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Techstart

Techstart

Venture Capital

Techstart Ventures is a venture capital fund manager operating in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Portfolio

34

companies

AUM

£100M

under management

Investment by month

By category

  • Uncategorised£33.5M
  • AI/ML£14.7M
  • HealthTech£10.8M
  • Big Data£9.5M
  • PropTech£9.0M
  • Other£36.9M

By location

  • Belfast£42.1M
  • Edinburgh£28.4M
  • London£21.5M
  • Northern Ireland£11.4M
  • Glasgow£5.2M
  • Other£5.8M

Portfolio companies

A

AntennaWare

AntennaWare develops high-performance antenna solutions for wearable electronics.

BrainWaveBank

BrainWaveBank

BrainWaveBank develops a digital platform for remote monitoring of neurological and psychiatric conditions.

C

CattleEye

CattleEye provides autonomous livestock welfare and performance monitoring using deep learning video analytics.

C

Cloudsmith

Cloudsmith offers a cloud-native control layer for software artifacts and supply chain security.

Continuum Industries

Continuum Industries

Continuum Industries develops artificial intelligence software for faster energy infrastructure planning.

D

Desana

Desana operates a global hybrid workspace platform providing on demand access to offices worldwide.

View all 34 companies
G

Gigged

Gigged develops an artificial intelligence platform that matches organisations with on-demand technology talent.

G

Gigged.AI

Gigged.AI operates an AI-driven skills intelligence platform for enterprise technology teams.

GS

Go Swag

Go Swag provides an automated platform for corporate gifting and global fulfillment.

HeySummit

HeySummit

HeySummit provides tools for planning and running virtual events.

IG

Integrated Graphene

Integrated Graphene develops a proprietary manufacturing process for high performance 3D graphene foam.

L

Liopa

Liopa develops automated lip-reading technology for video transcription and healthcare communication.

Loadar

Loadar

Loadar offers a digital platform that streamlines freight procurement and management for large enterprises.

Lupovis

Lupovis

Lupovis provides artificial intelligence driven deception environments for proactive cybersecurity defence.

ML

Machine Labs

Machine Labs provides an automated e-commerce marketing platform for online stores.

NA

Net AI

Net AI uses artificial intelligence and cloud computing to provide real-time demand insights for 5G network providers.

Neurolabs

Neurolabs

Neurolabs provides visual artificial intelligence technology for consumer goods supply chains.

N

Neurovalens

Neurovalens creates wearable devices that stimulate the brain to address metabolic and health issues.

P

Prodsight

Prodsight provides an artificial intelligence platform that analyses customer conversations to help businesses track issues and reduce churn.

Product Guru

Product Guru

An online platform connecting FMCG suppliers with retail buyers.

R

RESPONSIBLE

Embedded finance platform enabling circularity and reCommerce within the fashion industry.

Raylo

Raylo

Raylo provides subscription payment services for consumer technology products.

R

Reath

Reath builds digital infrastructure and open data standards for reusable packaging systems.

RT

Reath Technology

Reath Technology provides software solutions for the reusable packaging sector.

R

Ruffly

Ruffly builds software planning tools to help teams forecast and track projects using data insights.

Saltroad

Saltroad

Saltroad connects parents with qualified speech and language therapists through an online marketplace.

SA

Sonrai Analytics

Sonrai Analytics develops artificial intelligence cloud software to transform complex healthcare data into precision medicine insights.

S

Stampede

Stampede provides digital growth services and customer engagement tools for offline businesses.

StormHarvester

StormHarvester

StormHarvester provides automated water management software for wastewater utilities.

T

Tillit

Tillit operates a curated investment platform for private individuals.

Touchlab

Touchlab

Touchlab develops electronic skin to give robots the sense of touch.

Valla

Valla

Valla provides an artificial intelligence platform for workplace rights and legal access.

loyalBe

loyalBe

loyalBe provides an open banking loyalty platform and mobile application for retailers.

n

needi

Needi provides an artificial intelligence powered corporate gifting platform connecting businesses with local independent suppliers.


Team

Jamie Andrews

Jamie Andrews

Partner

Jamie brings venture capital and operational finance experience from roles at Techstart Ventures, Pentech Ventures, and RainStor. Earlier financial leadership includes positions at Lagan Technologies, Sky, and KPMG.

LinkedIn
MH

Mark Hogarth

Partner

Mark is a partner at Techstart Ventures and Focal, alongside holding directorships including UK Games Talent and Finance Community Interest Company. He also brings board experience from Exterity, Onzo, and Trisent.

LinkedIn
Hal Wilson

Hal Wilson

Partner

Hal is a partner at Techstart Ventures. He previously served as a partner at Pentech Ventures and held several non-executive director roles.

LinkedIn
Calum Forsyth

Calum Forsyth

Investor

Calum brings venture capital and founding experience, having previously led Seed Haus and invested at Techstart Ventures. He currently serves as founder of Tanis Labs.

LinkedIn
Audrey Osborne

Audrey Osborne

Audrey serves as an investor at Techstart Ventures, following product management experience at GoReport.

LinkedIn
RR

Robert Richmond

Investment Director


Recent investments

£3.7M

The funding round was led by Mercia Ventures with participation from Techstart Ventures and angel investors.

"Corporate gifting is a trillion-dollar industry that spent decades normalising mediocrity because no one built a competitively viable alternative. We started Go Swag with less than £200 and the belief that every gift a company puts its name on either strengthens the brand or quietly undermines it. This funding allows us to take this conviction global, beginning with a major US market expansion. The catalogue is dead and we’re replacing it with smart AI-assisted curation and a better gifting process to match."
— Conor McKenna, CEO and Co-Founder
Seed
£2.0M

The seed round was led by Ada Ventures, Active Partners and Portfolio Ventures to support platform growth and tool development.

"The legal world is experiencing its own watershed moment. AI is completely redrawing who can access justice – but ordinary people are being left behind. We’re flipping this on its head by putting powerful, tailor-made legal tools directly into workers’ hands, not just those with deep pockets."
— Danae Shell, CEO and Co-Founder
Series A
£5.8M

The investment round was led by Nauta with participation from LAUNCHub, Lunar Ventures, and Techstart.

"This funding accelerates our vision: applying synthetic data and Visual AI to solve the $800 billion problem of inefficiencies in CPG supply chains. We’re growing our computer vision engineering team and deepening our commercial footprint across the UK, European and US markets. Our platform is already a new benchmark for retail image recognition – this investment enables us to scale that impact globally."
— Paul Pop, CEO
Series B
£18.0M

The oversubscribed round was led by TCV with participation from Insight Partners and existing investors.

"The way software is built is fundamentally changing, making artifact management mission-critical for developers, cybersecurity professionals, and platform engineers alike. Enterprises need real-time observability, security, and control over their software supply chain. This new investment will help us to keep scaling up to meet the needs of the world’s largest and most complex organizations."
— Glenn Weinstein, CEO
Seed
£3.1M

Frontline Ventures led the seed round with participation from Techstart Ventures to support team growth and American expansion.

"For the super-large enterprises moving product all over the globe, transport procurement and management is a major expense both financially and in terms of time. Teams are often individually managing hundreds of carrier relationships, it truly has become an impossible task to do well. Third-party logistic (3PL) companies are inefficient and fail at promoting crucial strategic partnerships between shippers and their carriers. It’s a challenge in need of a solution, and today’s funding announcement is the next major step for us to be able to provide that solution."
— Ciaran Doherty, Founder and CEO