AJO Syndicate - Back with 2 deals in the pipeline
Fintech follow-on into a large Series A, a techstar's graduate with a confirmed lead, a joke and a surprise are all in store for you here!
The AJO syndicate is back at it again
Lets start with a joke - or, if you don’t want to read my joke and intro (rude), then skip to the next title: “upcoming deals”.
If you’re new here or have been referred by a friend, don’t forget to subscribe to get more of our juicy juicy dealflow.
A bear walks into a bar, sits at the counter with his paws down infront of him and orders a drink.
“Hi there, could …
…
…
…
I have a pint of lager please?”
The bartender is a bit confused and says
“Sure mate, but…why the big pause?”
The bear looks down at the counter quizzically and raises his arms to show his palms to the bartender.
“These? I was just born with them I suppose”
This is all a long way of saying…excuse the delay since our last email!
Between a rather rapid succession of deals in our first year, Stasher being busy with its own fundraise and onward plans and a gloomy overall economic outlook, the bar was high and we just didn’t have any of those magic moments we felt we had to share with you - part of the beauty of running a syndicate and not a fund…no good deals = no rush.
Now, Stasher’s round has closed and is on a steady course, we’ve saved up some cash to power new investments and things are starting to look up generally as inflation is coming down and interest rates should soon follow; we’ve already been through 6 months of recession in the UK and I predict a good 2024-2026, but I’m an endless optimist so what do I know.
We’ve come across 2 opportunites we simply had to share and one deck/founder I liked, but I just don’t know the space, so I thougth I’d share it and get group feedback.
Upcoming deals
Ryft - follow-on investment
https://ryftpay.com/
Ryft is an online payments platform that specializes in compliant and complex marketplace payment flows. Basically, Stripe connect, but instead of being just a part of a huge business who doesn’t actually care about it all that much, it’s their focus and their more customizable with better rates. We invested in this because this is a problem that we know intimately at Stasher, being an international platform business. In fact, we’ve finally started to implement integrating Ryft into Stasher itself - we wouldn’t have invested if we didn’t think the product was so much better than what’s out there, that we wanted to use it ourselves!
1 sentence summary, these guys have seen excellent results since we last invested (300% YoY growth) and are going on to raise a Series A. 1 graph summary (redacted as this is a public list):
Is that a hockey stick I see?
We’ve maintained a good relationship with the founder and aside from the normal chat, advice, etc, we’ve secured an allocation to follow-on in the next round. With many more deals in the pipeline, they’re set to continue this growth path into the future.
We’ll give a more detailed and dedicated breakdown in the Ryft specific email post agreeing terms with a lead, and we’ll also answer specific questions at that point. For now, do register your soft interest below (deal will be EIS eligible):
MyARC - fitness software for influencers
https://myarc.fitness/
Many fitness influencers make a large share of their income by providing 1-on-1 coaching to followers who reach out asking for help with their training. If you’re successful, you pretty quickly have to charge ridiculous rates (leaving a lot of fans who reach out high and dry), hire more staff (undermines the personal nature plus building a business is not the typical fitness influencers interest or strong-suit) or simply miss out on opportunities.
MyARC is a platform both for fans/fitness enthusiasts to track their improvement and performance, but also to connect and follow training plans from their favourite fitness influencers. At the risk of doing the clichey of calling something “uber for X”, MyARC works a lot like OnlyFans but for fitness - I hope Peter (the founder) doesn’t hate me saying that, but it probably gives you the idea pretty fast! The toolset/UX is totally setup for this very specific usecase (training at the gym and tracking that) and managing the fan → influencer and influencer → fan relationship that comes with being someone’s trainer.
The company has serious credentials (they are TechStar Alums) have a lead already in the round (NoBa capital) + several others (most of a $750k round already committed) and have some really impressive traction to boot. Most of all, there is a HUGE opportunity to expand this product and improve margins with AI once it’s got meaningful scale (influencers don’t need to manually do their programs, the programs can adapt to fan’s use/feedback, etc).
Another redacted graph follows:
I’ve known Peter for a couple years now and he’s humble, hard working and focused. I like to say that founders who have “it” are gritty, above all else…they would be doing this no matter what, not necessarily because they love it so much but maybe because they hate the idea of doing anything else. Anyway, he’s got ‘it’ and I personally back him…hence I’m investing in this deal! If you’re interested, register soft interest below (deal will be EIS eligible):
BONUS - Tolerance
Website not yet live, think “manual.co for histamine intolerance”
This is a pitch deck that I received from our former account manager at Seedrs. I got a good vibe from him over the working relationship we had (backable, smart, driven), and this deck instantly made me think “ok, I could see people buying/subscribing”…but I just don’t know enough about histamine issues and I am not the target market. If you think this is a great deal, I’m happy to connect you directly or if enough people are interested, we can run it through the syndicate. It’s SEIS eligible.
Wrapping up
That’s all for now guys. As always, feel free to share this with others and tell them to subscribe - it’s free and there’s NO commitments to any deals, you pick the ones that suit you. In the worst case, you at least get a funny update from me every now and then, or maybe a boring one from Jake or Oscar, who knows!
Also, don’t forget to subscribe if you want to keep an eye on our upcoming deals!
Feel free to reply to chat to us, we’ll be back with more soon.
Stay optimistic,
Ant