Investor profile
InnovationRCA
CVC
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InnovationRCA is the Royal College of Art's centre for entrepreneurship and commercialisation, backing early-stage, design-led companies founded by RCA students, staff, and alumni. Through its RCA Design & Innovation S/EIS Investment Fund I (£2.5m–£5m, managed with Infinity Asset Management), it invests at the pre-seed and seed stage as the first investor into 15–22 companies across a diverse range of sectors — including medtech, cleantech, agritech, fintech, and creative brands — many of which are patent-based or impact-for-profit. InnovationRCA leverages over 12 years of experience identifying design talent early, providing incubation, IP support, and business mentoring through its unique design-led, user-centred methodology, with a portfolio that has achieved a gross multiple of 4.7x invested capital and gone on to raise over £150 million from follow-on investors including Amadeus Capital, Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, LocalGlobe, and Parkwalk.
Notable quotes
“We are thrilled to welcome our investors into the Fund. Their participation recognises the UK as a strong source of investable and compelling design-led companies. We expect this to be the first of a series of funds that will maximise the potential of UK createch and build an even stronger UK Creative Industries sector.”
“We have been so pleased with the response we have received to the fund and continue to attract interest from prospective investors. I'm confident we will hit our final close target this year as so many investors are excited by the richness of our pipeline and are also keen to benefit from the tax incentives associated with S/EIS funds.”
“We are really excited to be working with Infinity Asset Management who bring vast experience of fund management to this. We think this first Design & Innovation Fund will be a tremendous boost to RCA early stage companies.”
Team
Dr Albert Demargne
Head of Commercialisation
Jocelyn Sheppy
Head of Reporting & Compliance
Augusta Critchley
Entrepreneurship Manager
Thorsten Gailing
Intellectual Property Manager
Recent investments
| Company | Round | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revive Innovations + | Pre-seed/Seed | — | 2024-2025 |
| BlueNose | Pre-seed/Seed | — | 2024-2025 |
| Ponda | Pre-seed/Seed | — | 2024-2025 |
| PulpaTronics | Pre-seed/Seed | — | 2024-2025 |
| Reporti | Pre-seed/Seed | — | 2024 |
| COBLUM | Pre-seed/Seed | — | 2025 |
| The Tyre Collective | Seed | — | — |
| ZELP (Zero Emissions Livestock Project) | Seed | — | — |
| KnitRegen | Seed | — | — |
| Mykor | Seed | — | — |
Frequent co-investors
| VC firm | Deals together |
|---|---|
| Parkwalk | 3 |
| Amadeus Capital Partners | 2 |
| Balderton Capital | 2 |
| Index Ventures | 2 |
| LocalGlobe | 2 |
| Infinity Asset Management | 1 |
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