James Wise

Unlocking capital for UK founders is one of the most important challenges if Britain is to remain the best place in the world to start and scale a business. This week, we were joined by Callum Anderson MP (Labour MP for Buckingham and Bletchley, and PPS to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology) for a dinner on how to ensure our capital markets better serve the needs of scaling businesses. Among the things we discussed were: – How to mobilise more domestic institutional capital into UK scale-ups; – How to improve the path to public markets so more firms can grow here, not abroad; – How to ensure smarter, more efficient regulation that supports growth rather than stifling it. It’s clear there’s no single lever that will close the UK’s growth gap – but getting capital flowing more effectively is one of the most powerful steps we can take. A big thank you to our partner OakNorth for supporting this important conversation. 👉 Callum has written an article on the topic (link in the comments). 👉 If you’re a founder, investor, expert who’d like to contribute to these discussions, request a place at a future event by signing up for my Friday newsletter (link in the comments). Adi Edekar, Anand Sambasivan, Ben Greenstone, Brendan O'Toole, Catherine Fredette, Eamonn Ives, Fiona Melville, Francesco Corazza, Kyle Frank, Margot Blanc, Oliver Wylie, Paul Domjan, Peter King, Philippa Keith, Prakriti Garg, Sam Bell, Wenyan Sharp

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“The UK has the best talent in the world, but we sometimes lack ambition”   Grateful for Neil Buchanan @ Lodestar Space (‘bodyguards for satellites’) inspiring and educating our emerging founders spinning out from UK Atomic Energy Authority (thank you) > If you’re pre-idea and pre-cofounder you’ll benefit from doing the Entrepreneurs First programme (if you can get on). The speed of learning and environment truly accelerate founders > Unlocking early adopter demand: LinkedIn outreach, speak to people with common interests, build networks, keep the cadence of outreach, running a customer discovery process (‘mom test’ - Rob Fitzpatrick ) > Sizing the opportunity: top down look for $10BNs to $100BNs market problems and then look bottom up with an eye to the future. Bottom up is always the sobering one and should be your north star - never lie to your team, investors and worst of all: yourself.  > Engaging VCs often: reduce the risk as much as possible (team, market, tech) show how you’re hiring to fit a few key gaps can be fine > Founders need to be confident to be selective with the investors they partner with. Being mindful if you’re taking investment from a key player in an industry (is it for their ultimate M&A activity, is it going to impact your sales). Ideally you’re ambitious and don’t want an early exit but also investment from a defence prime if you’re dual use can unlock channels > Building for dual use or defence? Prioritise USA GTM in the short term. > Finding non-dilutive sources of cash: run a process to identify relevant organisations, keep an open mind / keep it wide to keep options open. Keeping burn low you can achieve a lot prior to dilutive capital > Don’t get distracted by the shiny numbers of a big raise - it's needed for strong talent acquisition & credibility boosting but the best talent will resonate with the high impact mission & tech dev to get there - the rest of your time for focus on where it needs to be: customers and sales > Geopolitics impacting decisions on which markets to target, hiring decisions, who to have on the cap table ▪️If you’re an investor / founder and you’d like to do a lunchtime Q&A to educate and inspire our emerging founders please DM

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We’re thrilled to share a landmark moment for us at Haylo: we have acquired Plessey Semiconductors Ltd, the UK’s leader in microLED display technology. For me, as a co-founder of Haylo, this isn’t just another deal, it’s a bold step towards shaping the future of AR/VR, optical computing, and AI-powered devices, industries set to be worth around £600bn by 2034. Over the next five years, we will: - Invest over £100m to scale from low-volume manufacturing to high-volume global production - Create and protect highly skilled jobs in Plymouth and the wider region - Build the hardware foundation for the next era of immersive, intelligent computing MicroLEDs will power the next generation of devices, from ultra-efficient AR/VR displays to optical processors that make AI faster, cooler, and far more sustainable. With Plessey’s end-to-end capabilities, world-class team, and deep IP portfolio, we’re ready to turn microLED breakthroughs into mass-market reality. This is a proud moment for me personally, for our brilliant team, our partners, and for the future of computing. And the journey is only just beginning. https://lnkd.in/ev7Hczth

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At Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), we help transform Oxford’s world-leading science into companies with the ambition and potential to solve the world’s biggest challenges. But true global impact and scale requires access to the world's most important markets. We see it as part of OSE's role to help open up those markets for our companies early on. How? We’re building strategic international partnerships that open doors and accelerate new market entry for Oxford’s breakthrough innovations. Our ambition is to create a global network of "launchpads" to help connect Oxford’s high-growth companies with the local innovation networks, customers, partners and capital that they need to expand commercially beyond the UK.   This year, we took two important steps in that journey: in the United States and Japan. 🌏 ➡️ Earlier this year, we joined forces with leading US healthcare provider Cedars-Sinai to bring leading-edge UK health tech innovation to the all-important US market. Together, we aim to co-build and co-invest in new ventures emerging from Oxford with the potential to transform patient care, accelerating their entry and growth in the US. Our first joint investment was in Neu Health – a University of Oxford spinout developing a smartphone-based neurology care platform for Parkinson’s and dementia patients. With Cedars-Sinai’s clinical expertise and US commercial insights, Neu Health is now piloting its technology in Los Angeles, accelerating its journey to impact patients on both sides of the Atlantic.   ➡️ This month, as part of our international acceleration strategy, we’re delighted to also be partnering with Scrum Ventures and Tokyu Land Corporation to join the Sakura Deeptech Shibuya Accelerator in Tokyo. This collaboration gives our deep tech start-ups direct access to Japan’s thriving innovation and investor networks, plus workspace, mentorship, and connections to leading Japanese partners. For our portfolio, it’s a fast-track route into one of the most advanced technology markets in the world. Our ambition with these partnerships is to create a two-way street of opportunity: alongside opening pathways for our companies to commercialise globally, we also want to draw international partners and investors from those markets back into Oxford’s rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem – sparking new international collaborations and driving growth. Learn more about our Japan partnership here: https://lnkd.in/eK_9vu3U   #OxfordInnovation #GlobalLaunchpads #DeepTech #HealthTech #GlobalPartnerships #ScalingScience #BillionDollarScience

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