Playfair Capital is an early-stage fund that invests in ambitious founders across various sectors.
Portfolio
27
companies
AeroCloud Systems
AeroCloud Systems provides cloud-based operational management software for airports.
Cauldron
Cauldron develops immersive science fiction projects for the Web3 gaming sector.
Continuum Industries
Continuum Industries develops artificial intelligence software for faster energy infrastructure planning.
Heka
Heka provides an online wellness platform connecting employees with a broad range of physical and mental experiences.
Jack & Jill AI
Jack & Jill AI builds autonomous software agents to automate recruitment.
Kuai Commerce
Kuai Commerce helps international brands sell products in China using social commerce.
Material Evolution
Material Evolution produces low-carbon cement from industrial waste streams.
Nory
Nory develops artificial intelligence software to streamline restaurant management and operations.
Omnipresent
Omnipresent provides a SaaS-based global employment platform that helps businesses build and manage international teams compliantly.
Passionfruit
Passionfruit connects businesses with vetted independent talent through an intelligent collaboration platform.
Qureight
Artificial intelligence imaging platform for lung and heart clinical trials.
Recycleye
Recycleye develops artificial intelligence and robotics to automate waste sorting.
Refute
Artificial intelligence platform that identifies and counters online disinformation networks.
Seldon
Seldon provides open-source DevOps tools for managing and monitoring machine learning models.
Skiller Whale
Skiller Whale provides live micro coaching and training for technology teams.
Sourcerie
Sourcerie builds a community driven data platform and personalisation software for the beauty industry.
Spotted Zebra
Spotted Zebra provides a workforce management platform that helps enterprises identify and resolve skills gaps.
Sprout.ai
Sprout.ai automates insurance claims processing using artificial intelligence.
SproutAI
SproutAI operates an artificial intelligence claims automation platform for the insurance industry.
StackOne
StackOne provides a next generation embedded integration platform as a service for enterprise software companies.
Vine Health
Vine Health provides a digital platform that helps cancer patients manage their care and treatments.
Vinehealth
Vinehealth provides a digital platform that supports cancer patients and collects clinical outcome data.
Warden AI
Warden AI provides auditing and compliance software for human resources technology.
Wassist
Enabling brands to deploy AI-powered WhatsApp agents for customer interaction and commerce.
Worldr
Worldr builds zero trust data sovereignty architecture for enterprise communication platforms.
YASO
YASO provides an operating system for global brands to expand into Chinese e-commerce markets.
uMed
uMed provides a technology platform that connects healthcare providers with clinical studies.
Chris Smith
Managing partner
Joe Thornton
partner
Joe brings investment experience from roles at Playfair Capital, Spotted Zebra, and Skiller Whale.
LinkedIn
Henrik Wetter Sanchez
General Partner
Henrik is a general partner at Playfair and a Kauffman Fellow in Class 28. He holds board seats at Recurse ML, NetFabric.ai, Trezy, and Those Beyond.
LinkedInJeevan Sunner
Principal
Andrew Sheffield
Investment Associate
Andrew serves as a VC principal at Playfair and holds board roles at Refute and Astral Systems. He previously played professional poker.
LinkedInLucia Polverino
Investor
Lucia invests at Playfair, having previously held product and commercial roles at LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Unity. Her background also includes private credit and investment banking internships at KKR and Piper Sandler.
LinkedInPlayfair led the pre-seed round for the London-based conversational commerce startup, with participation from several prominent tech angels.
"WhatsApp is about to become the default commerce channel for businesses. OpenAI wants those conversations to happen in ChatGPT and Google wants them in Search, but customers already spend their time on WhatsApp. We built Wassist so brands can own those conversations themselves,"
Amadeus Capital Partners led the seed round, which will fund team expansion and product development.
"We spent all our careers fighting criminal activity online and care deeply about elevating trust in the internet. The decision to develop the technology behind Refute came after seeing firsthand that disinformation targeting organisations was the next big threat vector, especially for commercial companies."
The London-based recruitment startup has secured backing from Creandum, Dig Ventures, and a roster of angel investors.
Puma Growth Partners led the Series A financing with backing from several returning investors and angels.
"We couldn't be happier to be partnering with Puma on this opportunity. We have the team, the tech, the market size and therefore the opportunity to build a $bn business helping brands launch and scale in the world's largest ecommerce market. We needed an investor who matched YASO's ambitions, and we have found that in Puma. We are also delighted with the other co-investors, including the Seed investors, both VCs and Angels, who have been there since day 1, who backed us again in this round. We can't wait to take YASO to the next level!"
The funding round was led by the founders of Onfido and will support geographic expansion and product development.
"The Workday case is a wake-up call and highlights why Warden AI exists, to bring independent auditing and oversight to AI development and use in HR. We built the platform to open up the black box of AI systems, which in turn builds trust in AI, increases adoption, gives organizations the evidence to deploy and defend AI systems, and protects the people they impact. Ensuring AI use is a win-win for all"
