Northzone

I’m so excited to share that Breakroom has been acquired by ZipRecruiter! With ZipRecruiter’s help, we’ll be continuing to grow our UK employer ratings and our existing customer base, whilst also launching Breakroom in the US. When James Weiner, Tom Taylor and I started Breakroom, the mission was always to turn *every* job into a good one - not just in the UK, but in the US and beyond. Having gotten to know the ZipRecruiter team over the past year, I can’t imagine a better partner to grow with. I am so proud of and grateful to the team we have built at Breakroom - past and present - and it has been an absolute privilege to work alongside such talented, committed and kind people over the last few years. I can’t wait to get started on this new chapter together as well. A huge thanks to our incredibly supportive investors who got us off the ground in the first place, especially PROfounders Capital, Revent and Northzone. Starting a company during the pandemic and steering the course through everything that’s come since has been anything but boring! Without your support, it simply wouldn’t have been possible. Finally, if you employ frontline workers in industries like retail, hospitality, social care or logistics in the UK or US and want to explore how Breakroom could help you recruit and retain staff, drop me a message. Or Google ‘your brand name + Breakroom’ or find us on TikTok to learn more.

🗝️ Our Operator Network has become a key resource for our portfolio, offering expert advice tailored to each startup's unique challenges. In our latest blog post, we explore how our network of seasoned operators helps startups find product-market fit, build teams, and scale. 💬 Operators work with founders and founding teams in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the company. Sometimes they will just meet once for a knowledge sharing session; other times they develop a mentorship model where they meet consistently over a period of time. It has even happened that operators eventually take a hands-on role within a portfolio company. The operator network is designed to be flexible and fully customisable depending on the nature of the challenge the founder faces. 💡 We’ve included use cases highlighting some of our advisors Johan van der Poel, Joanna Lord, James Allgrove and Ross Seychell, as well as our portfolio companies Katana Cloud Inventory, Yonder, GovDash and Ravio. In this article, we’ll deep dive into the inner workings of Northzone’s Operator Network, including use cases of how we meet the unique needs of each startup from Seed to Growth. 👇

👏 Join us in congratulating Molly Alter’s promotion to partner! We’re delighted to celebrate this latest milestone as part of our continued commitment to New York City! 🍎 🥳 Molly joined Northzone last year, bringing with her an impressive track record of 12 investments from her time at Insight Partners and Index Ventures, with notable successes such as Lightricks, Glia, Tractable, and Frame.io, which she sourced and served on the board of before their $1.2bn sale to Adobe. 💬 Speaking on behalf of the whole team, our partner Jessica Schultz adds: “We’re thrilled to double down on New York with Molly's promotion to partner. Her investment track record, team-player attitude, and potential to partner with founders at all stages are invaluable as we further strengthen our presence in the US."

🎉 Exciting news! Leading mental health startup Spring Health has raised $100 million for its Series E funding round, led by Generation Investment Management and with the support of new and existing investors, including Kinnevik, THE WILLIAM K. WARREN FOUNDATION, RRE Ventures, and Northzone. 🌍 This new round brings Spring Health’s valuation to $3.3 billion and will be used to accelerate the company’s growth as it continues on its mission of expanding global access to mental healthcare and addressing the urgent global mental health crisis. 📅 Over the past eight years, Spring Health has been at the forefront of transforming mental healthcare. Today, its services cover more than 10 million lives through 450 directly contracted employers and strategic payer relationships, supported by over 10,000 care providers. Its precision mental healthcare approach, powered by AI, ensures faster and more effective care for our members. 👏 Congratulations to the entire team, April Koh and Adam Chekroud! Fortune has more👇

🌍 Our 2023 ESG report and insights are out! In early 2023, we took a significant step towards greater transparency by making our annual ESG reporting public. This initiative aims to foster engagement within our portfolio, promote transparency in the broader ecosystem, and hold ourselves accountable. We have continued to expand both our team and our ESG initiatives, with the goal of influencing and guiding our portfolio companies through our own journey and learnings. Our commitment to leading by example is reflected in the range of new initiatives we have implemented this year. Some of the newer initiatives we’ve included this year: 🌱 Enhanced sustainability metrics for portfolio companies 🌍 Comprehensive diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategies 🔍 Increased transparency in reporting and stakeholder engagement 🤝 Partnerships with leading ESG organisations for greater impact 💡 Read through our highlights and access our report below 👇

🔧 Our latest perspective “From Pixels to Prototypes” on revolutionising hardware with software is out! Why hasn’t hardware development experienced the same software revolution? At Northzone, we believe the future of hardware engineering will mirror today's software engineering: iterative, collaborative, and customisable. We believe the key traits of next-gen hardware tools will be: 🔗 Integrated: Unify systems, including IoT, to streamline workflows. 🔍 Searchable: Create a "Stack Overflow of X" for faster knowledge transfer. 🚀 Adoptable: Implement a crawl, walk, run strategy for swift adoption. 🤝 Collaborative: Enable seamless multi-stakeholder collaboration with digital threading. The potential for manufacturers to leapfrog to an AI-enabled future is huge. If you’re building in the “software for hardware” space, reach out to Nick Boesel and Molly Alter. Full post below 👇

🚀 The healthcare startup scene is in an exciting era, driven by data advancements, genetic integration, and the potential of AI and preventative care to revolutionise healthcare systems. Kai Nicol-Schwarz from Sifted asked investors at Octopus Ventures, Speedinvest, Frontline Ventures, InHealth Ventures, Northzone, and Nina Capital what startup ideas they’d like to see in 2024. 💡 Our partner, Michiel Kotting, highlights his vision for a patient-centric decision support system. This system would integrate quantified self, behavioural change, preventative medicine, and healthcare navigation, based on the belief that people want to actively manage their own health. Check out the full article below! 👇 https://lnkd.in/etsMAbBF

🗞️ We’re excited to share our latest investments in CuspAI, Tandem Health, Sona, and more - check out our monthly roundup! 👇 🗓️ Stay up to date by signing up for our monthly newsletter (link in the comments) CuspAI 🚀 Proud to unveil our investment in CuspAI, the AI-powered platform revolutionising materials science to tackle global sustainability and clean energy challenges, raising a $30m Seed round. Defacto 🇫🇷 Co-founders Morgan O'hana and Marc-Henri Gires share insights on our blog on their “startup lean” journey. The B2B lending platform has funded over half a billion to 10,000 SMEs since it launched and just celebrated a new milestone: a banking licence. Finom 🇳🇱 + Katana Cloud Inventory 🇪🇪 + Wagestream 🇬🇧 were featured in Sifted’s Rising 100: The software-savvy startups scaling fast in 2024 - highlighting the top 100 European and Israeli startups pushing boundaries in B2B SaaS. Kota 🇮🇪 + Ravio 🇬🇧 have released "The State of Benefits in European Tech in 2024" report, with insights to help European tech leaders deliver competitive benefits offerings. Personio 🇩🇪 Founder Hanno Renner emphasised the importance of European collaboration in fostering innovation in CNBC’s latest article. Personio is also featured in Sifted’s article on building an $8.5bn business and plans for growth. Ravio 🇬🇧 has launched its first Pay Equity Report, designed to help drive real pay equity change in organisations. Sona (getsona.com) 🇬🇧 We invested in Sona, the company building a modern, configurable platform for frontline companies to optimise labour deployment and workforce management. We participated in this latest $27.5m Series A round alongside Felicis, Gradient Ventures, Speedinvest, and notable angels. Spring Health 🇺🇲 Founder April Koh has been named one of Inc. Magazine's Female Founders of 2024. Solvimon 🇳🇱 + TrueLayer 🇬🇧 Truelayer has chosen Solvimon as its end-to-end monetization platform, leveraging its modules to streamline its quote-to-cash process. Tandem Health 🇸🇪 We invested in Tandem Health’s $9.5 million Seed round, led by us alongside Amino Collective and angel operators from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Capio's founder. The company offers an AI-powered clinician copilot to support healthcare practitioners, reducing their administrative burden and enabling them to focus on high-quality patient care. Tuza 🇬🇧 The first comparison site for business card payments has secured £4 million in seed funding to accelerate their growth in the UK, led by Connect Ventures, with participation from us, TriplePoint Capital, and Entrepreneur First. Zeal 🇬🇧 The Zeal wallet is now available as a browser extension and mobile app, facilitating both onchain and everyday payments using a crypto Visa debit card from Gnosis. Zopa Bank 🇬🇧 The UK digital bank is set to launch current accounts by the end of the year, with SME lending and investment products coming in 2024. https://lnkd.in/d7-ta7yu

👏 Exciting to see our portfolio companies Solvimon and TrueLayer’s partnership announcement! This partnership marks a significant milestone for Solvimon, showcasing its capability to handle complex financial ecosystems and deliver robust, scalable solutions. More below 👇

As part of our regular series of Operator Sessions we recently held a session with GTM advisor James Allgrove and a number of our portfolio companies. The topics covered included the below, short write ups with key takeaways by Laura Clifford and James: 🤝 Enterprise Sales Motion 🎯 Pitch vs Process 🌍 International Expansion. Check out the full Enterprise Sales Motion writeup below and links to the 'Pitch vs Process' and 'International Expansion' posts in the comment section 👇