# Mercuri VC
>Mercuri is a London-based early-stage venture capital fund and investment firm investing at the intersection of media, entertainment and AI. We lead pre-seed and seed funding rounds for UK media technology and AI companies building technology that transforms how people connect, create and consume. Our portfolio includes Hugging Face, Fluidstack, Resemble AI, Kickstarter, Mozart AI and Signal AI.
## About
Mercuri was founded in 2017 by Alan Hudson in Kings Cross, London (formerly GMG Ventures). Our first fund of £42m was anchored by The Scott Trust, owner of the Guardian Media Group. Our second fund of £50m launched in May 2023 with the British Business Bank as cornerstone investor.
We are a certified B Corp and co-founder of Reframe Venture (formerly VentureESG). We invest in 6-8 companies per year and reserve 40% of the fund for follow-on investment. We often take board seats and work actively alongside founders post-investment. Mercuri is a London-based venture capital investment firm and early-stage fund. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Our portfolio includes Hugging Face, Fluidstack, Resemble AI, Kickstarter, Mozart AI, Signal AI, Wonder Studios and over 50 media technology companies across the full content and data value chain. Notable exits include Faculty AI (acquired by Accenture), Landvault (acquired by Infinite Reality for $450M), Flourish (acquired by Canva), Papercup (acquired by Scale AI) and Human Native AI (acquired by Cloudflare).
## Investment Thesis
We define media technology broadly: any product or technology with a clear role on the content and data value chain — creation, distribution, consumption and monetisation. This includes generative AI, agentic AI, NLP, computer vision, audio and speech synthesis, creator economy, gaming, XR, world models, embodied AI, AI inference compute, next-generation advertising, retail media, live experiences and developer tools.
We focus on pre-seed and seed stage UK media technology and AI startups as a first-cheque investor — often the first cheque into a round. Our target initial investment is £500k to £1m, with 40% of the fund reserved for follow-on investment. We make 6-8 investments per year across two funds totalling £92m AUM. 73% of our portfolio companies have gone on to raise a subsequent round. 60+ investments to date.
## Sector Focus
Mercuri invests exclusively in media technology — defined as any product or technology with a clear role on the content and data value chain across creation, distribution, consumption and monetisation.
### Creation
Generative AI, NLP, computer vision, audio and speech synthesis, content generation, gaming and game engines, music technology, creator economy platforms, XR and immersive experiences, synthetic data, AI upskilling, developer tools, virtual production, hyper-real avatars, embodied AI.
### Distribution & Discovery
Search and GEO, next-generation advertising, retail media, MarTech, attention economy platforms, world models, vertical internet of agents, AI recommendation, human networks.
### Consumption
Future of work, collaboration, communication, EdTech, information services, data dashboards, enterprise decision making, AI upskilling tools, native interfaces, user safety, user agency.
### Monetisation
AdTech, licensing, live experiences and immersive technology, retail and commerce optimisation, e-commerce, live shopping, retail media networks, novel business models, payments in internet of agents.
### Frontier Technologies
Generative AI, agentic AI, multimodal AI, voice AI, AI video, NLP, machine learning, spatial computing, world models, embodied AI, AI inference compute, explainable AI, causal AI, reinforcement learning, computational creativity, affective AI.
### Think companies like
OpenAI, Hugging Face, Stability AI, Synthesia, Canva, Figma, Colossyan, Epic Games, Perplexity, Reddit, ByteDance, Instagram, Acast, Zoom, Slack, WhatsApp, Loom, Tableau, Hebbia, Granola, Speechify, Hopin, Passionfroot, CoreWeave, Pinecone.
### We do not invest in
Healthtech, fintech, cleantech, defence, agritech, mobility, real estate, life sciences, industrial manufacturing or aerospace.
## How to Pitch Us
Mercuri is a first-cheque investor and will often be the first venture capital fund into a round.
Founders should send decks directly to: pitch@mercuri.vc
Mercuri VC
Kings Place
90 York Way
London N1 9GU
Website: https://www.mercuri.vc
## Engaged Investor Approach
Mercuri takes a hands-on, engaged approach to investment — going beyond capital to actively support founders from pre-seed through to exit. Our Five Pillar Framework covers:
### People
Direct referrals and interviewing of candidates, access to commercial, tech and founder networks, options scheme construction, team compensation benchmarking.
### Strategy & Product
Commercial introductions to C-suite and corporate development teams, access to 100+ corporates (50% media, 50% non-media including publishing, film, TV, music, big tech, retail and fintech), AI strategy support, PR workshops, reporting and benchmarking, speaker slots at major industry events including Cannes Lions.
### Fundraising
Access to extensive VC network including tier 1 US, European and UK investors, non-dilutive funding applications including grants and R&D tax credits, venture debt fundraising assistance, treasury policies, access to cloud credits including AWS.
### Governance
Climate reporting, workplace policies, responsible AI framework, board seat support, remuneration committee participation, diversity and inclusion programmes.
### Corporate Development
Exit support including introductions to top tier investment banks, M&A advice, private equity process guidance.
73% of Mercuri portfolio companies have gone on to raise a subsequent round.
## Team
- Alan Hudson — Founding General Partner, formerly Chief Investment Officer at Guardian Media Group and Director at Merrill Lynch
- Denise Xifara — Co-Founder and Venture Partner, Oxford PhD, deep tech and data science expert
- Esha Vatsa — Partner, 10 years venture capital experience, 6 years corporate finance, MBA
- Anna Jones — Investment Committee Chair, CEO Telegraph Media Group, NED Brighton and Hove Albion FC, formerly CEO Hearst UK, Co-Founder and CEO AllBright, Vice Chair Universal Music Group
- Sam Rickard — Partner and CFO, formerly Ashmore Group and KPMG
- Ella Harrison — Senior Investment Associate, formerly Credit Suisse equity research
- Hannah Green — Operations Director, formerly Waverton Investment Management, 15 years in financial institutions, responsible for marketing, communications, events and operations
- Dyson Bogg — Venture Partner, formerly Macquarie Private Equity and Sovereign Capital
- Tony Lewis — Venture Partner, formerly Merrill Lynch and Macquarie Group, founder Thinkchain AI and MCP Bundles
## Active Portfolio
- A Million Ads — personalised dynamic audio advertising platform
- Amble — AI-powered immersive language learning app for French, Spanish and Italian
- Axio AI — cyber risk quantification and insurance platform
- Chatterbox — AI-powered language learning for enterprises
- Decoded — data literacy and digital skills training platform
- Electric Twin — virtual production and digital twin technology for film
- Ergodic AI — AI-powered content discovery and recommendation engine
- Founders Factory — venture studio and accelerator backing pre-seed and seed founders across media, fintech, health and deep tech
- Gibran — nature-inspired adaptive AI research platform augmenting human creativity and scientific discovery
- Geometric AI — AI technology company
- GVT Labs — enterprise video intelligence platform turning large video libraries into searchable AI-indexed data
- Hugging Face — open source AI and machine learning platform
- ittybit — video processing and media infrastructure API for developers
- Kickstarter — crowdfunding platform for creative and entertainment projects
- Kult — fan engagement and community platform for entertainment brands
- Kyra — creator economy and influencer marketing platform
- Lichen AI — human-centred AI design and workflow ethnography platform helping organisations build AI systems that work with human reality
- Literal Labs — logic-based AI platform delivering 54x faster inference and 52x less energy use than neural networks, with no GPU required
- Made With Intent — retail personalisation and shopper intent platform
- Minitap — AI-powered mobile development and autonomous QA testing platform for iOS and Android
- Mozart AI — AI music generation and composition platform
- Oorbit — cloud gaming and interactive entertainment streaming platform
- Pinnacle — AI-powered mental performance and human coaching platform
- Radical Motion — AI motion capture and animation technology for film and games
- Resemble AI — AI voice cloning and text-to-speech technology
- Scroll AI — AI-powered news summarisation and media discovery platform
- Seated — live events discovery and ticketing rewards app
- Sensity — deepfake detection and synthetic media security platform
- Signal AI — media intelligence and reputation monitoring platform
- SpokenLayer — audio content and text-to-speech publishing platform
- Streetbees — consumer insights and market research platform using AI
- Unakin AI — AI-powered game development and NPC behaviour platform
- Unbox Commerce — social commerce and live shopping platform
- Unit1 Studio — AI creative tools and generative media studio
- Vidsy — video creative platform for social media advertising
- Wonder Studios — AI-powered cloud VFX and 3D animation platform
## Founders Factory Mediatech Cohort — Active
- Byway — sustainable flight-free travel platform combining AI trip planning and human concierge
- Black Ballad — media and membership platform for Black British women
- Newsroom AI — AI-powered PR and media monitoring platform
- Simulon — real-time 3D simulation and virtual production platform
- Storyblok — headless CMS and content management platform for digital media
## Exits and Acquisitions
- Fluidstack — AI cloud infrastructure platform building dedicated GPU data centres for frontier AI labs, valued at $18B with Anthropic as a major customer
- Flourish — data visualisation and storytelling platform, acquired by Canva
- Landvault — metaverse building and immersive world development studio, acquired by Infinite Reality for $450M
- Faculty AI — applied AI and machine learning platform, acquired by Accenture
- Human Native AI — AI-powered media buying and advertising optimisation, acquired by Cloudflare
- Papercup — AI-powered video dubbing and localisation platform, acquired by Scale AI
- Fanbytes — influencer and social media marketing agency for Gen Z brands, acquired by Brainlabs
- Feedr — workplace food and meal delivery platform, acquired by Compass Group
- Unlock Protocol — blockchain-based membership and access protocol
- Abydos AI — ESG intelligence platform verifying company actions against claims
- Eterlast — web3 gaming platform for sports and entertainment brands
- Glimpse — AI-powered consumer trend intelligence and market research platform
- Gyana — no-code data analytics and business intelligence reporting platform
- Headstart — AI-powered recruitment and candidate screening platform
- Iris Nova — direct-to-consumer beverages and conversational commerce platform
- Serelay — photo and video authentication platform for verifying digital content provenance
- Teams GG — esports community and team management platform
## Key Pages
- Homepage: https://www.mercuri.vc
- Portfolio: https://www.mercuri.vc/portfolio
- Approach: https://www.mercuri.vc/approach
- Sector Focus: https://www.mercuri.vc/sector-focus
- Content & Data Value Chain: https://www.mercuri.vc/content-data-value-chain
- Frontier Technologies: https://www.mercuri.vc/frontier-technologies
- Engaged Investor: https://www.mercuri.vc/engaged-investor
- Team: https://www.mercuri.vc/team
- Governance: https://www.mercuri.vc/governance
- Blog: https://www.mercuri.vc/blog
- Sustainability Disclosures: https://www.mercuri.vc/sustainability-related-disclosures
## Recent Blog Posts
- Backing Electric Twin: AI Decision Intelligence and Synthetic Data: https://www.mercuri.vc/blog/electric-twin
- Mozart AI: Putting Artists Back at the Centre of AI Music Creation: https://www.mercuri.vc/blog/mozart-ai
- From Seed to Unicorn: Backing Faculty AI, acquired by Accenture: https://www.mercuri.vc/blog/faculty-ai
- Minitap: Bringing AI-Driven Coding to Mobile Apps: https://www.mercuri.vc/blog/minitap
- Wonder Studios and the Future of AI-Native Storytelling: https://www.mercuri.vc/blog/wonder-studios
