Ascension’s Newsletter

• Ascension is one of the Top 10 Most Active Venture Capital Firms in London
• Ascension’s Blended 2024/25 S/EIS Fund is now open for investment
• Meet Virtue Health, our latest investment
• Toyosi, Principal at Ascension on Marketplaces
• Interview with co-founder and CEO of Tembo, Richard Dana
• Rakesh’s thoughts on AI
• Ascension Investor Showcase
• Portfolio in the News
• Open Roles in our Portfolio Companies

Ascension named one of the top 10 most active VC firms by Beauhurst
We are thrilled to be among the Top 10 Most Active Venture Capital Firms in London! We are very proud to be supporting inspiring founders in this vibrant tech ecosystem, and eager to back more in the coming year.

Ascension’s 2024/25 Blended S/EIS Fund Open for Investment

Our Blended S/EIS Fund is now open for investment. Each year we invest in a portfolio of 10-12 exceptional early-stage companies which we believe are solving a big problem with a significant market opportunity.

Below is a selection of innovative companies we have invested in from our Blended S/EIS Fund so far this tax-year:

• Amilis – co-founded by Sarita and Yasmin – offers a complete, supportive journey for women in egg freezing, from education to connecting with top doctors and clinics, aiming to normalise the treatment.
• Round – co-founded by Pac and Hayyaan – is a cutting-edge treasury management platform that empowers startups to maximise their cash yield, making institutional-grade financial tools accessible to all.
• Fifth Dimension AI – co-founded by Kate and Johnny – is automating real estate analysis and investment. It frees your data from the huge, complex documents associated with each asset.

If you’re an investor looking for opportunities that offer the opportunity for remarkable growth potential coupled with but also having a transformative impact, our Blended S/EIS Fund is the perfect choice for you. Here are a few reasons to consider investing:

• Support cutting-edge innovation in the UK
• Mitigate potential inheritance tax liabilities
• Reduce your tax bills, particularly beneficial for high-rate taxpayers
• Effectively manage your capital gains tax liabilities
• To learn more about the Ascension Blended Fund read our flyer here.

Virtue Health, latest investment from our Knowledge Intensive Fund

Background

Virtue Health enables hospital level care in the home to re-define capacity, efficiency & outcomes. Its software platform integrates and automates clinical & operational teams, processes & data from across the health & social care ecosystem, to deliver safe & efficient hospital quality care, at-home, at-scale.

Vision

Virtue Health aims to create a digital integrated care model allowing patients to be treated at home, helping to prevent hospital admissions or enabling early home transfers. This approach, set in a comfortable, familiar environment among family and friends, seeks to prevent recurring illnesses, improve clinical outcomes, and sustainably meet growing demands.

Founders

The Founders are seasoned Life Sciences and Health industry experts with proven success in selling complex software solutions in the health sector. They are recognised industry leaders passionate about sustainable healthcare.

For more details on our recent Knowledge Intensive investments, read this article. Learn about the Fund on our website.

Toyosi Ogedengbe: Ascension’s Investment Principal Discusses Marketplace Strategies

‘The most valuable tech companies globally derive their value from network effects. A network effect is a concept whereby the value of a product to all users increases as the number of users increases. Google, Uber, WhatsApp and Apple are all examples of companies with network effects.

Marketplaces are one of many product categories that exhibit network effects. They connect two or more participants (e.g. buyers and sellers) enabling them to transact with each other – the more buyers on the marketplace, the more valuable it is to sellers and vice versa. Marketplaces are pretty difficult to build as they serve two customer types simultaneously. However once this is achieved and the flywheel is kickstarted, marketplaces are the gift that keep on giving.

We love marketplaces at Ascension and are always looking for the next disruption in this category. B2B marketplaces are especially attractive to us as they are often largely un-digitised, have larger average order values (often in the thousands vs. hundreds for B2C), and are usually more profitable, with higher LTV:CAC ratios.

If you are building a marketplace and are looking for the right partner, we would love to hear from you.’

If you are a startup founder looking for funding, apply via our website here.

Spotlight on Richard Dana – Co-Founder and CEO of Tembo

In our interview with Tembo’s CEO and co-founder, Richard Dana, we explore how their recent achievements, including top honours at the British Bank Awards 2023 and acquiring Lifetime ISA Provider Nude, are making home ownership more accessible for first-time buyers.

Inspired by a personal mission to leverage family equity, Tembo goes beyond the usual mortgage broker role to make the dream of owning a home a reality. Their impressive progress promises an exciting future, and we at Ascension are proud to support their transformative journey. To learn more about Richard’s journey, read here.

Rakesh, Ascension COO on the ‘chip wars’

“If you’ve attended one of my AI:101 presentations there is a bit where I touch on the chip wars and its geo-political impact. Here is a good summary of how regulation led to having Secure, Governable Chips, provide safeguards against “bad actors” and could potentially help solve the US/China chip trade war.”

If you are interested in attending Rakesh’s AI webinars, register your interest here.

Ascension Investor Showcase

Thank you to everyone who attended our Ascension Investor Event at Rathbones at the end of January. It was a fantastic evening filled with insights from our innovative founders. Special thanks to the following founders who presented:

• Claire Trant, founder of Untap Health, detects illnesses in communities before symptoms present, using their collective sewage
• Dil Hussain, founder of Dines, a platform to run your entire hospitality business
• Tom Barltrop, co-founder of Superfi, provides personalised debt support sooner to help people achieve debt freedom faster
• Eddie Ross, co-founder of Tembo, a family lending platform
• Kate Jarvis, co-founder of Fifth Dimension AI, dedicated to bringing AI to the real estate and finance industries

Thank you to everyone for your participation, and we look forward to welcoming you to future gatherings.

Portfolio News

• Sophie Herman discusses using Amilis for her egg freezing journey
• Tembo acquires lifetime ISA provider NUDE
• Congratulations to Sojo and Wagestream for earning a spot in Wired’s list of hottest London startups
• NumberEight secured $2.7million in pre-Series A funding
• Fin acquires Urb-it to turbo charge its growth
• Danae is featured in Sifted discussing how she overcame a challenging year as a startup founder
• Better Nature is available in 240 Asda stores nationwide
• GiveVision goes live with PSG football club
• Togather launches partnership with The Nationwide Caterers Association

Open Roles in our Portfolio Companies

• Gendo is hiring a Senior Full Stack Engineer
• Electric Car Scheme is hiring for several Operations, Sales, and Customer Service roles
• Veratrak has a variety of open roles from an Enterprise Sales Executive to Senior Software Engineer
• GEEIQ is looking for a Head of Product

Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.

Take two minutes to learn more.