Oct 10, 2022Garvin Brown Becomes a Venture Partner at AscensionMonday October 10th, 2022 As Ascension continues to scale its fundraising efforts and enhance its portfolio support, we are delighted to welcome Garvin Brown as our newest Venture Partner, joining to support Ascension’s new £50m fund that will back technology businesses tackling social inequalities. Garvin joins a group of experienced…Venture Capital3 min readVenture Capital3 min read
Sep 26, 2022The Cost of Living CrisisWhat Ascension’s Fair By Design Portfolio is Doing to Help We live in uncertain times and the cost of living crisis continues to bite. According to new data from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, those in the bottom 40% financially (4.6 million households) are behind on at least one bill; some 7 million low-income households are going without at least one…Venture Capital8 min readVenture Capital8 min read
Jul 8, 2022Seed VC of the YearFRIDAY JULY 8th, 2022 — We are delighted to announce that Ascension was named ‘Seed VC of the Year’ at the UK Business Angels Association Awards ceremony last night. This award recognises the most active and impactful early stage fund in the UK. Congratulations to our fellow finalists SFC, Triple Point Ventures, Praetura Ventures, Zero…Venture Capital3 min readVenture Capital3 min read
Jun 30, 2022Sonia Powar Exclusive InterviewCaspar sat down with Sonia to learn more about Sonia’s career to date and what this new position means Marketing Lead, Caspar, sat down with Sonia to learn more about her career to date and what made her want to join the Ascension board. Firstly, Sonia, many congratulations on the…Interview2 min readInterview2 min read
Jun 30, 2022Sonia Powar Joins the Ascension BoardThursday June 30th, 2022 As Ascension reaches its next stage of growth and launches a number of larger institutional funds, we are delighted to announce that Sonia Powar has joined the Ascension board. With the current board comprised of exited entrepreneurs, we are excited to welcome Sonia who has a…Venture Capital3 min readVenture Capital3 min read
Jun 20, 2022Ala Alenazi is Promoted to Principal to Spearhead the New Institutional Ascension Life FundMonday 20th June, 2022 — We are excited to announce Dr. Ala Alenazi’s promotion to Investment Principal of the Ascension Life Fund. Ala joined Ascension in March 2021 and hasn’t looked back, helping to build a portfolio of novel life science/biotechnology investments, including the AI platform to analyse data in complex diseases, Qureight and Veratrak…3 min read3 min read
Jun 8, 20226 Thoughts on Venturing in ImpactEmma Steele — During our ongoing work raising a new £50m institutional impact fund — Ascension Fund III — we first explored with Jean’s blog post (here) the fundamentals of why we believe impact investments can outperform the market. …Venture Capital9 min readVenture Capital9 min read
Apr 12, 2022Creator Economy 3.0Our Investment in Superjoi If the 2010s were the decade where people amassed large followings on social media — Instagram, Vine, Facebook and the like — the 2020’s (accelerated by the pandemic) was the moment where artists began to monetise their fandom. …Creator Economy3 min readCreator Economy3 min read
Apr 3, 2022Investing in CapturOur Exciting New Investment in the EIS Fund — Every minute counts in last-mile delivery. Therefore, when a bike or a similar physical asset breaks, the workforce loses out on the extra money that could translate to a meal on the table. …3 min read3 min read
Mar 28, 2022Ascension Investments Addressing Social Inequalities Outperform Rest of PortfolioThe Origin Story Behind Ascension Fund III From 2015 to 2021, Ascension has invested in over 150 early-stage tech businesses in sectors such as FinTech, Next Generation Media, eCommerce, Digital Health, Sustainability and New Work. We began investing through our (S)EIS funds and quickly became very active in the investment space, backing pre-seed businesses such as Vidsy…Venture Capital5 min readVenture Capital5 min read
