitter partner for its Fabric
Development Programme. This
represents potentially huge strategic
value for Twizoo, who were recently
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Key facts
Date invested
April 2015
Stage
User growth in London
Sector
Consumer mobile / Data
Location
London
Web
www.twizoo.com
Co-investors
Paul Foster (sold Indeed for $1bn); EC1 Capital
WeTrack
Summary
Progress & Strategy
WeTrack has developed project
management software, focused on the
events sector. The business was born
when the two founders worked on the
London Olympic Games Organising
Committee and found there were no
simple and effective software tools
available for organising large events
with multiple input and output factors.
Microsoft Project is considered by
some people as an outdated, underinvested incumbent option for project
managers, but this is a sector in need
of a new and up-to-date solution.
WeTrack’s first customer was the
Ryder Cup in 2014, being followed
by the BMW PGA Championship at
Wentworth. The Company has a strong
pipeline of potential events customers,
and we expect Monthly Recurring
Revenue (MRR) to grow steadily from
here. This would ultimately lead to
WeTrack being a highly attractive
acquisition target to larger software
companies looking to acquire the
customer base.
The three founders funded the
development of the WeTrack software
themselves initially, prior to raising
money. This has meant that we have
invested in a fully built product that is
already generating sales.
Business Model
WeTrack is a SaaS business, selling its
software to enterprise customers on an
annual license model, paid monthly.
Standard pricing for WeTrack is £1,000
per month.
As WeTrack develops its customer
base it is likely to implement a more
variable pricing model, based on
customer size.
We backed WeTrack because the
project management sector needs this
product. We believe WeTrack is ahead
of the competition in a sector that is
increasingly complex and regulated.
Management
Peter Ward, CEO
Oxford degree, Operations at Orbis
Mutual Funds, London 2012 Olympic
Games Organising Committee, British
Wakeboarding team.
Clive Stephens, Director
CEO, View from The Shard,General
Manager of the Olympic Park (London
2012), Operations Director at the Oval.
Tom Mason, outsourced CTO
Runs YouSoft, the software house that
developed the product for WeTrack.
Key facts
Date invested
April 2015
Stage
Early revenues
Sector
Business software
Location
London
Web
www.wetrack.com
Co-investors
N/A
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
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Nursery Book
Summary
Progress & Strategy
Nursery Book is a start-up company
that is building an integrated (web
and mobile) app. for children’s
nurseries, providing a note-taking
functionality for nursery staff, upto-date information for parents, and
Ofsted compliant reporting for the
nurseries.
Nursery Book is currently in beta
testing with four children’s nurseries,
and is targeting public launch of the
V1 paid product in June 2015. There is
competition in this sector, and Nursery
Book intends to grow as much as
possible in the UK, before developing
international versions of the product as
quickly as possible. There is also the
potential to adapt the product for use
in related sectors such as care homes.
The 15,000 nursery schools in the
UK are subject to increasing levels
of oversight and regulation. There
are over 400 development milestones
to be recorded per child at nursery
school. Currently this is done via
various paper or Word/ Excel based
systems. Generally, nursery school
staff and managers spend hours
recording hand written observations,
which are then collated into huge
hard copy files to comply with Ofsted
reporting regulations. Parents can feel
uninformed of their child’s activities
and progress because there is no time
for anything more than a snatched
verbal report at the end of the day.
Nursery Book’s proposed solution
to these challenges is a web/
mobile app. to empower nursery
staff to take observations straight
onto mobile devices. This will give
nursery managers a comprehensive
and current view of all children in
their nursery and the ability to share
observations with parents in real time
on their preferred devices.
Business Model
The product is about to move out
of beta into V1, when it will start
charging monthly SaaS fees, expected
to be approximately £100 per month
per nursery. It is also possible that
the Company will charge parents
separately for use of a parent app that
will give them limited access to data
on their child throughout the day.
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Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
We love investment opportunities
to replace outdated, pen-and-paper
business processes with software. Nursery
Book just does that and, in the process,
saves time and money for its customers.
Management
Geraint Barton, Founder & CTO
Father of two young boys and a big
biological data analyst at Imperial
College. Nursery Book is Barton’s
second start-up, having previously
set-up LabBook, the first Android
laboratory notebook.
Richard Barrell, CEO
Introduced by Downing Ventures,
Barrell is an accountant turned
entrepreneur. After over 15 years at
KPMG in Corporate Finance, Barrell
founded Urbane Traveller, a small but
successful e-commerce business.
The management team is supported
by a technology team of two and a
Marketing Manager.
Key facts
Date invested
April 2015
Stage
Product development
Sector
Education technology
Location
London & Bristol
Web
www.nurserybook.net
Co-investors
Emerge (Ed. Tech. incubator program)
Zenstores
Summary
Progress & Strategy
Zenstores provides order management
and fulfilment software for small
ecommerce businesses. The software
allows e-sellers to manage stock and
orders in one place, automatically
managing customer accounts at
Amazon, eBay, Shopify and (shortly)
Etsy. In so-doing Zenstores saves time
and hassle for its users who currently
pay £20 per month to use the software.
Zenstores has a highly engineered
product that the team took a long time
to launch. The core software has over
1 million lines of code. The net result
of this is that the product that was
recently launched is highly robust and
scalable in our view.
Two of the founders of Zenstores came
up with the idea, and developed early
versions of the product, whilst running
their own ecommerce business selling
artwork prints online. The team sold
prints through Amazon, eBay and
via their own websites. Managing
orders, stock and shipping was a timeconsuming and frustrating process.
Being software engineers enabled the
team to build Zenstores to meet their
own needs and solve these problems.
The global ecommerce market is
both enormous and the only $trillion
market growing at over 20% per
annum. The Gross Merchandise Value
(GMV) for Amazon, eBay, Etsy and
Shopify combined is over £100 billion.
Selling software into this market is an
addressable market for Zenstores of
£1 billion. This is based on 3.6 million
e-sellers (in the £12K – £300K revenue
p.a. sector) paying subscription fees of
£280 per year.
Competition for Zenstores is minimal
in the UK, but does exist. Sellbrite and
Shopseen in the US provide a similar
service but, in our view, currently
do not offer as much KPI data and
analysis.
Business Model
Zenstores charges customers a
monthly SaaS fee of £9 or £25,
depending on customer size. The
Company processes over 30,000
orders a month for its customers,
saving them significant amounts of
time and reducing their error rates.
Zenstores has recently switched on
its paid product, and is generating
monthly recurring revenue, which
we expect to grow every month from
here.
Three developers spent 18 months
building a product to solve their own
business problem. Over a million lines of
code later and Zenstores is now helping
other online retailers with the same issue.
Management
Thomas Palmer, CEO and
Rob Ashcroft, CTO
Previously ran Filepress and Printed
Boutique, online artwork stores, for
six years prior to Zenstores. Both are
entrepreneurial web developers. The
third Co-Founder of the business is
Ben Reynhart, Design Lead, another
web developer, who previously ran a
mobile apps agency.
Key facts
Date invested
March 2015
Stage
Early revenues
Sector
E-commerce
Location
Bristol
Web
www.zenstores.com
Co-investors
WebStart Bristol (incubator programme)
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
9
Natter
Summary
Natter is a new social network, based
on the principle of three word status
updates. The Company is a start-up
that recently launched the version
1 of its app. The version 2, planned
to go live in May 2015, will include
additional product features.
When Twitter first launched, it was
met with scepticism that users would
want to micro-blog to that extent. Its
success was routed in providing a tool
that fitted so well with new customer
behaviour.
Natter is a particularly high risk, high
potential return investment, but the
very early signs of user engagement
are encouraging.
Business Model
Natter has a high risk business model,
as it is building a new social network.
This means that there are no revenue
streams available to the Company
until such time as it has a meaningful
number of users. At such time, Natter
will switch on standard social network
revenue streams, with advertising
being the main source.
Progress & Strategy
Since launch in late 2014, Natter has
grown to over 7,000 users in countries
all around the world. The Company
has spent nothing on marketing to
date, so all of the early growth is viral.
The user experience is proving to be
highly addictive, which is encouraging
even at this early stage.
The version 2 of the product,
which crucially includes photos
and hyperlinks, is being launched
imminently.
From this point onwards, Natter will
be in almost constant iteration mode.
The Company is very engaged with
its user community and takes onboard
feedback regularly.
Try saying what you’re feeling or what
you’re doing in a succinct, witty way
to inform and entertain your social
network. Say it in three words - that’s
Natter! Highly addictive and, we believe,
hooking into a change in the vernacular
at just the right time in a similar way to
what Twitter did several years ago.
Management
Neil Stanley, CEO
Formerly a Captain in the British
Army and 11 years at Goldman Sachs
(Executive Director, high speed
trading). Since leaving GS (2003), Neil
has been an investor in several tech.
businesses. He is excellent to work
with, frugal and highly backable.
Neil is building a team currently,
starting with an in house CTO.
Key facts
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Date invested
March 2015
Stage
V1 user growth
Sector
Social media
Location
Bath
Web
www.natter.com
Co-investors
1 private angel investor
EdPlace
Summary
EdPlace is an online subscription
tutoring resource for parents wanting
to give their children extra help
without paying for a tutor. The
Company has developed 1000s of
curriculum-compliant worksheets,
covering English, Maths and Science in
Key Stages 1 to 4.
The Company works closely with
Ofsted and with schools to ensure that
their worksheets and standards remain
the best in the sector.
Business Model
EdPlace is a subscription service,
offering customers either monthly
(£15) or annual (£99) plans. The
team at EdPlace is highly analytical
and constantly strives to improve
the key performance metrics for the
business: Cost of Customer Acquisition
(currently £30), and Lifetime Value
(currently £100).
The Company’s growth rate is
encouraging. We believe that if
EdPlace can continue this trend, they
will become an attractive acquisition
target for either a strategic acquirer
in the Education Publishing or Ed.
Tech. sectors; or a software business
looking to acquire additional recurring
revenue SaaS businesses.
In an ever competitive world, we want
every advantage for our children whilst
they are in school, but we don’t all
want to pay for private tutors. EdPlace
empowers parents to be more involved
in their children’s education, whilst giving
them extra help at a fraction of the cost.
Management
EdPlace has a channel partnership
with The Times, whereby the
newspaper group has white-labeled
the EdPlace tutorial product, which it
sells as Times Tutorials and shares the
majority of revenues generated with
EdPlace.
Will Paterson, CEO
Previously founded, ran and sold
Plebble (early crowd-sourced reviews
site). Paterson acquired EdPlace in
2011 and re-launched the service
in 2012. Prior to Plebble, Paterson
worked in corporate finance.
Progress & Strategy
The senior team at EdPlace includes
Patrick Cooke, Marketing, and
Will Lord, Product & Technology, who
are supported by a team of five others.
EdPlace currently has almost 3,500
paying customers, generating MRR
of £44,000 (up 27% like-for-like).
The business re-invests almost all
cash generated on a monthly basis,
effectively operating at a break-even
level. The Company launched an iOS
mobile/tablet app in February 2015,
which has been downloaded over
2,000 times to date.
Key facts
Date invested
March 2015
Stage
Breaking even
Sector
Education technology
Location
London
Web
www.edplace.com
Co-investors
Various angels
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
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Happiour
Summary
Happiour is an iOS mobile app,
connecting food & beverage vendors
with customers to offer them real-time,
geo-located “Happy Hour-type” deals.
Happiour takes the time-honoured
concept of a Happy Hour and makes
it digital.
All businesses have peaks and troughs
in trading. Maximising efficiencies
during downtimes, ‘shouldering’ peak
hours, or simply attracting more
footfall when required, makes good
sense. Happiours are contextual, thus
they attract local and relevant patrons,
whilst maintaining the value of brand
& product.
Happiour is, at its heart, a simple,
unoriginal concept. The uptake by
users and vendors (restaurants and
bars in London) to date is a testament
to how well the team has positioned
the product, even at this early stage.
Business Model
Happiour is currently free for vendors,
but will start to charge a monthly
fee (Rightmove model) from 2016.
Vendors are expecting this and have
been delighted by results so far with
Happiour.
On the user side, the V1 Happiour
app has been downloaded 30,000
times. 40% of downloads have set up
user accounts, and 50% of those are
Monthly Active Users.
The mobile internet is full of offers and
discounts but, until Happiour, no-one
offered users relevant offers to your
phone (Mobile), where you are right
now (Local) and linked to your social
networks (Social).
Management
Brothers Hal & Sam Stokes
previously built and sold Punktilio
(digital agency) to Essence Digital.
They have each invested in Happiour.
The Stokes are supported by a team
of five others in technology and
marketing.
This is a proven team, operating at
high levels, and we are fortunate to be
backing them.
Progress & Strategy
Happiour’s marketing plan is focused
on user growth in its initial London
markets for the balance of 2015.
Happiour has enjoyed great success
on the vendor side of the business,
signing up 60 vendor partners (150
locations across London), including
Jamie’s Italian, Gourmet Burger
Kitchen, Leon, Pret A Manger and
London Cocktail Club.
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Key facts
Date invested
February 2015
Stage
V1 user growth
Sector
Consumer mobile
Location
London
Web
www.happiour.com
Co-investors
DN Capital, Michael Birch (sold Bebo to Yahoo for $1bn),
Paul Donovan (CEO Odeon Cinemas),
Mark Sheehan (The Script)
Glisser
Summary
Progress & Strategy
Glisser is a mobile application that
turns a one-dimensional presentation
into a dynamic and engaging
audience experience. The tool also
provides valuable audience data back
to the presenter. It takes a regular
PowerPoint presentation, and allows
the presenter to ‘layer on’ social
features, like audience polls and
discussions. It then allows presenters
to interact with their audiences, and
vice versa, using a simple tablet or
phone application. Everyone uses
their own devices, using the same
application, so no additional hardware
is required.
The Glisser product has been well
received by presenters and audience
participants since launch in early
2015. The Company is now generating
a small amount of early revenues,
which support the proposition.
The marketing plan calls for rapid
expansion on the user (consumer)
side of the business. If Glisser
succeeds in growing a user base
of at least 1 million, we believe the
Company will become an acquisition
target for several potential strategic
partners, including Linkedin (who
acquired Slideshare for $100 million)
and Microsoft.
This interaction can take place at
live seminar-style events, in smaller
focus groups, or remotely anywhere
in the world. Consequently, Glisser
has multiple uses in marketing and
market research, primarily around the
collection of audience information,
preferences and needs.
We had worked with the Glisser founder
before and knew what he could do. The
app has the potential to breathe new life
into Microsoft Powerpoint.
In 2011 alone, the live seminar market
in the UK held 1.3m events attended
by over 160 million delegates, with
approximately £40 billion in events
spend (source: UK Economic Impact
Study). Globally, it is widely estimated
there are 30 million PowerPoint
presentations created each day, an
average of 1.25 million every hour,
most of which currently use little or
no interactive technology.
Management
Mike Piddock, Co-Founder & CEO
Formerly Marketing Director at
Octopus Investments. Piddock has an
MA in Economics and Management
from the University of Oxford.
Bojan Slavujevic, Co-Founder & CTO
Previously founded Code Powder, a
mobile software development firm.
Slavujevic has an MA in Engineering,
Economics and Management from the
University of Oxford, where he met
Piddock.
Business Model
Glisser has a two-pronged approach
to acquiring users. The enterprise
strategy focuses on large event /
presentation organisers and agencies.
Glisser charges this group oneoff event fees, or sells annual SaaS
licenses. The other side of Glisser’s
marketing focuses on the end users,
particularly on presenters themselves.
Key facts
Date invested
December 2014
Stage
Early revenues
Sector
Business software
Location
London
Web
www.glisser.com
Co-investors
Leonora Valvo (sold eTouches, $10m event tech SaaS
business); Eamon Tuhami (serial event tech investor/
entrepreneur); various other angels
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
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3 Kinds of Ice
Summary
Progress & Strategy
3 Kinds of Ice is the new mobile app
from Spotnight. The app represents
an evolution of the team’s original
Spotnight app, which focused on night
clubs. 3 Kinds of Ice uses the same
recommendation engine to surface
ideas for restaurants, bars and clubs
to users.
3 Kinds of Ice is in development of
its beta / V1 app, which is a highly
technical build. The Company planned
to launch the version 1 to the app
store in May 2015.
Whilst this is undoubtedly a highly
competitive space, the user experience
with 3 Kinds of Ice is unique. Ideas
are presented to users as stories,
within the app, with original videos
and quirky, enticing summaries.
3 Kinds of Ice uses the now
commonplace “Tinder swipe”
functionality, which generates the
consumable experience demanded
by today’s mobile app market. This
is an investment in a team that we
believe capable of cracking the user
experience problem presented by so
many of these apps – they are just not
engaging enough.
Business Model
3 Kinds of Ice has a phased business
development plan. The first period is
exclusively focused on building the
best possible user experience, and
growing the user base. From there,
multiple revenue streams are possible
and will be switched on at the
appropriate times.
The Company is building its initial
user base in the restaurant and bar
community of London. These “power
users” are typically members of the
Code, an insider only network for
workers in the industry.
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We backed the Spotnight team because
they have a huge vision, combined with
the skills and tenacity to bring it home.
The team’s new iOS app completely
changes the way that recommendation
services bring new ideas to users. Watch
this space!
Management
One of the great attractions of this
investment is the principal founder
of the business, Dave Bailey. He has
enjoyed previous success with a startup and is, in our opinion, a highly
backable entrepreneur in the mobile
apps sector. He is well supported by
his co-founder, Hugo Adams, who
brings a complimentary skill-set to
bear.
David Bailey, Co-Founder, Product
Oxford University (Maths); co-founded
and exited Ezlearn; senior member of
the Delivery Hero team.
Hugo Adams, Co-Founder, Growth
Ex-private equity advisory, KPMG.
Key facts
Date invested
December 2014
Stage
Beta testing MVP
Sector
Consumer mobile
Location
London
Web
www.3kindsofice.com
Co-investors
Two angel investors
Adaptix
Summary
Progress & Strategy
Adaptix (FKA Radius) has developed
a laptop-sized portable X-ray machine
– a Flat Panel Source (“FPS”). The
Company is early-stage, but has the
potential to revolutionise the X-ray
machine as we currently know it.
Working with its partners, Adaptix has
produced a prototype version of the
product, in a foundry, using processes
appropriate for scale manufacture.
This prototype generated X-ray
images using the requisite amount
of energy. In total, three foundries
have completed due diligence and
confirmed that they can manufacture
the device at scale.
X-ray imaging systems fundamentally
consist of an X-ray generating source
and a detector, which absorbs X-ray
quanta and converts them into a
visible image. Over the last 20 years
the detector has been subject to a
transformation that has seen it go
from silver-nitrate based film to
digital pixel arrays manufactured in
a semiconductor foundry, but there
has been no fundamental innovation
in the source, which is still based
on vacuum tube and high voltage
technology first used more than 100
years ago.
Adaptix’s Microemitter Array
X-ray (“MAX”) source is an “X-ray
source on a chip” enabling robust,
long-life X-ray generating arrays
that can be manufactured in a
semiconductor foundry, leading to
the commercialisation of cheaper
and lighter X-ray sources in a
transformation similar to the one that
has already so dramatically occurred
on the detector side.
Business Model
The addressable market for X-ray
machines is large. Approximately
70,000 FPS units are sold each year,
generating c. $1.5 billion in sales. In
the US alone, there are approximately
183 million X-rays performed annually.
The business model is to sell to
manufacturers such as Siemens, GE,
Philips or Toshiba for integration into
their radiology systems. The proposed
pricing is c. $20,000 per unit,
representing 50% gross margin for
Adaptix. The Company has received
Letters of Support from Varian, Philips
Healthcare, Xograph and Siemens
Healthcare.
Adaptix is on the verge of revolutionising
X-ray imagery, reducing a 100-year old
invention to the size of a laptop.
Management
Mark Evans, CEO
Ex. VP at Siemens; co-founded a
medical spin-out (Siemens) funded by
Albion Ventures; two VC-backed exits
as CFO.
Gil Travish, CSO
Inventor of the technology; UCLA
Research. Post funding, Travish will
move to the UK (from the US).
Kristen Schmiedehausen, CMO
Board certified physician. Ex. Product
Development at Siemens and Varian.
Gunter Dombrowe, Chair
Former CEO NW Europe Siemens
Healthcare, ex. Chair of British
Institute of Radiology.
Key facts
Date invested
November 2014
Stage
Proof of concept
Sector
Medical hardware
Location
European Space Agency, Harwell
Web
www.adaptiximaging.com
Co-investors
Schneider Investments; various angels
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
15
Duel
Summary
Progress & Strategy
Duel is a new mobile app from
Daredevil Project, a games
development studio founded by
double world record breaking
adventurer Paul Archer. Duel is a
competitive photo sharing social
network on both iOS and Android
platforms. The app allows users
to compete by uploading photos,
based on a one-word hashtag, and
challenging other users to outdo them.
The user community then votes, and
the winner is crowned.
Duel has recently launched V1 of the
app, having just emerged from the
two-month long private beta test with
200 users. Feedback was incorporated
into the V1 product, and we are
looking forward to seeing the results
over the coming weeks and months.
Photo sharing is a huge sector. Every
day over 1 billion photos are shared
on the four main social networks
(Whatsapp, Snapchat, Facebook and
Instagram). Social gaming is another
fast growth trend. DrawSomething
(social Pictionary) was launched
in the app. store in 2012 and was
downloaded over 100 million times,
before it was acquired by Zynga
for $200 million. Zynga had earlier
acquired Words With Friends (social
scrabble) for over $50 million. In 2013,
QuizUp became the fastest-growing
game in the app. store, with over
1 million downloads in its first week.
Business Model
The business model that sits behind
the social network will allow brands
and companies to sponsor a category
for a limited period of time. For
example, when Nike launches a new
shoe they buy advertising spend in
several categories, including digital
media. Part of the digital media spend
is on “guerilla” marketing, which could
include buying a relevant hashtag for
a month on Duel.
Other revenue models are also
of interest. For example Line, the
Japanese messaging app, is generating
over $100 million per year, just from
in-app purchases of “stickers” – small
pictures users purchase to add to
messages.
16
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
The world record breaking founder of
Duel has developed what we expect
to be a highly addictive competitive
photo sharing product for the Snapchat
generation.
Management
Paul Archer, Founder
Part of the founding team at
Gradintel.com, one of the largest
graduate recruiting websites in the
UK. In 2011, he founded the “It’s
on the Meter Expedition” to drive a
London Taxi around the world. This
was done in aid of the Red Cross,
broke two Guinness World Records
and raised $130,000 in sponsorship
from 25 sponsors and brands. The
expedition garnered global media
attention and a role driving with the
Spice Girls in the London Olympics
closing ceremony.
Mark Oakley, Operations
First UK Marketing hire at Zipcar
helping to lead them from start-up to
NASDAQ IPO.
Seth Jackson, Partnerships
Worked in technology and
entertainment since 1999 and founded
the mobile marketing agency Indie
Mobile, which he sold to European
music company PIAS in 2007.
Key facts
Date invested
November 2014
Stage
V1 launch
Sector
Social media
Location
Bristol
Web
www.duel.me
Co-investors
WebStart Bristol (incubator program)
Touchlight genetics
Summary
Management
Touchlight has developed a unique,
proprietary synthetic DNA technology.
The Company is extending its
platform of delivery technologies,
capable of the effective manufacture
and delivery of wholly synthetic DNA
vaccines for infectious disease (as well
as cancer), which in due course could
have the potential to be developed
for significantly broader commercial
applications.
The Touchlight management team
is one of the principal reasons for
backing this business. They are
experienced and have been successful
in this sector previously.
The first market application of the
technology is an influenza vaccine.
Toughlight has been successful
with mice immunisation. The next
step is a toxicology programme,
which is expected to take 6 months.
Following successful completion, a
CTA/IND (Clinical Trial Application/
Investigational New Drug) application
will be filed with the appropriate
regulatory authority prior to initiating
a Phase I study in human volunteers.
Business Model
The core Intellectual Property is
held in a holding company where
the shareholder equity also sits. The
holding company grants licenses to
subsidiary businesses, which it owns
100%, to exploit the IP in various sub
sectors where the technology can be
deployed.
Progress & Strategy
Touchlight is making significant
progress with several large potential
corporate partners, details of which
are currently confidential.
Touchlight has developed a revolutionary
synthetic DNA process. The team behind
the company has enjoyed success in the
sector previously and we have backed
them to repeat the trick.
Dr. Clive Dix, Chairman, Director
Widely regarded as one of the leading
figures in British Biotechnology, and
former Chairman of the BioIndustry
Association (BIA). He was formerly
a founder and chief executive of
PowderMed (a vaccines development
company that was acquired by
Pfizer in 2006), and prior to that the
Research Director of GlaxoWellcome.
Jonny Ohlson, Founder, Director, CEO
Previously a board director at Saatchi
& Saatchi Advertising, Managing
Director of Griffin Bacal Advertising,
Chairman of the Institute of
Practitioners in Advertising Society
and main board director of Soho
House.
The Chairman and CEO are supported
by a large team of well qualified
scientists and business personnel.
Key facts
Date invested
October 2014
Stage
Product development
Sector
Life sciences
Location
London
Web
www.touchlightgenetics.com
Co-investors
Various angels, including several senior healthcare
professionals/entrepreneurs
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
17
LoyaltyLion
Summary
Management
LoyaltyLion is a digital loyalty
framework for ecommerce. Using
LoyaltyLion, ecommerce stores can
quickly create a white label loyalty
program that rewards any onsite
activity, for example referrals, account
creation, reviews, purchases and more.
Stores also gain loyalty insights to
help them identify and retain their
best customers.
Charlie Casey, Co-Founder & CEO
Formerly an Economist at the FCO,
and a Management Consultant with
Deloitte. Casey is young, aggressive
and highly motivated to succeed. In
our view, it is a positive that there are
several experienced investors/advisors
at the board level to whom Casey is
accountable.
Business Model
LoyaltyLion is a SaaS business, with
over 400 customers at the time of
writing. The Company charges its
customers between £250 and £1,500
per month, depending on scale.
LoyaltyLion’s main sales channels
are the ecommerce channels such
as Magento, Shopify, SEOshop and
Prestashop.
Progress & Strategy
In the last 12 months of operations,
LoyaltyLion has grown from 70
ecommerce customers, to over 400;
representing growth in underlying
users of 50,000 to 600,000. MRR grows
each month, as the Company signs up
new customers, and converts existing
customers to paid accounts.
At the time of writing LoyaltyLion
is generating a small amount of
MRR, but the growth rate is high.
LoyaltyLion’s growth is impressive, but
the sector is not without competition.
The pace of growth must continue,
but if it does there is no reason why
LoyaltyLion does not become an
acquisition target for some of the large
SaaS consolidators such as Salesforce.
18
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
Dave Clark, Co-Founder & CTO
With a degree in Computer Science,
Clark previously worked at Sun
Microsystems and Oracle.
LoyaltyLion takes a very complex area
of marketing - customer loyalty - and
allows its e-commerce customers to
plug a customised white-label solution
directly into their websites in a matter of
minutes.
The Founders are supported by a team
of three: two developers and one in
sales.
Key facts
Date invested
September 2014
Stage
Early revenues
Sector
E-commerce
Location
London
Web
www.loyaltylion.com
Co-investors
EC1 Capital; James Hart (ex-ASOS ecommerce director);
Jan Boluminski (co-founder of PAYBACK, Europe’s
largest loyalty coalition); Tim Jackson (QXL founder)
Miappi
Summary
Management
Miappi is a web and mobile tool for
aggregating multiple social feeds
(Facebook, Twitter, etc.), used by
brands, celebrities and individuals. The
Company’s web-app allows brands to
keep website users within their site,
rather than losing them to Facebook,
Twitter, etc. when they wish to engage
with social media. This solves a
significant problem for brands.
The Founding team behind Miappi is
experienced and has enjoyed previous
success, including a successful exit for
private equity brokers.
In simple terms, Miappi allows clients
to display all of their social feeds
in one place, on their website; and
provides the functionality for users
to interact with these feeds, whilst
staying on the company’s website
rather than leaving by clicking
through to social media platforms.
Business Model
Miappi is free for the end users, and
generates revenues from charging
the brands, celebrities and other
enterprise customers £500 per profile
per month. This pricing is well
established and contracts are currently
in place with Bauer Media (for
KissFM, Magic, FHM, Heat, Empire,
Grazia), Diageo and Sony Music. Late
stage negotiations are underway with
BBC Worldwide, Barclays (Premier
League) and several others.
Progress & Strategy
Miappi profiles are currently viewed
by over one million unique visitors per
month. The Company has developed
strong customer relationships and an
exciting pipeline of new business.
The next twelve months for Miappi
are focused on converting pipeline
opportunities into increased MRR.
Once Miappi is at scale, generating
significant monthly recurring
revenues, we believe the Company
will be an attractive acquisition target
for a trade buyer, particularly one of
the traditional publishing or marketing
houses that is looking to increase their
digital portfolio.
The co-founders of Miappi have been
there and done it before. With this latest
venture we believe that they have their
biggest opportunity yet because the
product fixes a problem for brands all
around the world.
Andrew Foyle, CEO
Experienced entrepreneur & founder
of Argogroup, the mobile data
technology group funded by 3i and
Apax prior to being bought by Ascom.
Toby Britton, Branding & Marketing
16 years in the creative industries
working on accounts for numerous
blue chip corporate clients.
Lee Buchanan, Operations
Co-founder of Appismo. Business
development & marketing expertise at
director level in a $1bn business. 10
years a technology sector analyst.
Key facts
Date invested
September 2014
Stage
Early revenues
Sector
Social / SaaS
Location
London
Web
www.miappi.com
Co-investors
Collider Ventures (accelerator program); various angels
Downing Ventures EIS - Portfolio book
19
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