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Interviewing the innovation economy's investors: Episode 1
At HSBC Innovation Banking, we have the privilege of working alongside visionary founders and the funds that back them. This series of short interviews introduces key innovation investors.
One of the most exciting aspects of working within the innovation economy is the chance to see the spark of inspiration transform into a fully formed, equity backed business.
That process has two key elements: a visionary founder with an idea, and investors with the foresight to recognise real opportunities.
Episode 1 is that type of investor: an experienced firm that specialises in helping Pre-Seed and Seed B2B software companies to their Series A.
Here’s a quick download of what they’re all about.
Tell us a little bit about Episode 1 and your investment thesis
Episode 1 is a VC fund that invests in the most talented and ambitious B2B software founders at Pre-Seed and Seed.
Launched in 2013, the team has backed over 69 portfolio companies to date, including Carwow, Huboo, CloudNC, Raft, Robin AI, Fatmap and Omnipresent.
We’ve also overseen high-profile exits including Fatmap (acquired by Strava), Passfort (Moody’s), Feedr (Compass Group), Touch Surgery (Medtronic) and Atlas (Meta).
What trends do you expect to see in your area in the next 5 years?
We're a generalist fund and with two AI PhDs on the team, we invest in a lot of AI companies. We like investing in serious founders who are building infrastructure companies that enable enterprise adoption of AI, or make it easier for software companies to embed AI into their own products. We've tended to avoid application layer AI companies which often lack long-term defensibility.
We also believe generational healthcare companies are going to be built over the next 10 years. Companies that improve access to the right healthcare data and companies that allow researchers and pharma to make better use of that data are really exciting to us.
Aside from that, we do a lot of open-source, software infrastructure, marketplaces and enterprise SaaS.
Why did you choose HSBC Innovation Banking as your banking partner?
HSBC Innovation Banking is the de facto banking partner for a VC fund like ours. They understand the rules of the game and do everything they can to make the banking experience as frictionless as possible.
