Houghton Street | Community Newsletter
Hello,
Welcome back to the Houghton Street Ventures Community newsletter, our update on everything that’s happening within the LSE startup and venture ecosystem. Today we’re sharing more on one of our latest investments - Valpas. We invested in Valpas, founded by LSE alumni, Martim Gois, as part of their €4m seed round in June 2024 alongside lead investors, Zenith VC. See the full blog below.
If you’re interested in learning more about Houghton Street Ventures or you’re fundraising, we’d love to hear from you. And if you have ideas about future content or collaborations, just hit reply!
Introducing Valpas…
Bed bugs, once a rare nuisance, have surged into a widespread epidemic affecting the global hospitality industry. Recently, Paris has been at the epicentre of this crisis, with infestations reported in hotels, public transport, and even cinemas. The Paris bed bug epidemic has dominated headlines, highlighting the urgent need for effective solutions. But this surge in bed bug cases isn’t just confined to Paris; it’s a growing problem worldwide, exacerbated by increased travel and rising pesticide resistance.
As we approach the Paris 2024 Olympics, the stakes are even higher, and not just for the athletes. With millions of visitors expected, hospitality companies are scrambling for reliable solutions to prevent bed bug infestations and ensure a safe stay for their guests. The last thing they need is bed bugs going for gold in the hotel hurdles. This urgency emphasises the critical role that Valpas plays in addressing this pressing issue with their innovative bed bug prevention technology.
Founded in 2022 in Finland, Valpas has developed the world’s first autonomous bed bug prevention system. Their innovative technology combines specially designed bed legs with IoT capabilities to detect and trap bed bugs before they reach hotel guests. This preventative approach ensures a safe, bed-bug-free experience for travellers, protecting both hotel revenue and reputation.
Events
Houghton Street Climate Breakfast - London - Tuesday 10th July 8.30-10am - we’re bringing together the brightest minds in the LSE climate ecosystem from founders, investors, regulators, corporates, and partners. If you’re building in climate and you’d like to join, please email david@houghtonstreet.com
LSE Generate GAP Demo Day - London - Friday 5th July 3.30-5.30pm - tickets here - join for the finale of our Generate Accelerator 2024 Programme. 10 startups, co-founded by LSE alumni and students, who will present their groundbreaking ideas
LSE Generate Sustainable Fashion Party - London - Thursday 18th July 6-9pm - tickets here - if you’re building in fashion, fashion-tech or circular economy, come along to hear more about Generate’s new ‘Green Thread Accelerator’
Hiring
Venteur - transforming healthcare and insurance in the United States backed by GSR Ventures
Fertility Mapper - empowering people to own their fertility path in a connected ecosystem - email david@houghtonstreet.com for more info
Content Lead (Freelance) - London
Business Development Associate - London
Lightnote - an applied AI company building a new creative canvas for audiovisual creators backed by Shine Capital and South Park Commons
Founding Product Designer - London
Founding AI Engineer - London
Founding Full Stack Engineer - London
Opportunities
Balderton Launched - applications are open for the latest edition of Balderton’s incubator programme. The last cohort had several LSE alumni teams take part: Embedd, Ally Health, Lemon AI. We’d love to see more in the latest cohort, this time Balderton are focused on those building in AI. Check out the application here.
Antler - is launching their Autumn residency in September. Access the best place on the planet to find exceptional co-founders. Scale faster, backed by our global community of founders, advisors, and investors. Get support for your entire journey—from day zero through the full life cycle of your company. If you’re interested to learn more, get in touch with david@houghtonstreet.com
YC & LSE alumni in San Francisco - we have several alumni heading over to SF for Y Combinator in the next couple of months. We want to support them with reinvigorating the LSE alumni network in the area. If you’re an LSE alum, working in startups in SF, and keen to connect with fellow alums, please email vardhan@migrant.ai
Community News & Updates
Houghton Street Ventures
Last month we brought together a fantastic group of LSE alumni VCs, founders, operators and academics from the digital health space yesterday morning, and were lucky to be joined by Baroness Dido Harding, who hosted and kicked off a thoughtful and lively discussion.
Big Deals
Noggin - founded by Eva Atkinson - raised a £700k Pre-Seed led by Oxford Capital
Speek - founded by Kanu Batra - raised a $1m Seed led by Octopus Ventures
Suno - founded by Keenan Freyberg - raised a $125m Series B led by Lightspeed & Nat Friedman
Moove - founded by - raised a $100m Series B led by Uber
In The News
Vytal, featured in Tech EU, with their €6.7m seed round to create reusable food packaging solutions
Vaire, featured in TechCrunch, with their ‘reversible computing’ solutions to drastically reduce energy requirements for the ever-increasing compute requirements of frontier technologies
Capchase, were in Tech EU, as they raise a further €105m to continue providing SaaS businesses with revenue-based financing
Meet the team
If our paths cross or if you’re swinging by London, come visit us in the LSE library - we’d love to catch up, let us know!
Best,
Hannah, Adam, and David