Kuai Commerce secures investment from Riding Unicorns podcast hosts
James Pringle and Hector Mason are delighted to announce that they have both angel invested in Kuai Commerce, just over a year on from having founder Jonny Plein appear on their podcast – Riding Unicorns.
“James and Hector have been really engaged since I appeared on the podcast and it made sense to invite them into what was a highly competitive round due to their network, experience and willingness to help and support.” Jonny Plein
The Riding Unicorns podcast was founded in 2020 by James Pringle, a venture capitalist at Portfolio Ventures, with the aim of interviewing the best founders and investors in the early-stage venture sector to uncover what it takes to build a high growth business.
In 2021, James was joined by Hector Mason, Partner at Episode 1 Ventures, as co-host and since then they have recorded and released over 120 episodes together. Notable guests have included Alex Chesterman OBE (Cazoo), James Hind (Carwow), George Robson (Sequoia Capital), Harry Franks (Zego), Ali Parsa (Babylon), Sitar Teli (Connect Ventures), Nigel Verdon (Railsr), Hussein Kanji (Hoxton Ventures), Katie Marrache (JamJar Investments) and many others.
In October 2021, James and Hector invited Jonny Plein onto the show to talk about his experience with his previous company Pouch, which he sold to Global Savings Group for an undisclosed amount. In the episode, Jonny hints that his next project is not far away and soon after the episode was released he announced his new venture Kuai Commerce. Kuai Commerce helps the most ambitious international brands sell their products in China using the power of social commerce.
Kuai Commerce recently announced a £2m oversubscribed pre-seed round led by Playfair Capital with participation from Unbundled VC, Portfolio Ventures , Haatch and many other experienced angel investors.
Pringle commented on the deal,
“It’s a really exciting moment for Hector and I as we make our first investment together in a founder that featured on the podcast. Riding Unicorns is predominantly a media entity but we receive deal flow and brand awareness through the show and so it makes sense that as VCs, we capitalise on these unique investment opportunities.”
Mason, who also runs The Stage, a pitching event where Kuai Commerce was a finalist, added,
“we try to build a real connection with our podcast guests and we’ve stayed in close touch with Jonny since his appearance. When he announced he was raising a pre-seed for Kuai, our relationship meant Jonny was happy to bring us into his oversubscribed round.”
Riding Unicorns releases new episodes every Wednesday on Apple, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
Links-
RU Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tu4cxdLTqB27ck9veoXo8?si=c400af64d63f42f0
https://www.thestage.ventures/
linkedin.com/in/jonnyplein
linkedin.com/in/thejamespringle
linkedin.com/in/hector-mason-5364b985
