firstminute capital

😍 $2.3 BILLION was raised by the firstminute portfolio in 2024! 😍 Yes, you read that right. And that's just one incredible achievement from our founders this year, all of whom we backed at pre-seed and seed. What else happened in 2024? Inspired by Spotify wrapped, this is our year in review. 🎤 — 💸 This $2.3bn number was boosted by two mega rounds in the portfolio, one from the self-driving car business Wayve (which raised $1.05bn) and foundational model business Mistral AI (which raised $640m). Proud of them both! 💰 We also saw 6 Series B write ups (some just about to close) which raised a combined $188m. These are companies doing real $5m+ annual revenues, not hyped up deals. The revenue multiple on these deals was an average of 20x. ️🔥 In total we saw 25 follow on rounds across the portfolio, and we have partnered up with amazing funds like General Catalyst, Balderton Capital, Creandum, Spark Capital, Hedosophia, Mubadala, Lightspeed, SoftBank Investment Advisers, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Uber, HV Capital, Seaya, Moonfire, Concept Ventures and Cathay Capital. 💪 We have also been working hard making new investments from our Fund III. We saw ~2,500 deals over the year and invested in 16 companies, deploying $29m in initial money. Fund III also saw 2 Series A rounds. 😇 Some of the angels we teamed up with are Cal Henderson, Olivier Pomel , Christopher North, Jeremy Yap, Paul Graham, Husayn Kassai, Jon Reynolds, Mike Hudack, Steve Fredette, Nico Rosberg, Mehdi Ghissassi as well as scouts from Sequoia and A16Z. 😭 It was not all good news though. Seven of our portfolio founders from Fund I and Fund II had to wind up operations or seriously recap the company, representing 2.5% of the funds! We tried to help them with empathy and respect in a tough time. The VC landscape is evolving. Markets are shifting. But one thing remains constant: exceptional founders building transformative companies. Are you one of them? We're already looking at what 2025 might bring, and we'd love to hear your story. Drop a 🚀 in the comments if you're building something amazing! #VentureCapital #Startups #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #TechInvestment

🚨 Did you know your morning jam goes through more scrutiny than most political candidates? 🚨 Before that sweet, delicious spoonful lands on your toast, it has to pass quality inspections, pesticide analysis, sustainability certifications, microbial testing, and more. Now, imagine this level of scrutiny for cars, medical devices, or entire buildings. That’s the $250bn Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) industry—an industry so old and entrenched that some of its key players are pushing 200 years old. But here’s the kicker: AI is about to change everything. 📉 Endless paperwork? AI-powered automation. 🔍 Manual inspections? Multimodal models combining text & visual analysis. 💨 Bureaucratic bottlenecks? Streamlined digital certification. At firstminute capital, we believe the entire TIC industry is ripe for disruption. We’re backing AI-driven startups that are bringing modern, scalable solutions to this massive, overlooked market. If you’re an ambitious founder building at the intersection of AI and industry, we’d love to chat. Let’s jam. 🍓🔥 👉 Reach out: michael@firstminute.capital, sam@firstminute.capital, lorcan@firstminute.capital #AI #Innovation #Startups #TIC #VentureCapital #FoodSafety #QualityControl Jonathan Low Scope LightLab Bureau Veritas Group David Boutellier Florian Scherer James Dewar Scarlet

Huge congratulations to Vantis who have secured €10M in Series A funding to advance the future of chronic disease management. With a strong vision for data-driven, proactive healthcare, Vantis is making primary care more efficient, accessible, and patient-centric, especially for those who live with chronic conditions. Looking forward to seeing how this next phase of growth shapes the future of healthcare! 💡💙 Angelini Ventures Bayern Kapital Twip Impact Ventures b2venture Till Jansen Maximilian Roedel Dr. Kevin Wiesner Lina Wenner Spencer Crawley Sam Endacott Brent Hoberman Lorcan Delaney Adriana Vitagliano Michael Stothard #HealthcareInnovation #VentureCapital #ChronicCare #DigitalHealth

🚘📈 Wayve performed 3X better in Germany compared to its initial US deployment without any additional market-specific training. This improvement is testament to the power of ✨AV2.0✨, which replaces traditional map-dependent systems with AI foundation models that learn from diverse global data. More diverse data = faster adaptation to new environments. Discover how Wayve is shaping the future of self-driving technology: https://lnkd.in/eKjWRcsH Brent Hoberman Spencer Crawley Lina Wenner Sam Endacott Adriana Vitagliano Lorcan Delaney Michael Stothard

Huge congratulations to the Clockwork Labs team on an incredible launch! BitCraft Online just landed on Steam Early Access and 20,885 people have already hit Wishlist faster than we can craft a wooden axe 🪓🔥 It’s no small feat to have nearly the population of a small town eager to jump into your open-world survival crafting MMORPG on day one. We're proud to support this journey and can’t wait to see players dive in. If you haven’t yet, wishlist now and be part of the adventure 🎮👇 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eJu2M2S9 #Gaming #MMORPG #BitCraftOnline #SurvivalCrafting #VentureBacked

In January, we launched firstminute Founder Circles - designed to bring our portfolio founders together for unfiltered, peer-to-peer conversations. We start & end our involvement with building the container: curated groups, selected restaurants, payments… then leave our founders to do the rest. Literally. After the first two dinners, it's up to the founders to maintain the momentum. Early signs of our 50+ founders suggest they're eager to do just that - the initial feedback has been incredibly promising. Founders: 🌟 valued the space for honest bonding, especially appreciating the lack of usual networking and pitch-centred agenda 💬 reported an active & helpful WhatsApp group following these dinners ✈️ abroad are even flying into London to make it! We already see the energy and engagement carry on beyond the table after just one dinner. We won’t ask about what triumphs and doubts were discussed, but can only assume that magic happens when brilliant minds connect in circles ⭕️ Spencer Crawley Brent Hoberman Anaïs Benazet Michael Stothard Lorcan Delaney Adriana Vitagliano Lina Wenner Sam Endacott #PeerNetworking #Leadership #FounderJourney #VentureCapital

✨ Breaking Stealth: Solving AI's Biggest Trust Challenge with Portia AI! Imagine AI agents that don't just act—but explain, pause, and collaborate. Emma and Mounir address the critical gap in AI agent development with a developer framework that puts transparency and human oversight at the core - 🗒️ Pre-Expressed Plans: Agents now reveal their entire strategy before execution  ⏳ Granular Control: Pause, redirect, or intervene at any point in an agent's workflow  🔒 Adaptive Authentication: Secure, seamless permissions that scale with complexity As AI becomes the new interaction layer, they're establishing a new standard of responsible AI development. Follow along in their SDK on GitHub & Discord below! #AI #MachineLearning #Innovation #OpenSource Lorcan Delaney Sam Endacott Spencer Crawley Brent Hoberman Lina Wenner Adriana Vitagliano Michael Stothard

Congratulations to the Wayve team on their expansion into Germany 🚗💡🇩🇪 With the launch of a new testing and development hub in Baden-Württemberg, Wayve is bringing its pioneering Embodied AI technology to one of the world’s most iconic automotive innovation ecosystems. This launch drives exciting new opportunities for: 🌐 strengthening Wayve’s global footprint 🏆 opening doors for collaboration with Germany’s top automotive manufacturers and engineering talent ⏩ accelerating the future of safe, scalable, and adaptable AI-driven driving solutions—with real-world testing already underway in the UK and the US Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gVTM4ynE #Wayve #AutomotiveInnovation #AutonomousDriving #EmbodiedAI Alex Kendall Spencer Crawley Brent Hoberman Sam Endacott Lorcan Delaney Michael Stothard Adriana Vitagliano Lina Wenner

Congratulations to Taktile on their $54M Series B led by Balderton Capital! Taktile is revolutionising financial decision-making by putting control directly into the hands of risk and engineering teams. Instead of outdated, rigid systems, banks and fintechs can use a flexible, self-service platform to adjust quickly—from lending criteria to fraud detection and more 🔍 We first backed founders Maximilian and Maik when they started as a team of two in a 21 sq ft office in 🍎NYC. Now they’ve grown to a team of 110 and are powering decision-making at some of the world’s most sophisticated financial institutions 🏦 We're proud to support this remarkable team as they continue to reimagine risk management. From tiny office to transforming finance—that's what we call a calculated risk with an exceptional return! 📈 #Fintech #AI #RiskManagement #ProudInvestor Brent Hoberman Spencer Crawley Adriana Vitagliano Michael Stothard Lorcan Delaney Lina Wenner Sam Endacott

🗣️📻 TUNING IN: Did you catch Christopher’s appearance on Patrick’s Invest Like the Best podcast? We did and were reminded why we 💚love💚 our portfolio founders. Since launching Granola in May 2023, Chris and Sam have built a powerful AI note-taking tool & database of knowledge that's changing how we capture and process information. What stands out most is their approach to product development: 1️⃣ Despite being "7 years late" to the AI note-taking space, they spent a full year building before launch 2️⃣ They then abandoned six months of work when they realised real-time AI generation distracted users rather than helped them While many founders chase AI capabilities, this team focuses on being "damn useful" rather than just technically impressive. Chris & Sam's approach also exemplifies our investment philosophy of AI’s future - making humans better rather than replacing them. This is exactly the kind of founder we're proud to have in our portfolio and community - one who combines technological insight with the wisdom to know when to build, when to pivot, and how to supercharge the valuemakers. Brent Hoberman Spencer Crawley Michael Stothard Adriana Vitagliano Lorcan Delaney Lina Wenner Sam Endacott