Bloc is an early-stage deep tech investor, active across UK, Europe and Israel, typically investing in pre-Series A companies innovating across telecoms and computing.
We have invested in 13 portfolio companies, have achieved two exits and have a 26% IRR since inception.
How did you come up with the idea for the company and what do you think makes this company unique?
Our team is made up of technologists and operators with experience at companies like ARM and Vodafone. My co-founder David Leftley and I led the respective corporate venture capital units at both Vodafone and ARM. There we invested in hundreds of deep tech companies which were of strategic interest to our shareholders, who happened to be our employers.
We wanted to take the lessons learnt from corporate venture into the general deep tech startup ecosystem and we launched Bloc with a unique company model, to support deep tech companies for the long term and give our shareholders equal share in our success. The team we’ve built has come from industry and has strong networks with global technology corporates, which allows us to provide vital introductions for portfolio companies.
The Bloc investment thesis is driven by our internal research team which delves into global technology trends and determines where we should invest capital. This is supplemented by insights provided by our corporate partners and relationships we’ve developed over decades of experience in industry and investment. We believe this experience gives us an unrivalled ability to support portfolio companies as they take products to market.
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How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?
No one can deny that the last few years working though the pandemic has been challenging. However, in the last couple of years, we’ve grown our team from three to seven people, bolstering our ability to uncover and support the best deep tech companies in Europe. We’ve made our first two investments outside the UK – Pharrowtech (Belgium) and Shield IoT (Israel) – which were made possible by expanding our team, co-investor relationships and research capability.
Alongside this, we’ve introduced a digital pitch process for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital from Bloc. Companies can pitch directly to our investment team via our website and get a quick response.
What can we hope to see from Bloc Ventures in the future?
Europe is a global leader in deep technology research and innovation. We produce the products that enable the world to move at the speed it does today. Bloc is committed to investing in these technologies and supporting them for the long run.
In the future, Bloc is planning to publicly list through an IPO which will enable the general public to access high conviction, deep tech specialist investment expertise. We’ll do this with the support of financial institutions that understand the importance of investing in the technology foundations of the future.
