Nural Research was founded in 2020 by Marcel Hedman and David Ola upon the identification of a Research Awareness Gap. Its mandate was simple: close this gap and spread understanding of Artificial Intelligence and its uses to tackle Global Grand Challenges. The thesis was that clear elementary understanding of the core technology and crucially its broader implications would lead to better decisions from key stakeholders: those who make AI, those who use/implement AI, those who are affected by AI, and those who regulate AI.

Over time, Nural Research spent time building expertise in AI and even contributed directly to the foundational research it sought to shed light on. In doing so, another unique challenge became clear: a Scientific Implementation Gap. Being aware and discussing foundational research was not enough; more enablers had to be created to bring DeepTech to life.

In 2024, the Nural SEIS Fund, managed by Haatch, was born from this vision with a singular mission: bridge the Scientific Implementation Gap.

You can read more about the foundations of Nural here.

Investment Strategy

Technological Innovation

Marcel & David are researchers themselves. They’re obsessed with understanding the core technological innovation that is at the heart of the companies they back.

Using their fundamental understanding of these technologies from their experience as well as their community of experts, they seek to understand:

• What is fundamentally new about the technology?
• How does it differ from similar innovations?
• What is the practical feasibility of this innovation?

The goal of answering these questions is to be able to break down the innovation to its basic elements and identify the potential new value/market opportunities unlocked by the innovation. Marcel & David then use this understanding to validate the commercial insights shared by the founding team.

Researchers with Industry Exposure

A core part of the strategy is to target researchers that have some exposure working with industry. This could be in the form of having an industry partner funding one of their studies to a brief stint in industry.

Marcel & David believe that scientific researchers are becoming increasingly commercially aware due to having an earlier exposure to industry than before. To be clear, they aren’t looking for researchers with decades of commercial experience. What they are looking for are clear signs that they are open to commercial support and that they’ve started their company with commercialisation in mind, from day one.

Using their GTM experience, especially at the earliest stages of company building, they’ll help these founders put into place their commercial structure from day 1, shortening the time to initial revenue.

Portfolio Composition

The Nural SEIS Fund aims to provide investors with a portfolio of roughly 6-10 investments within 12 months from close.

Investment tickets for companies will target between £100k and £200k, aiming for 1-3% equity.

The opportunities will be evaluated on their ability to reach venture capital scale revenue based on the average revenue multiples seen in the public market at the time of investment.

Learn More

To learn more about the Nural SEIS Fund and request the IM, visit Nural or contact David & Marcel here.