Episode 1 Ventures

Episode 1 Ventures is a London-based venture capital firm established in 2013, focusing on early-stage technology companies within the United Kingdom. The firm was co-founded by Simon Murdoch, Damien Lane, and Adrian Lloyd, a team of experienced entrepreneurs and investors. Murdoch, a notable figure in the UK tech scene, previously founded BookPages, which he sold to Amazon in 1998, and subsequently ran an early-stage European tech VC fund for JP Morgan Chase. Lloyd brought experience in management consulting and entrepreneurship in Europe and Asia, including establishing a presence for Marakon Associates in China.

The firm directs its capital towards B2B software startups at the pre-seed and seed stages, writing cheques from £500,000 to £3 million. Its investment thesis centers on software-driven businesses with the potential to transform industries, with a particular interest in emerging deep tech, AI, health tech, and software infrastructure. Episode 1 was initially established as one of the UK Government's Enterprise Capital Funds, combining private and public money to address a gap in the equity market for high-growth small firms. The inaugural £37.5m fund was backed by prominent entrepreneurs like Alex Chesterman, the founder of Zoopla. The firm has since launched additional funds, including a £60m fund in 2017 and a £76m fund in 2024, supported by entities such as British Patient Capital, the National Security Strategic Investment Fund, and Molten Ventures.

Episode 1's business model is predicated on being the first institutional investor in a company and providing hands-on support to guide its portfolio companies to a successful Series A funding round. The firm reports that 73% of its portfolio companies from its second fund successfully raised a Series A, a rate significantly higher than the industry average. This is achieved by deploying its team members to assist with critical functions like sourcing senior hires and optimizing fundraising strategies. The firm typically invests when a company has a product with some initial customer traction and revenues between zero and £50k per month. Its extensive portfolio includes successful companies such as Carwow, Zoopla, CloudNC, Robin AI, and Omnipresent.

Keywords: venture capital, seed funding, pre-seed investment, B2B software, deep tech investor, UK startups, early-stage VC, Series A preparation, software infrastructure, healthtech investor, AI startups, enterprise software funding, fintech investment, techbio, open-source investment, founder-led VC, UK tech ecosystem, scale-up support, portfolio management, fundraising strategy