Investment focus
What we look for.
We are a seed-stage investor with a deliberately narrow view: four sectors, and a particular strength with founders bringing a company to the United States. We would rather be genuinely useful in a few situations than passably informed in twenty.
Stage and cheque size
Where our capital goes.
We plan to back approximately twenty companies over three years. We are a seed-stage lead: our largest cheque goes in at seed, where leading the round earns a board seat and a meaningful ownership position. We invest our own balance sheet rather than a raised fund, so we deploy on our own timetable and can hold a position for as long as it deserves to be held. We intend to raise our first fund; until then, every dollar we commit is our own.
Why our Series A cheque is smaller than our seed cheque. It is not a smaller commitment — it is a different job. At seed we lead, and the cheque has to be large enough to do that. At Series A a new investor leads with a far larger cheque, and ours is a follow-on: we exercise our pro-rata to protect the ownership we already hold rather than compete to lead a round we are not the right size for. That is how a seed-stage investor stays concentrated where its judgement counts.
| Stage | Cheque size | What we do | Allocation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $1M – $1.5M | Lead or co-lead the round, take a board seat, and hold a meaningful position. | 70% |
| Pre-seed | $250K – $500K | Selective, conviction-led backing of exceptional founders at the earliest stage. | 10% |
| Series A | $200K – $500K | Follow-on only. We exercise pro-rata alongside a new lead investor, to protect the ownership we built at seed. | 20% |
Sectors
Four areas, in order of conviction.
Food-centred consumer platforms and marketplaces
Technology is still reshaping how people find, buy and receive food, and the enabling layer beneath the large platforms is where early-stage value is now created. We look at delivery and grocery marketplaces, ghost and virtual kitchens, B2B restaurant supply and payments, last-mile autonomy, and in-kitchen automation. We also back consumer food and beverage brands built on a direct-to-consumer model, where the product is the brand and the leverage comes from how it is sold.
Sports technology
Tools once reserved for elite programmes are reaching clubs, youth leagues and amateur athletes. We look at performance analytics and wearables, video and match intelligence, club and league operations software, coaching marketplaces, fan engagement, and in-venue technology.
Logistics and operations technology
Delivery systems, supply-chain management and last-mile logistics across U.S. cities. These are the businesses whose improvements show up directly in someone else’s margin, which makes them easier to sell and harder to displace.
Tech-enabled services
SaaS and B2B tools that help startups and small enterprises operate more efficiently, with recurring revenue and a clear operational owner. We keep a smaller allocation open for artificial intelligence, financial technology and health innovation where they intersect with what we already understand.
What gets our attention
- Founders who have lived the problem, and can explain it without a deck.
- A product already in the hands of paying customers, however few.
- Unit economics that improve with scale rather than depending on it.
- A market large enough to matter and specific enough to win.
- Founders arriving from Europe with a credible reason to build in the United States — the situation we are built for.
- A round where we can lead or co-lead and take a board seat.
What we pass on
- Pre-product concepts with no customer contact yet.
- Businesses whose case rests on a single platform’s policy or API.
- Capital-intensive hardware without a recurring software layer.
- Rounds where we would have no board access and no real voice.
- Sectors outside our focus, however good the company.
- Anything requiring us to be the smartest person in a room we just entered.
Geography
United States, with a European pipeline.
We invest in companies building in the United States — principally in and around the major startup hubs of San Francisco, New York, Austin, Miami and our own market, Boston.
Our sourcing advantage runs the other way. Our network in Europe gives us early sight of founders preparing to cross the Atlantic, at the moment when an investor who has made that crossing is worth more than one who has not.