Martlet

Bringing the power of plants to packaging! Just Eat Takeaway.com is expanding the roll out of Xampla’s plastic-free Morro Coating across a further 10 European markets with a new packaging range in partnership with Huhtamaki. The delivery takeaway boxes with plastic-free coating will now be available in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and Spain. Morro Coating is made from natural plant proteins with no chemical modification. It has been designed to perform across a wide range of foods and cuisines, including greasy or moist dishes that have traditionally been difficult to package without plastic. The boxes are fully recyclable, Single Use Plastic Directive (SUPD) compliant, and made from sustainably sourced corrugated paper. Xampla is University of Cambridge deeptech spinout, backed by Martlet, on a mission to replace single use plastics. Congratulations to Alexandra French, Marc Rodríguez Garcia and the Xampla team! 

“What drew me to Pencil is the chance to build something genuinely innovative and disruptive, an editor created from the ground up with capabilities and features designed for therapeutic editing to create products that meaningfully improve patients’ lives.” Gene editing could open the door to genetic medicines that reach far more people with chronic and currently incurable conditions, but adoption challenges remain when taking these technologies out of the lab. In conversation with Damian Doherty, Pencil Biosciences Limited‘s CEO, Amanda Smith discusses the vision to reinvent gene editing, utilising a novel approach to build compact, modular editors built from first principles to avoid DNA breaks, expand targetable sites and improve safety and precision for patients. Amanda covers her background, the wider gene editing landscape, Pencil's Break-Free technology and the team's plans for 2026. Pencil are backed by existing investors Octopus Ventures, Northern Gritstone, Catapult Ventures Group, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund [UKI2S], Meltwind Advisory LLP, o2h Ventures, SyndicateRoom and Martlet. Link to article in the comments.

A major milestone for Oxford Space Systems and for UK Space technology following the successful In-Orbit deployment of their Wrapped Rib Antenna on the Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) CarbSAR Mission. This marks the first in-orbit demonstration of OSS’ Wrapped Rib Antenna architecture which has been developed and manufactured in the UK, demonstrating their ability to industrialise advanced deployable antenna technologies - building on years of engineering, testing and collaboration with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) and other mission partners. The antenna enables high-performance earth observation capability from a compact, stowage efficient configuration, delivered on a small satellite platform. Congratulations to Sean Sutcliffe, Matthew Dreaper and the whole Oxford Space Systems team on this achievement of going all the way from vision to flight heritage! 🚀👏 Looking forward to the next mission! Foresight Group, IQ Capital, Longwall Venture Partners LLP, National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), Space Angels, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund [UKI2S], West Hill Capital, Wren Capital LLP

Exciting news from our portfolio: Nu Quantum has closed a record-breaking $60M Series A - the largest Series A for a UK quantum company ever. This over-subscribed round is a strong signal of investor belief in quantum networking as the next frontier in high-performance computing. Led by National Grid Partners, along with Morpheus Ventures, Gresham House Ventures and renewed support from existing investors, the raise highlights the growing demand for modular, scaling networking technologies. Martlet first invested in Nu Quantum’s pre-seed round in 2019, and the Company has made remarkable progress since then. A big congratulations to the team including Carmen Palacios-Berraquero Claire Le Gall Ed Wood Samantha Funnell Amii Shepperson Daniel Garden Hemant Mardia Jonathan C. Simone Eizagirre Barker Nicolas Sanchez and many more! The funding will accelerate Nu Quantum’s mission to reach fault tolerance by interconnecting quantum processors into a more powerful distributed quantum computer, unlocking the projected $1 trillion quantum computing market and creating computers that can solve some of humanity’s hardest problems. Read more on the Nu Quantum website https://lnkd.in/gPyy5Tya and on Bloomberg News - link in the comments Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital, Ahren Innovation Capital, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, East X Ventures, NSSIF, and Sumitomo (Presidio Ventures)

Since our initial investment in Xampla in 2019, we have been proud to support its mission to eliminate the world’s most polluting plastics, and we are delighted to continue doing so, now with the support of EMV Capital plc’s EIS practice.    Xampla has proven that its Morro™ materials are not just a breakthrough in the lab, but a commercially viable solution to one of the world’s most pressing challenges, and one that is already being adopted by global brands.   The new $14m Series A round was led by Emerald Technology Ventures, BGF and Matterwave Ventures, alongside existing investors, including Amadeus Capital Partners and Horizons Ventures.   Congratulations to Alexandra French, Dan Hawksley PhD, Marc Rodríguez Garcia, Pete Hutton and the entire Xampla team!

Excited to share that our portfolio company Paragraf has closed a $55M Series C funding round to accelerate the commercialisation of its graphene-based electronics.    Using standard semiconductor processes, Paragraf’s technology harnesses the unique properties of graphene to deliver devices that perform faster, more accurately and with lower energy consumption than silicon-based alternatives.   The new investment will support the scale-up of manufacturing and production capabilities, enabling broader adoption of Paragraf’s technology.   As an early investor since the seed round in 2017, we are proud to see the company's progress and continued growth. Congratulations to Simon Thomas FREng and the Paragraf team in this achievement!   Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dn4qWbDV

Morro™ Coating is now available to more businesses than ever before in UK & Ireland following a major distribution agreement with Bunzl UK and Ireland. Leading distributor, Bunzl, has listed the Huhtamaki Taste range featuring Xampla’s Morro Coating, made from plants. This exclusive listing with Bunzl responds to growing consumer demand and tightening regulations by supporting their customers with the future of packaging. Bunzl UK & Ireland’s vast distribution networks spans contract caterers, restaurants, stadiums, hospitality venues and more, providing a huge platform to launch Morro Coating to more markets.  The Huhtamaki Taste range with Morro Coating is SUPD exempt and is certified recyclable. This marks a major milestone for Morro Coating and a clear signal that the industry is ready for the power of plants. Thank you to our partners 2M Sustainable Packaging Technologies, Huhtamaki UK & Ireland, and Bunzl Catering Supplies, we look forward to continuing our partnership bringing new innovations to the industry.