Founders Factory

🛠️ Over the past seven years, Landvault has staked a claim as one of the biggest metaverse and 3D world builders. Founded by Samuel Huber in 2017 as Admix, an in-game monetisation tool, joining the Founders Factory Accelerator in 2019. They pivoted towards metaverse building in 2022 after acquiring Landvault, merging under the new name. Since then, they’ve developed not only their own studio to help brands launch immersive experiences, but also a platform and suite of tools to help brands and creators publish and monetise their own 3D content. To date, they’ve raised nearly $40M in funding, backed by the likes of Speedinvest, Force Over Mass, and DIP Capital. And today, Landvault have announced they are being acquired by immersive tech giant Infinite Reality for $450M 🚀 Huge congratulations to Sam and the whole Landvault team. You can read all about the acquisition in VentureBeat (by Dean Takahashi): https://lnkd.in/dQymxzes henry lane fox | Brent Hoberman | George Northcott | Damian Routley | Lee Bernasconi | David Hickson | Farah Kanji | Emma-Jane Willan | Claire Morris | Simon Lovick | Laura Moross #exit #adtech #martech #metaverse #immersivetech

💡 "People are starting to ask the question not just ‘Can I do business with them?’ but ‘Should I?’" Consumer demand and global ESG policies have intensified the focus for international businesses on reputational protection—in short, truly understanding the profile and background of who you are doing business with. Xapien is transforming this. Founders Chris Green, Daniel Secretan, and Shaun O'Mahony have built an AI-powered research engine that can complete complex due diligence checks on potential business partners—checks that might have once taken weeks, in a matter of minutes.  🚀 Xapien has just announced their $10M Series A, backed by YFM Equity Partners, bringing total funding to $17.5M. Read about Xapien & their raise in The Times: https://lnkd.in/d-WxyhGJ henry lane fox | Brent Hoberman | George Northcott | David Hickson | Lee Bernasconi | Olivia Brooks | Claire Mongeau | Edoardo Gentili | Elena Vittone | Simon Lovick | Laura Moross #fundraising #seriesA #AI #LLM

👁️ Facial analysis technology has huge potential for measuring customer sentiment in real time. But ethical and data-secure solutions are few and far between—until now. Zenus, Inc.—our latest investment with Pico Group ⭐️ Ethical facial analysis combined with proprietary AI that analyses event audiences and retail customers’ satisfaction and engagement in real time ⭐️ Enables in-person experiences to harness the same level of insights as you’d get online  ⭐️ Founded by Panos M., an expert in the field of facial analytics Read all about Zenus: https://lnkd.in/e4jZSQuh Edoardo Gentili | Levi Young | Liam Nolan | Simon Lovick | Ellie Slaght | Nick Borelli #martech #eventtech #accelerator #founders

As financial services tries to measure and reduce its carbon footprint, fintechs have a big role to play. Our own Claire Mongeau spoke to The Fintech Times (via Francis Bignell), sharing her thoughts on the role that fintechs can play in measuring environmental impact, and where there are opportunities to go beyond simple tracking. ➡️ Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/ezrrKUkF Also featuring contributions from UST's Maureen Doyle-Spare, emagine's Martin Hartley, and EUROWAG's Jenny Pidgeon. #fintech #esg #carbonfootprint #climatefinance

⛏️ Much of mining tech focuses on improving operations and safety - but what about what happens to a mine after it has reached the end of its life? Our last #MiningTech Takeover post is on Mine Remediation - a theme that is crucial to the long term sustainability of the mining industry. Learn more below 👇 Are you building in any of these areas? ➡️ Apply to our Rio Tinto Mining Tech Accelerator: https://bit.ly/3QYjLbs  ➡️ Recommend a startup: https://bit.ly/3yDEfjF Olivia Brooks | George Northcott | Jamie Rowles | Rohan Silva | Lee Bernasconi | Simon Lovick | Pekka Santasalo | Dan Walker | Rachelle Doyle #miningtech #deeptech #startups #climatetech

⛏️ As we're marking #MiningTech takeover week, we ask one of the biggest questions facing the industry - how can you decarbonise on the world's most carbon intensive industries? Learn more about where we see opportunities for decarbonisation across mining 👇 Are you building in any of these areas? ➡️ Apply to our Rio Tinto Mining Tech Accelerator: https://bit.ly/3QYjLbs  ➡️ Recommend a startup: https://bit.ly/3yDEfjF Olivia Brooks | George Northcott | Rohan Silva | Lee Bernasconi | Jamie Rowles | David Hickson | Bianca F. | Simon Lovick | Liam Nolan #miningtech #deeptech #startups #climatetech

🚂 In 2020, as global travel ground to a halt, Byway launched a new travel alternative—slower, sustainable, flight-free travel. Four years later, they have just announced their $6.4M Series A, led by Heartcore Capital with investment from Eka Ventures. What is Byway? ⭐️ Flight-free, slow travel powered by AI and coordinated by humans  ⭐️ Their proprietary JourneyAI trip designing software is backed up by a human-led concierge service for everything from booking to real-time trip support ⭐️ Built by Cat Jones (ex-Founders Factory MD for travel) in our Venture Studio ⭐️ Booked over 4200 trips to date across Europe Congratulations to Cat and the Byway team on their latest round of investment 🎉 Read about the raise in TechCrunch (by Natasha Lomas): https://lnkd.in/eiTPpyjU henry lane fox | Brent Hoberman | George Northcott | David Hickson | Damian Routley | Lee Bernasconi | Farah Kanji | Claire Morris | Emma-Jane Willan | Sahil Sachdev | Edoardo Gentili | Claire Mongeau | Olivia Brooks | Simon Lovick | Laura Moross | Max Niederhofer | Jon Coker | Camilla Dolan #fundraising #seriesA #startup #investment

🚂 In 2020, as global travel ground to a halt, Byway launched a new travel alternative—slower, sustainable, flight-free travel. Four years later, they have just announced their $6.4M Series A, led by Heartcore Capital with investment from Eka Ventures. What is Byway? ⭐️ Flight-free, slow travel powered by AI and coordinated by humans  ⭐️ Their proprietary JourneyAI trip designing software is backed up by a human-led concierge service for everything from booking to real-time trip support ⭐️ Built by Cat Jones (ex-Founders Factory MD for travel) in our Venture Studio ⭐️ Booked over 4200 trips to date across Europe Congratulations to Cat and the Byway team on their latest round of investment 🎉 Read about the raise in TechCrunch (by Natasha Lomas): https://lnkd.in/eiTPpyjU henry lane fox | Brent Hoberman | George Northcott | David Hickson | Damian Routley | Lee Bernasconi | Farah Kanji | Claire Morris | Emma-Jane Willan | Sahil Sachdev | Edoardo Gentili | Claire Mongeau | Olivia Brooks | Simon Lovick | Laura Moross | Max Niederhofer | Jon Coker | Camilla Dolan #fundraising #seriesA #startup #investment

🚀 Versed AI announced this week their acquisition by Exiger, a global leader in supply chain risk. What is Versed AI? ➡️ Using AI to enhance supply chain visibility to monitor, manage, and mitigate risk ➡️ Deploys natural language processing to map buyer-supplier relationships  ➡️ Founded by Fenella Boyle and Simon B. ➡️ Born out of Cambridge’s Language Technology Lab, backed by FF in 2020 They have found an exciting new home in Exiger, the supply chain management unicorn with customers across energy, healthcare, defence, and a range of other industries. Last year, they were bought out by Carlyle and Insight Partners in a deal worth $1.2BN. henry lane fox | Brent Hoberman | George Northcott | Damian Routley | Lee Bernasconi | David Hickson | Emma-Jane Willan | Simon Wheeldon CA | Laura Moross | Simon Lovick | Jeffrey Ng | Brandon Daniels | Brendan Galla #ai #exit #acquisition #supplychain

Mining is one of the world's most important industries, and opportunities are rife for transformation and innovation. This week, we're hosting a #MiningTech Takeover Week, a chance to highlight where we see the biggest opportunities to transform mining. First up this week, Tailings—find out what they are, and why they hold so much potential value for the industry 👇 Are you building in any of these areas? ➡️ Apply to our Rio Tinto Mining Tech Accelerator: https://bit.ly/3QYjLbs  ➡️ Recommend a startup: https://bit.ly/3yDEfjF George Northcott | Olivia Brooks | Rohan Silva | Jamie Rowles | Lee Bernasconi | Simon Lovick | David Hickson | Bianca F. | Jacob George | Rio Tinto | Pekka Santasalo | Dan Walker | Rachelle Doyle #miningtech #deeptech #startups #climatetech