• Ascension Fund III Launch
• Ascension Investor Showcase, featuring Justin Urquhart-Stewart
• Benefits of Knowledge Intensive Investing 
• Meet Oxwash, our latest Knowledge Intensive Investment  
• Rakesh’s full AI video 
• Roundtable on the Fair Banking Act 
• Ascension Founder Breakfast 
• Portfolio News
• Open Job Roles 

Ascension Fund III launch

We are very excited to announce the 1st close of the Ascension Fund III 🎉 

Fund III is our latest impact institutional fund aiming to reduce social inequalities by allowing tech to serve a mass market and low-income audience.

Learn more about the fund here.

Ascension Investor Showcase

Thank you to everyone who joined us at our Ascension Investor Event at Wiggin LLP last Wednesday. 

Special thanks to our guest speakers Justin Urquhart-Stewart, who shared insightful perspectives on recent market trends and the investment outlook and Kyle Grant, founder of Oxwash, who provided an in-depth exploration of his innovative business. 

(To find out more about Oxwash read further below) ⬇️

Knowledge Intensive EIS Fund

Ascension’s Knowledge Intensive EIS Fund strategically invests in 10 high-potential tech startups, bridging the crucial funding gap between Seed and Series A rounds to foster growth and scalability.

Benefits

1. 30% tax relief 
2. 130% Performance Fee Hurdle 
3. HMRC approved fund, the tax relief anchored in the tax year when the fund closes rather than deployed 
4. Reduced admin, you will receive one single EIS5 (after 90% deployed), rather than individual tax certificates 

To find out more about the fund, click on the flyer here.

Note, that the fund closes on the 3rd of April.

Meet Oxwash, the latest investment from the Knowledge Intensive Fund

Background: The commercial textile care industry faces a critical challenge marked by a lack of transparency, rising operational costs, and a perceived disconnect from sustainable practices. The industry’s antiquated and inefficient model, relying on cheap labour, energy, water, and textile manufacturing, has become unsustainable. This calls for a transformative approach to textile care that addresses both operational efficiency and sustainability concerns.

How it works: Oxwash leads the textile care industry as it strives to be the world’s largest net-zero washing platform. Through constant innovation and optimisation, the company ensures revenue fulfilment and fortifies itself against industry challenges. Oxwash achieves clinically clean processes surpassing NHS requirements, a 5-star hotel finish, and trusted handling of challenging textiles for renowned brands. Oxwash achieves NASA-inspired reliability, ensuring an impressive 99.9% service uptime compared to the industry standard of 85%. The company excels in price efficiency, boasting market-leading gross margins through automation and overhead minimisation, with low price volatility providing a 5-10% cost advantage over other textile cleaning services.

Oxwash’s edge: Lies in its innovation and sustainability commitment. Oxwash’s unfair advantage lies in its holistic approach to addressing industry pain points. The emphasis on sustainability, showcased by the net-zero washing platform goal, resonates with environmentally conscious customers. Oxwash’s ability to offer superior quality at a competitive price, coupled with its adaptability to market dynamics and unique project finance strategy, positions it as a transformative force in an industry struggling with transparency, efficiency, and sustainability challenges.

Rakesh, Ascension COO full AI presentation

Rakesh delves into a series of different topics designed to broaden your understanding of the current landscape and future prospects of artificial intelligence. Tune in to explore:

• Market Overview
• Explanation on Artificial Neural Network
• The Transformer breakthrough
• The AI and Chip revolution
• AI’s real-world impact
• My predictions for 2024
• Opportunities and Considerations when Investing in AI

Watch the video. 

Roundtable on the Fair Banking Act

A few weeks ago, we hosted a breakfast roundtable bringing together the Fair By Design fintech portfolio to discuss affordable credit, the Fair Banking Act and the need for innovation on credit products. We were joined by the Fair By Design Campaign, Finance Innovation Labs and Fair4All Finance. The session was chaired by Jean de Fougerolles, our Managing Partner.

Ascension Founder’s Breakfast

We recently hosted an intimate breakfast discussion, bringing together founders within our community. This event facilitated a direct and open dialogue with the Ascension team, as well as with fellow founders poised for their next significant leap – securing another round of funding to propel their companies forward. It was a valuable opportunity for everyone involved to share experiences, discuss strategies, and build stronger connections as they prepare for their upcoming phase of growth.

Portfolio News

• Mastercard and Boost Technology collaborate to power small businesses in Africa
• Better Nature has launched across 80 more Asda stores
• Compare Ethics has partnered with Reiss
• SuperFi is one of the top 4 ‘Rising UK FinTechs to Watch in 2024’
• Qflow has been selected as a finalist for the ‘Initiative Category’ at the ASBP (The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products) Awards 2024 
• Wagestream partners with Frontline Education to build technology that empowers frontline education workers and provides them financial stability every single day

Open Job Roles In Our Portfolio Companies

• Epoch is hiring a Machine Learning Engineer
• Veratrak has a variety of open roles
• ERA is hiring a Growth Product Manager and a Designer
• ManholeMetrics is hiring two Full Stack Engineers

About Ascension

Ascension is an early-stage venture capital firm built by exited entrepreneurs to back the next generation of tech and impact founders. Since 2015, Ascension has invested in 150+ start-ups across its (S)EIS & Institutional funds – our specialist approach and extensive sector reach allow us to identify and scale pioneering tech enterprises. 

With over £100m under management, Ascension has been London’s most active VC over the past decade (Beauhurst data), with a particular focus on backing impact businesses leveraging the power of technology to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. For more information: ascension.vc.