Ada Ventures — 4 years in!
2023 was the year Ada put its stamp on a new movement in VC. Since our inception, we’ve been determined to find and fund the founders of the future. Hunting for the extraordinary in places where others aren’t looking; investing in markets that are both massive and untapped; looking at every deal through an inclusive lens, convinced that undiscovered Alpha is out there.
And our approach has always driven outperformance. But this year we decided to make it explicit: we now call it Inclusive Alpha®.
We embody those same values in our own business. We are exceptionally ambitious at Ada Ventures but in a way that lets us flourish both at work and outside it. This is not a race to the bottom but a joint enterprise where we support, develop and nurture each other. From “being human” to “being healthily paranoid”, our values listed here guide everything we do.
Keeping to these principles becomes even more important in lean years. 2023 has been tough; it’s been a difficult fundraising environment this year due to various macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions, which certainly aren’t over yet. Many founders, GPs, LPs and others are exhausted and drawing strength from each other. Now is the time, in business, in politics, in all communities, for us to pull together.
Ada Ventures Fund II continues apace
From investing in BlakBear, a deep-tech maker of quality-control sensors for food, in January 2023, to announcing the latest seed investment in November 2023 in climate-tech start-up Boldr, we’ve been busy this year doing what we do best: funding extraordinary talent building breakthrough ideas for the hardest problems we face.
Ada wrapped… stats from this year:
Pre-seed investments made: 6
Seed investments made: 4
Investment opportunities we’ve seen: 1000+
Investment opportunities found by our Scouts: 142
Investments made in those scouted opportunities: 3
Angel deals completed: 21 (with another 8 closing soon)
These stats include further rounds including $3.5 million for the generative AI learning startup Gizmo and £29 million raised for fulfilment firm Huboo. And we welcomed new companies into the portfolio: have a look at the rundown of the latest additions portfolio here. These truly awesome companies are key to knowing what interests us as a fund. It will help you understand what makes us say “Hell, yeah!” to investing.
We’ve also continued to support the companies in our portfolio. In the summer, we held a portfolio day for founders, hosted by the Google team. We’ve also just hosted a Series A fundraising session with ex-criminal barrister and expert storyteller, Claire Macmillan.
Over the last year, there have been sessions to help founders navigate new opportunities (like those presented by AI) and stubborn challenges (like mental health — we provide immediate access to online counselling via portfolio company Spill). Advice and support from Ada’s Operator Angels, successful scale-up operators in their own right, are available to the portfolio helping them build strong, successful Series A companies in difficult times.
We also want to ensure founders in the portfolio are actively supported with stop gap childcare — founders can claim up to forty hours of childcare each year via Bubble, the UK’s leading on-demand childcare platform (and an Ada portfolio company). This kind of initiative is getting us noticed; we were featured in The Times in an article on “mum entrepreneurs” and on Ian King on Sky News.
Again, we’re always looking to do more.
We launch Inclusive Alpha
This is what I’m most proud of this year: it’s a game changer. Inclusive Alpha is a new movement in investing. Spearheaded by Check, it’s a reflection on what we’ve learnt over the last five years. It sums up what we want to achieve and how we want to do it. Inclusive Alpha is an investment approach where an inclusive lens is prioritised in every part of the investment process in order to drive investment performance alongside positive impact. We launched Inclusive Alpha at this year’s AdaCon — well worth a rewatch here.
Prioritising an inclusive lens means that data is key. In November, we released our Women in UK VC Report, which thanks to our data-crunching team had some sobering new stats. Sifted and Tech.eu both picked up on our finding that 10x more money goes to male-owned VCs. We also found that many women may have leadership titles but it doesn’t necessarily translate into ownership — The Times called this “gender-washing”.
Intersectionality is a key concern for us, and supporting and encouraging one of the most underserved minoritised groups of them all, black women founders, will always be important at Ada. Our Bridging the Gap Workshops are part of an ongoing effort. Diarra, Head of Portfolio and Brand, has been key in making these happen. And we want this to be more than theoretical — we’ve drawn up some clear actions to stay accountable.
Our network keeps expanding
Our Scouts are key to what we do. Materials Nexus, an AI company which finds replacements for precious metals and rare elements, is a great example of this. It was scouted by ex-operator-turned-angel-investor Jasmin Thomas and Ada Ventures lead a £2mn investment round in July. We reopened our Scout programme for applications in July — Head of Operations Xun Ning Choong explains why Ada Scouts are so crucial in terms of what we want to achieve.
We also launched our second cohort of the Ada’s Angel programme in March. This time we’re backed 20 Angel investors with up to £50,000 each. The Angels come from across the UK (we’re not London-obsessed at Ada Ventures and we host lots of regional events). Diversity is also key: our Angels are 65% female, 20% Black, 20% Asian, 15% LGBTQ+, and 10% have a disability. We were stoked that this got mentioned in UK Tech News and Tech EU.
Ada’s Angel Pia Hauch was also instrumental in our involvement in the London launch of the Operators Guild, a network of over 800 start-up operators which started in San Francisco.
We also visited our European friends — in September, we attended The Drop Climate Conference in Malmö where Check was speaking (alongside Dr Jonathan Bean, co-founder of Materials Nexus). Check also spoke at SuperVenture in Berlin and we held our annual GP/LP Dinner with Sapphire Venture and other friends of Ada. Another memorable moment from the year was a tour at the Boros Collection, an amazing modern art installation in a former World War II bunker, hosted by Diarra and Xun, for Platform, Ops and Comms leaders across European venture capital and other friends of Ada.
The Ada Ventures team keeps growing
We welcomed two new team members to Ada Ventures. In March, Cami Zattar came on board to lead on new company investment sourcing, screening and due diligence. She’s been a brilliant addition and has been instrumental in increasing our deal flow reach and DD capabilities. Michael Tefula joined in October as an Investor in Residence. He wasn’t exactly an unknown quantity; Check and I have known Michael for more than seven years and he’s already been a Venture Partner and an Angel at Ada Ventures. We’ve long been looking for an opportunity to step up the relationship. He’ll be with us for six months so suitable start-ups, do get in touch.
It’s been a busy year for Check: there have been numerous speaking engagements, an MBE in the King’s New Years Honours List for services to Equality and Diversity in the Venture Capital Sector, and developments in her personal life. Not quite old enough to be a working team member just yet, but Check’s baby Lyra arrived in November.
It’s another chance to put into practice what we preach; we’ve put in the structures to support Check as she takes parental leave.
Conclusion
The journey didn’t start in 2023. We’ve come a long way since Ada Fund 0 in 2018:
2018, Ada Fund 0:
- £2.2m in SPVs.
- 13 scouts, and our first scout-sourced investment in Planera / Fluus.
2020–2021, Ada Fund I
- Targeted: £30m. Raised £38m
- 38 scouts
- Launched First Ada’s Angel Programme with 5 angels
- Launched AdaCon in 2020, 2021
2022–2023,Ada Fund II:
- Target: £35m. Raised £48m
- 20 angels (regional and operator)
- 70+ scouts
- AdaCon 2022, 2023
As we look ahead, our ambition is as propulsive as ever but it’s evolving. Phase two of Ada Ventures has begun.
While phase one was about starting and scaling (2018–2023), phase two is about institutionalising and excelling (2023–2028).
In the next few years, we want to do two main things. Build one of the leading seed franchises in Europe and establish Inclusive Alpha as a leading investment category.
Over the next year, we’re focusing on:
- Supporting portfolio founders as they navigate the road to series A
- Helping Fund I companies generate over £100m in revenue (currently £70m)
- Improving our sourcing strategy beyond scouts — thesis-led, outbound and data-driven
- Increasing our focus on a strong company culture and values that shine through in behaviours.
Just writing that makes me keen to tackle next year. First, a rest to refresh and regroup. Then 2024, we’re ready to get started.
