Active Partners

2024 has been a memorable year for us at Active 🌟 It’s been our busiest yet, with 16 new investments across our Early-Stage and Growth funds. From health and wellness, to travel, hospitality, education, food and experiences, we've partnered with an amazing group of founders who are building purpose-led businesses that truly resonate with consumers. In an environment where the only constant seems to be change, we're continuously inspired by our portfolio founders' resilience and innovation. Many have raised follow-on funding, won awards, expanded internationally or opened physical spaces for the first time this year. They're solving real consumer problems, building authentic brand communities and winning in people's hearts and minds. We've loved bringing together our community at events throughout the year too, with topics ranging from how to use AI to drive innovation, ways to build an iconic brand to perfecting your pricing strategy, and even a founder padel tournament thrown in. Thank you to everyone who's been part of the Active community this year. As we look ahead to 2025, we're more excited than ever about the future of the consumer market and the founders shaping it. Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year from all of us at Active! Read our year in review here: https://lnkd.in/gnPY_uAC

Exciting news to start the week as multi-platinum artist and Brit Award-winner Stormzy joins Padel Social Club as an investor 🎾👏 Stormzy’s belief in the power of community aligns perfectly with Padel Social Club's vision of creating vibrant, inclusive spaces centred around Padel, where people can connect both on and off the court. “Padel isn’t just another sport – it’s got something that draws everyone in, whether you’re new to the game or already hooked, as I am. What really stood out to me about Padel Social Club is that they’re doing more than just building courts – they’re creating a community and bringing people together through the sport. That’s why I’m excited to be an investor and part of this journey.” - Stormzy Congratulations to the whole Padel Social Club team! Read more: https://lnkd.in/eCXfnyPA

Honest Burgers' new QSR format, Honest Smash + Grab is now open in Liverpool Street 👏🍔 Congratulations to the whole Honest Burgers Ltd team! Read more: https://lnkd.in/ex-Vhfne

Congratulations to the Creature Comforts team on the opening of their third clinic in Chiswick! We're excited to be part of your journey to redesign the entire vet experience for pets, pet parents and vets 🎉

Our portfolio company Flash Pack is one of Europe's fastest-growing companies 🏆 On a mission to create one million new friendships through solo travel, Flash Pack has ranked 71st in Sifted's list of the 250 fastest-growing companies in Europe. Congratulations to Radha Vyas, Lee Thompson and the whole Flash Pack team! Read more: https://lnkd.in/dNpTsqn6

Congratulations to our portfolio company, Subdial Watches, on raising £1.5m in a new funding round led by Stuart Hennell, founder of Watchfinder, with our participation. Founded in 2018 by Ross Crane and Christy Davis, Subdial is a platform for watch enthusiasts offering a wide range of interesting watches and an effortless trading experience. When we first invested in 2021, we were struck by Ross and Christy's unique approach to this market through their focus on collectors, and their use of data and tech to build trust and relationships. Since then, Subdial has gone from strength to strength with initiatives like: - The Bloomberg x Subdial Watch Index, a partnership with Bloomberg tracking the value of the top 50 most traded luxury watches. - The Subdial Clubhouse, a hub for watch enthusiasts to track the value of their collection in real time, access insurance, trade watches, join exclusive in-person events and much more. We're thrilled to continue partnering with the Subdial team as they scale their platform to serve even more watch enthusiasts across the UK and beyond. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eFJmmkKA

Looking for a fresh start? We're hiring 👏 Here's what we're looking for ⬇️ 💥 Junior Merchandiser  📍Cornwall // Full Time 💥 Paid Digital Marketing Manager 📍 Cornwall or Remote // FTC 💥 Retail Crew📍London 💥 Store Manager📍 Bournemouth Find out more and apply ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/et8nuDZc

It's been an exciting couple of weeks for the VIEVE team as they celebrate two major milestones - launching in SEPHORA and unveiling their first OOH campaign 💄👏 VIEVE is now available online and in-store at Sephora Bluewater, making their innovative and inclusive makeup accessible to many more people. To mark the occasion, they partnered with JENKI to bring a VIEVE x Sephora matcha cart to to Sephora HQ. Their new “Makeup That Gets You” OOH campaign captures the everyday, relatable moments of makeup routines with tongue-in-cheek slogans, showcasing the versatility of VIEVE's products. Keep an eye out for them on the tube, taxis and prominent billboards across London. Congratulations to Jamie Genevieve, Emma Dawson and the whole VIEVE team!

At our recent annual event, some of our early-stage founders shared a snapshot of the game-changing businesses they're building, their vision and how they plan to achieve it. Some of the founders who spoke included... 🧈 Toby Hoppy, Co-Founder of All Things Butter  All Things Butter is disrupting the butter aisle with its organic, double-churned butter made with milk from British, grass-fed cows and its unique flavoured butters. 🌎 Fed Pereira, Co-Founder of Lovetovisit.com Love to Visit is an experience booking platform that removes the friction between discovering and booking experiences online, offering thousands of small to medium attractions at great value. 👨 Angus Barge, Co-Founder of Mojo  Mojo is helping men build sexual confidence through science-led, expert created and clinically proven techniques, centred around digital therapeutics. 🥘 Jessica Leather, Co-Founder of Freja Freja is the UK's fastest-growing natural, high-quality bone broth brand, a functional food benefiting gut health, joint health, collagen production, menopause and more. ❤️ David Pruwer, Co-Founder of OurRitual OurRitual provides a new approach to couples therapy that combines weekly Expert sessions and personalised self-guided work through an app. ⛷️ Marcus Blunt, Co-Founder of Heidi  Heidi offers the most flexible ski holidays, connecting people to low-cost, high quality mountain destinations in a few clicks. ⌚ Christy Davis, Co-Founder of Subdial Watches Subdial is a digital platform for buying and selling pre-owned luxury watches, leveraging data and technology to create a transparent, engaging and low friction experience. 🐶 Josephine Rode Bager and Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov, Co-Founders of Marleybones  Marleybones offers convenient pantry fresh dog meals with the nutritional benefits of home-cooked diet which can be kept at an ambient temperature. 👟 Dan Strang, Co-Founder of Coopah Coopah is a digital run coach bringing the medicine of running to the masses through personalised training plans, AI-powered feedback and community-driven motivational support. 🏫 Daniel Attia, Co-Founder of Creature Comforts  Creature Comforts is redesigning the entire vet experience by focusing on preventative pet care, vet satisfaction and tech enablement. 📍 Freddie Fforde, Founder of Patch Patch is a co-working space which doubles up as an events and community venue, creating opportunities for people, work and community on every UK high street. And several yet-to-be-announced investments... Watch this space!

Congratulations to our portfolio company LeBlanq on the launch of its one-of-a-kind partnership with Virgin Limited Edition 🌟 Guests can discover the untouched beauty of the UNESCO World Heritage Trumantana mountain range in Mallorca, pedalling alongside Tour de France stage winner Juan Antonio Flecha and tasting seasonal local produce with Michelin star menus created by legendary Spanish chef, José Pizarro. Hear more from Richard Branson below ⬇️