Houghton Street Ventures | Community Newsletter | October 2022
Houghton Street Ventures | Community Newsletter | October 2022
Hello,
Welcome back to the Houghton Street Ventures Community newsletter, our monthly update on what’s happening within the LSE startup and venture ecosystem. This month, we have a blog post from HSVC partner, Veronika Kapustina, on the need for social scientists in the world of technology.
If you’re interested to learn more about Houghton Street Ventures as either a founder, investor, or with any other hat on, we’d love to hear from you. Or if you have ideas about future content or collaborations, just hit reply!
The case for social scientists in tech
The technology landscape (across start-ups, corporations, and governments) has become an engine that monetises our attention, our daily habits, and our conversations at an unprecedented rate. No facet of our lives is left untouched, from mental health to credit scores. While an element of this is what allows technology to bring about improvements in our lives, this is often being done without our knowledge, by people who have no training in broader societal issues, and who are not incentivised to look after our wellbeing.
There are days when things feel a little bleak, and yet, a shift is on the horizon. Slowly, we are beginning to take back our agency and a new crop of technology companies is ready to be sown.
Recent drops in revenues for Meta, the continuous criticism of Amazon’s work practices and work culture, and recent share price drop to below $1 trillion, the rise of apps like BeReal, the Twitter deal re-sparking the debate around disinformation and free speech, and generally, a broad-based concern around the ethical handling of data (starting with GDPR and the Online Safety Bill), all demonstrate that we are ready for a different approach.
For smart and inclusive design, for labour markets that offer both flexibility and opportunity, for safety nets for gig economy workers, for more customised and fluid delivery of healthcare, for social apps that leave you feeling supported rather than isolated, and for software that aids flow and deep work rather than perpetuates the distraction economy. The only way to do this with any success is to integrate the learnings and, more importantly, practitioners from the social sciences into Tech.
Community News & Updates
Houghton Street Ventures
We shared an update on how the LSE ecosystem weighs up against the wider venture landscape throughout the global downturn we’ve seen in the last 6 months, take a look here. The good news is that we’re still tracking as the fourth-largest country in Europe by venture funding!
Big Deals
Stears - founded by Preston Ideh & Abdul Abdulrahim - $3m Seed from MaC Venture Capital & Serena Ventures
Household Capital - founded by Josh Funder - $38m Series C from Legal & General
Adore Me - founded by Romain Liot - was acquired by Victoria’s Secret in a deal worth $400m
In the News
Jefa founder, Emma Sánchez Andrade Smith, featured on Bloomberg News to discuss how they’re helping unbanked women in LATAM become financially independent
Solfium featured in Forbes to share how they’re steering the world towards the sun with their solar energy platform
Tim Brown, of Allbirds fame, was on this week’s edition of the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast talking about the evolution carbon accounting
Meet the team
To conclude, the travel is calming down as we head into the winter and Christmas period. But we do have a couple of trips left and we'd love to catch-up if our paths cross:
Zurich & Geneva - 16 - 18th November- Veronika will be in town
Helsinki - 17 - 18th November - Hannah will be at Slush (VentureESG are co-hosting an official side event on DEI - further info here)
London - 7th December - Christmas Drinks - invite to follow shortly, but please save the date
Best,
Adam, Veronika, Hannah & David
The Houghton Street Ventures Team