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Ufi Ventures Bulletin:
Winter 2023
The latest insights in EdTech for adult skills for work
As the year draws to a close and the seasonal celebrations begin, we’re delighted to bring to you our latest Bulletin. We have reflected on all that has been happening over the past few months and are looking forward to some exciting events in the new year.
Updates in this winter edition include:
Portfolio news – Learnerbly wins Learning Technologies Award; TaskHer wins Female Founders competition.
Useful content – GoodTech Ventures is open for applications; Re-watch the insightful webinars from the Week of VocTech 2023.
Wishing you a joyous Christmas break and a successful year ahead!
The Ufi Ventures Team
Before we jump in, please be sure to follow us @ufiventures on LinkedIn and Twitter for regular updates on what we're up to.
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PORTFOLIO NEWS
Learnerbly wins Learning Technologies Award
A huge congratulations to the team at Learnerbly for winning the Bonze Award for Learning Technologies Organisation of the Year.
The Learning Technologies Awards celebrate outstanding commitment, enthusiasm and passion for learning technologies across the world. Finalists were selected by an independent judging panel of experts from over 450 entries. The winners were announced at the Learning Technologies gala evening in November.
Learnerbly is a platform that empowers employees with personal learning budgets and personal development plans. Ufi invested in the company in 2019 alongside Triplepoint, Beringea, Frontline Ventures, Playfair Capital and several individual investors.
Bodyswaps CEO interviewed by Nick Clegg
Christophe Mallet, CEO of Bodyswaps, sat down with Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta, to discuss their work in providing soft skills training.
The Ufi Ventures portfolio company is developing a Virtual Reality (VR) learning platform and content library to provide soft skills training similar in performance to expert coaching and role-playing. Ufi invested in Bodyswaps in September 2020 alongside Haatch Ventures and a group of private investors.
Follow the link below to watch the full interview.
Co-Founder of TaskHer wins Virgin StartUp Female Founders competition
Another huge congratulations to Anna Moynihan for winning the Female Founders Competition hosted by Fiverr and Virgin StartUp.
Anna and Paul Moynihan are the co-founders of TaskHer, an online booking platform helping homeowners book professional, skilled tradeswomen. Ufi invested in TaskHer in 2022 alongside fellow impact investors Bethnal Green Ventures and Resolution Foundation.
For the competition, TaskHer was selected from 700 applicants alongside three other female-founded startups. Follow the link below to find out how Anna impressed the judges.
NEWS & USEFUL CONTENT
VocTech Activate opens in January 2024
Opening for applications on 2 January 2024, the £900k VocTech Activate grant fund is designed to support the development of early-stage digital tools and approaches with the potential to tackle vocational learning problems and get adults learning.
The grant provides support of between £30,000 and £60,000 for projects lasting up to 12 months. We encourage all prospective applicants to attend a pre-application workshop to find out more about the fund and help ensure it is right for you and your idea.
Re-watch: Preparing for your first EdTech fundraising
The Ufi Ventures team ran an insightful session during the Week of VocTech which you can now re-watch online.
The session provides information, insights and discussion for founders and operators in the vocational technology start-up world. The Ufi Ventures team shared practical insights gained through their investment activity, along with tips and advice about:
- when and why to raise equity,
- the pros and cons versus other forms of funding,
- how to position your business for success,
- the state of the investment market, and
- what to look for in an investor (and what different investors are looking for in you)
Re-watch: Employability and skills development: Succeeding with public sector clients
Re-watch Ufi, Resolution Foundation, Catch22 and others explore how to sell learning technology into the public sector.
During the Week of VocTech, Ufi hosted a session discussing what it takes to sell learning technology into the public sector, sharing insights from founders and organisations who have made it work. Ufi Ventures Director Helen Gironi was joined by:
- Claudine Adeyemi, Founder and CEO of Earlybird
- David Hinton, Senior Ventures Partner at Catch22
- Hannah Kirkbride, Founder and CEO, Career Matters
- Louise Marston, Director of Ventures, Resolution Foundation
- James Townsend, Founder and CEO, Mobilise
GoodTech Ventures Accelerator 2024 open for applications
The GoodTech Ventures Accelerator is open for applications until 2 January 2024, for new and emerging tech solutions.
The GoodTech Ventures Community and Accelerator is being delivered by Catch22 in partnership with Social Tech Trust and Unity Ventures with over 700k of funding and support from Ufi, Microsoft and the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The Accelerator programme will support and develop the most promising transformative tech solutions to design, build and deploy game-changing digital technologies into social and public service delivery.
Re-watch the WorkerTech Conference
The Resolution Foundation hosted a conference to launch the WorkerTech Partnership - the UK's first-ever worker-focused innovation fund.
The partnership is backed by Ufi, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Friends Provident Foundation, Accenture, Trust for London, and Bethnal Green Ventures. The conference brought together over 100 founders, innovators, researchers, funders and investors to share learning and identify new paths to achieving better work in the UK.
Helen Gironi, Ufi Ventures Director, spoke at the conference alongside colleagues from the Financial Times, Resolution Foundation, Big Society Capital and many more.
Ufi Ventures Director spoke at OEB 2023
Helen Gironi, Director of Ufi Ventures, went to Berlin in November to speak at the OEB 2023 conference.
The 29th annual conference on digital learning and training brought together representatives from the higher education, workplace and government sectors.
Helen was a panellist for the session 'Learning Goes Green: Investing in the Skills We Need for a Sustainable Future'. Rebecca Garrod-Waters, CEO of Ufi, moderated the panel and was joined by panellists Paul von Hinueber, Investment Manager at Redstone VC, and Nick Kind, Managing Director at Tyton Partners.
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