Morrison Foerster Hosts London Office’s First “Pitch Day” for Startup and Scale-Up Businesses

Morrison Foerster (MoFo), a leading global law firm, has hosted its first ever London Pitch Day, where select emerging companies were invited to pitch to a panel of London-based advisors, venture capitalists, and investors.

The Pitch Day took place on Tuesday, June 11, coinciding with London Tech Week. Emerging companies positioned for and/or actively seeking Seed or Series A financing rounds were invited to the Pitch Day, where they had the opportunity to pitch their companies to a panel of five judges. Finalists were chosen to attend the Pitch Day, after an initial submission and selection process.

The Pitch Day was delivered as part of MoFounders, an MoFo-led programme of events, podcasts and webinars designed to showcase entrepreneurs and create a vibrant ecosystem for businesspeople. MoFounders leverages the firm’s IP and EC/VC credentials to connect the world’s most innovative companies with other founders, advisors and investors, helping businesses grow by facilitating networking and value exchange.

Steven James, Intellectual Property partner and lead of the MoFounders initiative, said: “We are proud to have hosted Morrison Foerster’s first-ever Pitch Day in London. MoFo is committed to servicing clients operating at the cutting edge, particularly across the innovative food and agriculture, life sciences and healthcare, and technology industries. These clients began life as startup and scale-up companies, and our first-ever London Pitch Day was a chance to leverage the firm’s own expertise and network, to create a platform for the next generation of successful business and entrepreneurs to succeed.”

Awards were presented on the day to the Best Pitch Presentation, won by Ros Hannen of Keratify, and the Most Investable Proposition, which was won by Markus Gemuend of BAMCO.

The seven finalists that took part in the Pitch Day, included:

• Keratify, an ex vivo skin testing platform to de-risk inaccuracies in preclinical skin testing;
• Coinrule, an AI/FinTech trading platform to trade across assets using AI strategies to empower investors to compete with professional algorithmic traders and funds;
• Lima, Lima uses AI to infer and incite emotional responses for the entertainment industry;
• Rare Earth Global, a sustainable alternative to soy products, through the use of hemp protein;
• Ad Signal, a provider of affordable and sustainable digital content and advertising tracking;
• BAMCO Africa, a first-of-its-kind healthcare platform providing access to innovative and lifesaving treatments in Sub-Saharan Africa; and
• SatVu, a provider of high-resolution thermal imagery and insights captured from space.

The judging panel for the Pitch Day, included:

• Carmel Rafaeli, angel investor and entrepreneur;
• Jim Stevenson, founder and CEO of Bletchley Group;
• Dr Maureen Haverty, Investment Principal of Seraphim;
• Mark Livings, founder, investor and board member; and
• Simone Koo Ishikawa, founder of ishikoo.us, advisor and investor.