Form in 2021: the end of the beginning
2021 feels like it has gone in a flash, but also taken a lifetime to end. Maybe that’s because — for us at Form — it spells the end of a journey that started back in May 2018, when Leo and I first discussed the fund. So it feels like a good time to take five minutes to look back at what 2021 meant for Form.
We finished investing Fund I
We were delighted to back Hoxton Farms, Sylvera, and Thymia to close out Fund I. Genuinely believe these startups could revolutionise the markets they are taking on, despite all the regulatory/ policy issues they are grappling with. We’re immensely thankful to all our founders for having us on their journey.
We closed our Fund II at the end of September
We had a first and final close of our £30m Fund II with the backing of the BBB, Isomer, Molten, Terra Firma, Blue Wire Capital and a bunch of great individuals. We started deploying this autumn, and will continue to back founders taking on markets with complex regulatory environments at pre seed/ seed for the next few years. Get in touch if this is you!
We hired two great people
Absolutely delighted to add Mayowa and Andrew to the team. These two are incredibly talented (wait until you meet them!) so will absolutely help us level up — backing the very best companies taking on regulated markets, and working with them to move as fast as possible.
We moved into our new office
We believe in working flexibly and at times remotely, but we wanted to have somewhere private that our founders and LPs could work with us in person. We’re at 4–5 Gough Square, just off Fleet Street. Come see us there from 7th January.
Finally, some thank yous
There are lots of people we 100% could not have got this far without. In truth, there are too many to mention, but I wanted to call out a few that really invested time with us.
Firstly, our LPs. We are delighted to have you on board, and will work day and night to deliver on your trust in us!
Secondly, our families, for the mental support and patience needed to get Form off the ground. As everyone knows, starting a VC business from scratch and raising a first fund can be tough, and it certainly was for us. We started raising our first (pilot) fund at the beginning of 2019, but we weren’t able to pay ourselves until we closed our second fund in September 2021 (almost three years later). So it needed patience from those around us — a lot. In that time we had four children between our two families (taking us to five in total!) and had plenty of stress to go with it, so the journey here has been really intense. Hopefully we can repay their faith at some point.
On that note, we wouldn’t have been able to get this far without having our old employers allowing us to continue working part time in the early days to keep (some of) the lights on! So a massive thanks to Scott at Deloitte Ventures and on behalf of Leo, to Ben at Global Counsel, both of whom were very early believers in Form.
Finally, any emerging manager will know that some VCs are not that happy to see new funds in the market, but that makes the support from others even more special — both this year, but also in 2018–2020. In particular, thanks to Josh at Dawn, Tom at Seedcamp, Check at Ada, Camilla at Eka, Suzanne at LocalGlobe, Farhan at Anthemis, Vojtech at Index, William at Frontline, Damien at Episode1, Jan at Emerge, and David and Fiona at ADV. Hoping we can start giving value back at some point soon.
Now, we’re looking forward to getting stuck in to 2022. As ever, if you know of anyone taking on a complex market where policy matters, then we’d love to speak to them!
Patrick
