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C4

Channel 4 Ventures

Corporate

Channel 4 Ventures acts as the consumer investment arm of the UK broadcaster Channel 4.

Portfolio

9

companies


Portfolio companies

Sprive

Sprive

Sprive provides a mortgage overpayment application that helps homeowners reduce interest costs and clear debt faster.

Raylo

Raylo

Raylo provides a technology platform for leasing and reusing consumer electronics.

WeAre8

WeAre8

WeAre8 operates a sustainable digital advertising platform and hate-free social app.

D

DeadHappy

DeadHappy provides digital pay-as-you-go life insurance.

CI

Clim8 Invest

Clim8 Invest provides a mobile application designed for sustainable investing and tackling climate change.

B

B-North

B-North is building a regional SME lending bank for the United Kingdom.

MS

MEL Science

MEL Science provides subscription-based science educational kits combining hands-on experiments with virtual reality and live lessons.

w

what3words

what3words provides a precise global addressing system based on a grid of three metre squares.

D

Drover

Digital car retailer offering a flexible subscription platform for vehicle ownership.


Team

VS

Vinay Solanki

head of Channel 4 Ventures

HR

Hannah Redgewell

Investment Principal


Recent investments

Seed
£5.5M

The investment round was led by Ascension with backing from Channel4Ventures, Velocity Capital, and TwoMagnolias.

"Sprive is set to have a huge positive impact on our customer’s finances, as our average user is already on track to slash three years off their mortgage term, collectively saving our users more than £100 million in interest alone. We’re proud to offer the fastest way to financial freedom for the homeowner and we’re determined to help as many as possible achieve it."
— Jinesh Vohra, CEO
£5.2M

The investment round was led by Macquarie and Channel 4 Ventures to support the company platform.

"We are delighted to be supporting Raylo with its ambition to become a leading circular economy platform. The Raylo team has shown impressive traction in building a new consumer electronics proposition that is beneficial for both customers and the planet; and the launch of newer products, such as Raylo Pay and Raylo Insurance, demonstrate the company’s innovativeness and commitment to building a great customer experience. Our investment will enable Raylo to build awareness of its proposition throughout the UK and help it on its journey in becoming a household name."
— Hannah Redgewell, Investment Principal
Series B
£11.4M

The funding round was led by Channel 4 Ventures and Centerstone Capital to support UK expansion.

"As we continue to focus on growing an investment portfolio of like-minded purpose-driven businesses, we were particularly impressed with WeAre8 and its founder Sue Fennessy. The WeAre8 technology presents a compelling and ethical alternative social digital platform for brands to communicate with consumers. We’re really excited to support WeAre8 and hope the campaign launch across our powerful marketing platform will resonate with our core young viewers who care passionately about environmental and societal issues, and drive mass adoption in the UK."
— Vinay Solanki, head of Channel 4 Ventures
Seed
£11.0M

The funding round was backed by Octopus Ventures, Headline, Volution, Verso Capital, and Channel 4 Ventures, alongside a retail crowdfunding campaign.

"We’re delighted to have such great support from the VC community as well as ‘the Crowd’. There’s significant momentum behind revolutionising the life insurance space, but there is also a much broader opportunity for our deathwish platform which allows people to plan exactly what they want to happen when they die. We’re here to help our customers think about how they want to be remembered and enable those wishes to be tied into their life insurance plan, to give it a real meaning."
— Phil Zeidler, Co-founder
Seed
£2.0M

Channel 4 Ventures has backed the sustainable investment platform through its media for equity model.

"Purpose is at the heart of Channel 4’s vision so we’re delighted to invest in this ambitious sustainable purpose led business through our innovative media-for-equity model. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time and very important to our core young audience so we’re looking forward to supporting Clim8 to help them to achieve their potential of becoming a leading provider of sustainable investments in the UK using our powerful marketing platform. We hope to support more businesses with a strong purpose led narrative in the future."
— Vinay Solanki, Head of Commercial Growth Fund
Series A
£250K

The Manchester-based challenger bank secured the follow-on funding and media-for-equity deal as part of an oversubscribed round.

"I am delighted that GMCA continues to support B-North and we look forward to working with them to drive forward the regional economy."
— Jonathan Thompson, Co-Founder and CEO
Series B
£10.5M

The funding round was led by Mubadala Investment with participation from Channel 4 Ventures to support product development and international growth.

"Our mission is to encourage and educate a new generation of scientists. We have found that a subscription model lends itself perfectly to this. As demand for home education resources continues to increase, it provides a way to help parents fill the role of teachers during periods of classroom closures, and continually fuel their kids’ curiosity for, and interest in, subjects that are often difficult to grasp."
— Vassili Philippov, Founder and CEO
Series C
£20.5M

The Series C round was co-led by Target Global, RTP Global, and Autotech Ventures, bringing the company's total funding to £27.5m.

"The car market is one of the last retail categories that has yet to shift online, with online penetration of car sales being still below 1%, while 20% of all UK retail sales are now online. Drover’s digital ‘car-as-a-service’ model is the right approach to truly build the ‘Amazon of Cars’ as it lends itself much better to an online model than does the long-term commitment, high ticket size type transaction of buying a car with cash or on finance. As a result, the last few years have seen Drover evolve and grow into a seriouscontender in the UK car retailing market. The Drover team has been agile through COVID-19 and that has enabled us to continue to show fantastic growth in a challenging time. The need for a simpler, more flexible model for car ownership is only accelerating and we’re proud to be leading that journey in the UK and France and in hopefully many more markets in the future."
— Felix Leuschner, Founder & CEO