Look back: Form’s H124
It’s the end of July. If Twitter is anything to go by, either you’re reading this on the beach, or hustling away while everyone else in VC/tech/Europe(?) takes the summer off. Either way, we hope you all get at least some chance to touch grass.
At Form HQ, the first half of the year has been busy: a lot of new deals, portfolio companies going from strength to strength, our Fix The Regulators campaign making it into the new Government’s manifesto, and lots more. So here it is: a look back at H124 😎
Portfolio
At time of writing, we’ve done 6 deals this year. While 5 are yet to be announced, we can say that we’re hugely excited to be partnering with Tipple, which is building the end-to-end infrastructure layer for cross-border, d2c alcohol sales. While d2c sales have grown enormously in nearly every other sector, enabled by companies like Flexport, the friction of cross-border trade and logistics has held back the same trend in alcohol. So producers are left selling through layers of middlemen, slashing margins and interrupting direct consumer relationships. CEO Eoin hit upon this issue when launching his own gin company, Mór Gin, and has now teamed up with cofounders Laura and Jamie, having all worked together on infrastructure before at AWS, to transform this antiquated industry.
Across the rest of the portfolio, huge congrats to Infact for receiving their FCA authorisation; Stotles, who shipped major AI features to reimagine public sector bidding; Flok Health, who were in The Guardian ahead of the launch of their first AI-first clinic in the NHS; KareHero, who were named one to watch in Sifted; and Stitch, who launched a major new partnership with Exeltis to improve patient retention on clinical trials. More news soon from several others soon, too 🤫
Statecraft
So here’s a quick timeline:
Back in February we launched Fix The Regulators, our campaign spotlighting how creaking regulatory capacity is holding back founders from scaling their impact
We launched it at the inaugural FORM summit with a keynote from the then-Minister for Investment and Regulatory Reform.
A week later, the Financial Times dedicated a Big Read to the issue
Then, in June, we were delighted to see our proposals adopted in the Labour Party’s manifesto commitment to establish a new Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO).
The RIO falls under the remit of Lord Patrick Vallance, the new Minister for Science, Research and Innovation…who we also interviewed just before he went into government:
And before going into government, Lord Vallance had been an adviser to our friends at the Tony Blair Institute. So with a new party in power, we thought it was worth revisiting our very first Form Playbook interview, with Sir Tony Blair himself:
“To secure the future of UK tech, governments should focus on building its own network effects and treating data as a competitive asset: innovative models like the UK Biobank, reforms to allow dual-class share structures, and targeted R&D spending all support this.”
Future of Regulated Markets
Over the first half of the year we also co-hosted events on energy and health AI with our pals at Eka, bringing founders, investors and policymakers together to scale progress at the frontier. As Patrick wrote recently, this is core to how we think about impact, even if we’re not explicitly an “impact fund”. Too often, we lack informal ways for those at the frontier of tech & policy/regulation to swap notes on scaling innovation where it matters most. So we’re fixing that.
These sessions provide a live sitrep of challenges & opportunities at the frontier of regulated markets, digging into the craft of scaling companies in these sectors and the policy we need to enable it. (We’ve also rejigged our Substack along these lines: take a look.)
As for our events, next up we’ll be discussing:
AI-first strategy in regulated markets
A new era of fintech infra
The future of work and care
Hit reply if you’d like to join 👋
Wrap up
Elsewhere, Mayowa spoke at the BVCA Accelerate Conference about fundraising being on the rebound, Leo discussed AI regulation at SuperVenture (following our piece), Patrick was at iiF by i3, and we hosted our 4th July election-meets-independence day summer party, in collaboration with Startup Coalition. We spent way too much on bunting, but had a great time — thanks everyone that made it.
Hit reply with any questions, to join future events, or to share what you’re building.