Ten highlights from 2022
TL;DR Pride is the overwhelming emotion I have at the end of another 12 months. Our founders have achieved incredible things, not least raising over $570m in very challenging markets. Their dedication, perseverance and refusal to accept the popular negative narrative are truly inspiring.
#1 Growing the team
After an intensive hiring process that saw over 1,000 applications, we welcomed Clare and João to the team last month. We’re delighted they chose to join us and are excited to see them flourish 💪
#2 Seeing the team thrive
We work hard to make Playfair a supportive culture where it is possible to grow a long-term career in venture. This year we celebrated two major milestones — Jeevan being promoted to Principal and Sheff to Associate. So proud of them both and their promotions are thoroughly well deserved 🌟
#3 Closing follow-on rounds
Macro economic conditions are extremely challenging. Yet our founders have found a way to continue growing their companies and securing some significant funding rounds. We’re incredibly proud of them all.
This year we were delighted to participate in the following rounds:
Cauldron in their $6.6m seed led by Cherry Ventures with participation from Cassius and Seedcamp (TechCrunch).
Omnipresent in their $120m Series B led by Kinnevik and Tencent with participation from Uncorrelated Ventures (Bloomberg).
Passionfruit in their $3.6m seed co-led by firstminute capital and Playfair with participation from FJ Labs and Portfolio Ventures (Sifted).
Protex in their $18m Series A led by Notion Capital with participation from Elkstone and firstminute capital (Business Insider).
Worldr in their $11m seed round led by Molten Ventures with participating from IQ Capital, Pretiosum Ventures, Navigate VC and MD One Ventures (EU-Startups).
And celebrate a number of later stage rounds being closed:
Kyra’s $15m Series A led by Bonnier Ventures with participation from LionTree, Firstminute Capital, Guardian Group Media Ventures and Torch Capital (The Information).
Onfleet’s $23m Series B led by Kayne Partners with participation from Savant Growth (TechCrunch).
Starship’s $100m Series B led by NordicNinja and Taavet+Sten with participation from TDK Ventures and Goodyear (+European Investment Bank) (TechCrunch).
Thought Machine’s $160m Series D led by Temasek with participation from Intesa Sanpaolo, Morgan Stanley, Eurazeo, ING, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group and SEB (Bloomberg).
Tray.io’s $40m Series C extension led by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board with participation from True Ventures, GGV Capital, Spark Capital, Meritech Capital Partners and Stepstone Group (FinSMEs).
Together with a number of signed but unannounced rounds (more on those next year 👀📢) :
$17.5m Series B; $17m Series A; $12.5m strategic round; $13m Series A; $6m Series A; $1.25m seed extension
#4 Closing new investments
We made three new investments this year, all of which are unannounced — rounds of £1.5m ($1.8m), £1.73m ($2.1m) and £2m ($2.4m) 🤐
We typically make six investments a year. 2022 saw us spend more time than normal supporting founders with successful follow-on rounds and making plans for the future of Playfair — more on that to come in 2023 👀
#5 Founders’ Dinners & more
A couple of founders’ dinners, trips to Wimbledon and a smattering of other socials — it was so good to have time off video and back in real life. Whilst these events are always great fun, they also offer an opportunity for founders to build a strong, trusted support network of fellow founders.
#6 Taking Female Founders Office Hours to MENA
Edition VIII of Female Founder Office Hours (FFOH) was the largest event yet and saw the initiative expand to MENA with the support of our friends at Global Ventures in Dubai. On the day, 366 founders and 185 investors gathered together for 1,464 one-on-one mentoring/pitching sessions.
#7 FFOH x Slush
For the first time this year we partnered with the team at Slush to deliver Edition IX of FFOH. Such an awesome event and thankfully we found the only bright room in the entire venue — perfect for a Slush Friday morning.
#8 Industry recognition
Joe Perkins and the team at Landscape.vc are doing a tremendous job of bringing accountability to venture and calling out the BS. We’re proud of our 4.5 rating from 84 reviews and also being ranked one of the top 20 European Seed Investors by the people who matter most — founders 🙏
#9 An epic offsite
Hard to put into words how amazing this trip was so emojis (and photos) will have to do — 🦁🐆🦏🐘🐃
#10 Graduating from Kauffman Fellows
After 2.5 years, a personal highlight was graduating from the Kauffman Fellow Programme in Dubai. Much of the programme was conducted over Zoom during the pandemic, so getting the chance to spend time in-person over several modules and then during graduation was amazing.
I’m so grateful that I get to work everyday with my team, sharing this incredible journey with them and with our founders. A huge thank you to everybody for their support this year and especially to Fede who enables us to do what we do and inspires us to continue building and growing ❤️
