Archives: Portfolio

What they do
Noa (previously Lock8), is the first of its kind – a global bike-sharing platform based on an innovative lock and tracking system that allows organisations of all sizes to roll out an easy, affordable and scalable bike-sharing program. Users are able to find and unlock bikes using their smartphones, and bikes are secured through GPS tracking.

How we met
Pascal was talking about Noa well before we invested – in November 2013, Boris came across their Kickstarter and introduced the concept to the team, and Pascal ended up mentioning their technology in several presentations on the growth of connected objects.
Meeting with the founders sealed the deal, Franz and Daniel explained that they were changing the business from a B2C to a B2B model and we thought it was indeed the right vision for the company: Noa leverages the Internet of Things in a unique and disruptive way, connecting users’ transportation to their smartphone and allowing them to find a bicycle as easily as someone with a smartphone can find a nearby Uber.

We sold our shares in Noa Technologies at the end of 2016.

What they do
Norbert Health has built the first ever ambient health scanner that can measure vital signs for anyone within a 6 ft range with no effort needed from the person being scanned.
Norbert’s co-founder, Alexandre Winter, is a serial entrepreneur with a strong technical background in Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Together with an amazing team, including CPO & co-founder Patrick Collins and Head of Software Thomas Rosenblatt, they are on their mission to make the scanning and monitoring of the human body’s essential vital signs easy, fast, and ubiquitous.

In short, they’re building a future where nearly invisible health issues can be quickly detected, predicted, and as a result, addressed swiftly.

How we met
Pascal has known Alexandre for many years, and Michel first crossed paths with him back in 2016 when he was developing Placemeter. When he told them that he was working on a new project with hardware specialist Patrick Collins, they knew that this talented duo could only lead to great tech for the greater good.

What they do
PsiQuantum aims at creating the world’s first useful general purpose quantum computer. Building on its founders’ expertise and on recent breakthroughs, the company uses a photonics-based and Fault Tolerance approach to quantum computing in order to reach the critical threshold of 1,000,000 physical qubits, while distilling out 100 to 300 error-corrected or logical qubits from that total.
Amongst other things, photons are intrinsically low-noise and do not feel heat, thereby reducing the need for cooling down quantum computers. They can also navigate between different silicon chips, which is crucial as it would be impossible to build a quantum computer using only one chip. Eventually, while other quantum experiments rely on custom manufacturing, these chips can be produced in regular manufacturing facilities, making PsiQuantum’s approach highly scalable.

How we met
All founders are renowned individuals teaching in world-class universities and authors of many papers, some of them being breakthroughs in the field. Pascal met Jeremy at the Founders Forum, and we were impressed by the team’s knowledge and their scalable approach of the subject.

What they do
Remedee Labs is a startup at the crossroads of scientific research and technology. The three co-founders, Jacques, David and Michael, are experts in the areas of micro and nano medical technologies and biomedical research. They decided to combine that scientific knowledge with on-the-edge silicon technology breakthroughs to drive a new, more effective way for people to use their body’s own resources for personal health.

Together with an international team, they have developed the first personal endorphin stimulator using advanced millimeter wave technology for electronic pain management. The solution is based on the company’s patented Microelectronic Endorphin Trigger (MEET) module, the first miniaturized millimeter wave-emitting module for medical usage. It is smaller than the end of a ballpoint pen (see the picture on the left) and can be integrated into ultra-small wearable device, making it extremely easy to use. Multiple clinical trials are already underway in European hospitals and research centers.

How we met
Olivier got introduced to Remedee by our friends at the hardware club when he explained that consumerization of healthcare was one of our investment theme. Indeed, we believe that software, data and the miniaturization of electronics will allow new healthcare devices to emerge, directly used the patient rather than the doctors/hospitals.

When Pascal first met Jacques in Paris and – as usual – enquired about his family background, they realized they were from the same region, Alsace, in the East of France. So when Olivier flew down to Grenoble to spend more time with the founding team, Jacques made sure to order Alsacian wine.

C4 Ventures doesn’t usually invest at such an early stage of product development but the quality of the founders and the sheer size of the market potential led us to make an exception!

What they do
Riskified is the world’s leading risk management platform to keep merchants ahead of fraudsters. They are an end-to-end eCommerce fraud prevention solution for online merchants. Thanks to cutting-edge machine learning, Riskified enables online retailers to approve orders that some businesses would otherwise decline. This drives eCommerce sales, reduces overheads and provides a seamless experience to the customer. Their solution includes a 100% chargeback protection guarantee on every order they approve and is trusted by hundreds of global brands, from luxury fashion houses and retail chains to ticket marketplaces across virtually all industries. We are excited to be part of Riskified’s mission to turn fraud management into a growth engine for online retailers.

How we met
Following other investments in e-commerce, we were looking for a solution for monitoring fraud and this led us to Assaf Feldman and Eido Gal, the founders of Riskified.

What they do
Shopcade is a London-based global mobile platform for fashion shopping that allows users to discover and shop new products, create looks and wish lists and get exclusive deals. Shopcade’s growing user base includes celebrities, tastemakers and fashion influencers.
In March 2017, Shopcade was acquired by Lagardere Active.

The founders
Nathalie, the founder & CEO at Shopcade, was a natural fit with C4 Ventures – as Francophile as Pascal, she is committed to supporting the French technology community and industry. Nathalie also has an amazing track record, having co-founded PriceMinister, the French marketplace acquired by Rakuten for $200m in 2010.
Nathalie’s passion and background combined with Shopcade’s unique offering make Shopcade an exciting investment for us. The way people are shopping is continually evolving, as fashion trendsetters now range from Instagram personalities to more traditional print magazine columnists, and the path to purchase for consumers ranges from window-shopping to blog-browsing. Shopcade is addressing this shift by making shopping social and engaging customers in the world of e-commerce.

What they do
Tempow is redefining the way bluetooth is used to stream audio. Their technology boosts the current protocol to offer best in class user-experience. Their first product allows smartphones to stream music to several Bluetooth speakers or headphones.

Bluetooth chipsets are relatively cheap to implement and their presence in billions of devices makes it the most widely adopted Personal Area Network technology and for good reasons. The explosion of IoT devices will keep fuelling the need for Bluetooth continued development. But this technology is too complicated for equipment manufacturers to handle. This is where Tempow comes in by reshaping the value chain of bluetooth and moving its center of gravity towards software. For C4 Ventures, it is perfectly at the intersection of smart Hardware and digital media technologies investment themes.

The founders
We’ve know the founding team since the very beginning of their journey when Vincent, Julien and Thomas were finishing their studies. We actually dug into the historic of our conversations with Vincent, and realised our first email was exchanged in early 2016! Vincent even secretly came to work at our offices on a Friday afternoon in London when no one was around…
We’ve always been impressed by the exceptional technical skills they showed and the knowledge of bluetooth very few people have in the industry.

What they do
For too long, discovery, inspiration and curation-led categories were missing from the e-commerce landscape. Trouva solves that by curating the world’s best independent boutiques and powering them with their proprietary software platform, handling everything from inventory management through to logistics, so that they can scale their offer online.

This way, brick-and-mortar shops are connected to a global customer base they wouldn’t otherwise have access to, and customers can shop expertly curated products that are otherwise hard to find.

We believe Trouva is at the forefront of the transformation of retail, one powered by inspiration & discovery, uniting the best of online and offline.

How we met
When Boris first reviewed Trouva’s deck, he found out that David Lindsay was an advisor. We enjoyed so much working with him at Net-A-Porter that we knew it could only bode well for Trouva! By the time we went to meet Mandeep and Alex in London we were so enthusiastic that we stayed for three hours discussing the business and vision!

What they do

What comes to one’s mind when we talk about ‘industry’ and ‘manufacturing’? Most probably heavy processes, assembly lines, raw manpower and other images of the first industrial revolution.

Tulip is one of those companies that will turn upside down our traditional conception of manufacturing. Since 2014, they have been at the forefront of what we could call ‘Industry 4.0’.
By bringing in Industrial IoT technologies into the industrial landscape, they are building the factory of the future. A seamless integration of cloud-based software services with plug & play hardware made possible the creation of a beautiful platform that automatically collects and analyzes important production data from shop floor sensors and equipment.

Simply put, Tulip is the definition of technology at the service of men

How we met

Natan is definitely part of C4 Ventures history. We first met him 2 years ago when he was still busy disrupting the 3D Printing industry as cofounder of Formlabs, another company in which we are lucky to have invested.

We were so convinced by Natan’s leadership and skills that we knew it would be a matter of months before he came up with another amazing project. This is exactly what he did with Tulip.

A strong leader and a disruptive product. Could we really dream of anything better?