Ascension

Merx has just raised £1M to revolutionise how brands connect with consumers—through WhatsApp. At Ascension we couldn’t be more excited to back them. Here’s the challenge 🔹 Email open rates are plummeting 🔹 Digital ads aren’t as effective as they used to be 🔹 Customers crave real, human interactions Merx is solving this with conversational commerce—leveraging AI to help businesses ✅ Build customer loyalty through real-time, personalised chats ✅ Increase retention and engagement beyond email ✅ Reduce friction in the buying process, making sales seamless Remy Minute, Ascension Partner - “Ascension is thrilled to back Merx as they redefine how brands engage with consumers. Traditional marketing channels are losing effectiveness, and Merx’s AI-driven conversational commerce platform is the future—turning WhatsApp into a powerful sales and loyalty engine. With Pietro Cammerini and Mohamed El Shaer's deep sector expertise and a product that’s already driving real impact, we believe Merx is set to transform e-commerce." The future of e-commerce? It’s happening in your WhatsApp inbox. Read more here - https://lnkd.in/d832JwD5

Yesterday we hosted our first Ascension Fund III AGM, with some seriously exciting pitches from the 6 x brand new companies in our portfolio 👀 We’re pretty proud of these founders so far, some of which we backed whilst in stealth. Insane progress has already been made, including building active users to 20k+ with next to no budget (SpriveApp 😏) and going viral on LI last week (Linq 😉). A massive thank you to our epic portfolio companies Wagestream, from our first institutional fund, for hosting in their new offices and to Tembo for showing what life looks like for a company post Series B. Watch this space and our scaling portfolio Juniver Emilie Faure Jarvis Royden Greaves Happl Ben Towers Heatio Thomas Farquhar Simon Roberts Linq Toby Bradshaw James Bradshaw SpriveApp Jinesh Vohra Saad Hashim Here's to another year - message us if you want to join our journey - founders and LPs 📈 Emma Steele Jean de Fougerolles Iulia Tudor Freya Wordsworth

🎉 Big moment for an exceptional team coming out of stealth! At Ascension Fund III, we don’t just back founders who challenge industry norms - we back those who redefine them with purpose. Toby Bradshaw and James Bradshaw at Linq are doing exactly that, tackling one of the most pressing digital safety issues of our time: ending image-based abuse. We’re thrilled to be supporting them on their journey, alongside Form Ventures and Calm/Storm- watch this space. #ImpactDriven #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #TechForGood Emma Steele, Jean de Fougerolles, Freya Wordsworth, Iulia Tudor

Ascension has been investing in SEIS and EIS for 10 years and has been recognised by Tax Efficient Review as a company with an excellent track record and fee structure. This year, we are delighted with a new and improved score of 87 in recognition of all the hard work and effort by the Ascension team - only three fund managers have ever held a higher score. A huge thanks to the incredible founders we’ve had the privilege of backing and the investors and advisers who made it possible. Jean de Fougerolles Emma Steele Remy Minute Toyosi Ogedengbe Romha Berhane Keir Wright-Whyte Freya Wordsworth Bill Bousfield Ben Fletcher Matthew Brown Lennart Norstrand RAM Capital

Epoch Biodesign just closed an oversubscribed $18.3M Series A to scale its breakthrough enzymatic recycling technology—turning plastic waste into new materials.   We backed Epoch in 2021, and it’s incredible to see their progress in tackling one of the world's biggest environmental challenges. Check out the TechCrunch article for more info - https://lnkd.in/e9x5tbmS Congrats to Jacob Nathan and team 🎉

We are delighted to welcome Ascension to the EIS Association. Rakesh Murria, COO at Ascension, says “we like to think of Ascension as the fund of choice for founders and investors, and were thrilled to be crowned Seed VC of the Year in 2022 by the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA).” “We are an early-stage VC built by exited entrepreneurs to back the next generation of tech and impact founders. One quarter of the business is owned by our Venture Partners, which include the co-founder of Moderna and the UKBAA Angel of the year 2020. Our team and Venture Partners have invested over £4m of their own money into Ascension funds.” “Ascension is rated as a Fund Manager with a Top 10 EIS track record by MICAP, has a score of 86 by Tax Efficient Review, and has been managing SEIS/EIS Funds for the last 10 years. Ascension has had 14 successful exits to date including two at 10x, as well as another three at 8x, 6x, and 5x.” As a member of the EIS Association, they become contributors to our expert forum, gain access to exclusive events and receive the opportunity to network with other members throughout the year. Interested in learning more? You can explore EISA membership here👇 https://lnkd.in/gE5Gxws8 #EIS #SEIS #EISAssociation

We’re pleased to be featured in Better Society Capital’s latest Impact Report. The UK’s leading social impact investor shares its progress towards growing the market and its impact on enterprises and communities alongside partners, reflecting on key learnings and challenges along the way. Whilst it is encouraging to see more investment being used to improve people’s lives, the report acknowledges that this impact is driven by the work of organisations like ours, tackling social issues across the UK.

A big thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday for our first investor event of the year ✨ A few standout moments from the evening: 🔹 Jon Bale shared an overview of the Google for Startups Programme. We’re especially grateful to Google for hosting us, and to Sarang Arora and Jon for helping make it all happen 🔹 Mallinath (Malli) Kini, Partner at Blick Rothenberg, broke down the Autumn 2024 Budget with some key takeaways for the founders and investors in the room We also heard from some of the brilliant founders in our portfolio: 🔹 Johnny Siu, Co-founder of AskVinny - an AI-powered property management platform 🔹 Yousif Oghanna, Chief of Staff at Togather - the operating system for events 🔹 Pahini Pandya, Founder of Panakeia - AI platform for rapid molecular testing to accelerate precision treatment and drug development It’s always a pleasure to bring together investors, founders, and partners from across the Ascension community. Thank you to everyone who joined us—we can’t wait to see you at the next one!

📢 In just two days, our CPD-accredited webinar will be live with an expert panel to discuss 'New Interest in the S/EIS Post-Budget'. The panel features Mark Beaumont of Eos, Paul Mattick, PhD, OLY of Mercia, Laura-Ann M. of GrowthInvest, Rakesh Murria of Ascension and Christiana Stewart-Lockhart of Enterprise Investment Scheme Association (EISA). They will come together this Thursday to discuss renewed interest in the EIS and SEIS since the Autumn Budget, driven in part by changes to CGT and IHT. This session has CISI CPD Accreditation. Thank you to our sponsors for this webinar, Ascension, Eos and Mercia. Register for the webinar here: https://lnkd.in/e8QSqUt5 By registering, you will be able to join live and on-demand. This is the first in our webinar series, followed by... EIS as a Tool for Diversification 🗓️ Live on the 25th February Knowledge Intensive EIS Funds 🗓️ Live on the 26th February SEIS Investment Funds 🗓️ Live on the 4th March All of the webinars are listed in our event calendar: https://lnkd.in/ddV4Qh-F #Webinars #EIS #UKBudget

Capsule Insurance Scale-Up 50 list is here! This year’s list showcases the momentum in the tech industry, celebrating visionary leaders driving innovation and transformation. We are excited to see four of our portfolio companies on the list: 🔹 Goodstack 🔹 MiAlgae 🔹Tembo 🔹Wagestream A huge congratulations to all the companies featured! Check out the full list below ⬇️