Focal

innerworks.me (W24) invisibly verifies humanity and identity through unique behavioural biometrics. By 2025, its estimated that 90% of all internet traffic will be from bots. innerworks is tackling the generative AI fraud era, using only two lines of code that can plug in to any app or website, providing full protection from non-human users.

Happy Friday, everyone! 🎉 In the week after Demo Day, we always like to reflect on our finalists. Check out the pitch from the brilliant team at Lumina, founded by Oana Bradulet and Pascal Bugnion.🌟They have huge plans and are only just getting started. A big thank you to Andrea Gurnari from 2100 Ventures for hosting the Q&A. Watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/d6j3k2dD We are so excited to follow your progress! 🚀

Focal W24 is officially done! 🌟 We're thrilled to release the list of 24 exceptional finalists who took the stage at Demo Day – representing the top 1% of founders currently raising. If you couldn’t join us live, you can catch the full recording linked in the comments below. 🎥 💼 Plot - A team of AI coaches to help people design careers true to who they really are. 💻 Midio - Speed up development through visual programming. 🤖 Checkstep - one-in-one platform that provides AI content moderation and compliance solutions to manage user-generated content effectively and ensure online safety. 📄 TextMine - Structured data for enterprise documents. 🤖 Lumina - AI-powered ERP for small and mid-sized businesses. 💡 Toothfairy ™ - We connect patients to a dentist for more affordable and convenient dental treatments. 📧 Salesforge 🔥 - Salesforge generate sales pipeline by sending a unique email either using AI co-pilot or autopilot mode and doing so with the least headcount and highest probability using big data. 🍼 Hulk Bio - creating cell-based human milk - a new category of infant nutrition - when breastfeeding isn't possible. 🛠️ Bricks AI - an AI-powered devtool that turns internal APIs into a fully-configured admin panel for CS and ops teams. 🧠 innerworks.me - invisibly verifies humanity and identity through unique behavioural biometrics. ✅ adclear.ai - Marketing Compliance Co-Pilot for Financial Products. 🧬 ScienceMachine - 'AI Data Analyst' for Drug Discovery. Deck. Website.  Space DOTS - Surveying space environments for insights that drive safer, more efficient interplanetary growth. 🛰️ Space DOTS® - Surveying space environments for insights that drive safer, more efficient interplanetary growth. 🤖 GatlingX - Building superhuman hackbots powered by the fastest and cheapest EVM implementation in the world by 100x. 🎨 Banani - AI-powered design teammate. 🛒 Vortex IQ | Techstars '24 - an AI-powered Insights Implementation platform for eCommerce Websites that transforms data insights into automated actions using AI Agents. 🎟️ Up - a ticketing & content platform. 📦 Esgrid - AI-powered supply chain sustainability platform for midcap enterprises. 💰 Communion - the AI native spend management platform for growth teams. 🧊 Cold - an AI-powered task feed for sales people that sits on top of any sales stack - removing all the busy work and boosting efficiency by 10x. 🚲 Minimal - gives logistics operators simple access to microhubs, micromobility vehicles and operating software to rapidly scale efficient, decarbonised multi-modal logistics in cities. 🌸 Willow  - a B2B2C platform that helps businesses support families in honouring their loved ones by providing a personalised, AI-driven solution to collaboratively capture life stories in a lasting, therapeutic way. 🎓 Klea AI - A 3D AI language tutor on mobile. 🚑 Anathem - AI for front line workers in ‘high-stakes’ services.

Today is the day. Blood. Sweat. Tears. And that’s just us trying to film the demo day intro video 😂 It’s all come down to this. 24 of the world’s top 1% of pre-seed to Series A stage founders will take to our Focal stage from 2pm-4pm BST today. If you want to discover the companies that are going to rock your world over the coming years, there’s only one way to do it. Claim your free ticket for Focal W24 at gofocal.vc #demoday #startup #fundraising #venturecapital Issie Joel Hector Taos

Well done to S24 finalist Fin - sustainable logistics for closing their round 😎

Sequoia Capital. GV (Google Ventures). Village Global. Three Silicon Valley monsters. Hector and Taos were joined by leading figures from these funds for a very special Focal W24 panel. A huge welcome and thank you to Anne Dwane (Co-founder and Partner at Village Global), Vidu Shanmugarajah (Partner at GV) and George Robson (Partner at Sequoia). We can’t wait to share the results and demystify some of the US vs. UK startup ecosystem stereotypes once and for all. Join us for Focal W24. Claim your free ticket at gofocal.vc #demoday #startup #fundraising #venturecapital

🚨 Only 6 more sleeps until Focal W24! Don't be caught napping & join us on the 17th October at 2pm-4pm (BST) to attend Europe's largest startup demo day. Claim your ticket at gofocal.vc Us and our 100s of VC partners have sifted through a whopping 2.1k applications to select just 24 to pitch. Be sure to tune into the world class panel also, featuring leaders from Village Global, GV (Google Ventures) and Sequoia Capital! #demoday #startup #fundraising #venturecapital #countdown Issie Joel Hector Taos

Our 22 finalists of Focal W24 have been notified of their success and its just under two weeks until they pitch at Focal's W24 Demo Day 🏆 You can book your free ticket at https://lu.ma/ui3ops25 🧠 As well as watching our incredible startups pitch, we have the added bonus of an unmissable panel on 'Bridging the Gap between the US and Europe' with Anne Dwane from Village Global, Vidu Shanmugarajah from GV (Google Ventures) and George Robson from Sequoia Capital. It's not one to miss!

Introducing: The Focal Top 100 🏆 Applications for our W24 Demo Day closed last week with a record breaking 2,100 applicants. Since then, our 270 VCs have been working overtime, casting a total of 1,046 votes, giving us the top 5% that you see today. Check the Focal Top 100 out at https://lnkd.in/e4qynGZ7 The top 20-30 of these startups will pitch at our virtual Demo Day on 17th October. It's free to attend. Sign up to watch Demo Day at https://lu.ma/ui3ops25 Thanks to our sponsors HSBC Innovation Banking, Carta, Google Cloud, Cooley LLP, Making Moves London, Xero and Novabook for supporting the top 5%.

Applications for our W24 Demo Day closed on Tuesday, with a record breaking 2.1k applicants this time around! What's next? 👋 Our 250 VC partners are now busy reviewing applications and getting those early introduction requests in (we've already facilitated 200 introductions between our VCs and startups) 🍿 Hector and Taos have recorded our Demo Day panel with George Robson from Sequoia Capital, Anne Dwane from Village Global and Vidu Shanmugarajah from GV (Google Ventures) 🎥 We initiated Joel into the Focal team where he starred in the latest Demo Day intro video alongside Issie 🔍 The Focal Top 100 will be back next week, where we share the 100 most popular startups as chosen by our VCs All of these efforts will be bundled together on 17th October for Focal's W24 Demo Day, where we are showcasing the top 1% of these startups. Make sure you're registered to watch at https://lu.ma/ui3ops25