True Stories

We are excited to announce True’s participation in Eyva’s €2.7m Seed funding round co-led with Earlybird and Wenvest.

We are an investment firm dedicated to the consumer and retail sectors, emphasising the significant opportunities for growth and innovation within these markets. With a focus on partnering with founders, we want to use our expertise to help build successful companies and navigate the evolving landscape of consumer and retail.

On Wednesday 20th November, we hosted our latest annual Tech Showcase. The evening brought together leading retail and consumer industry innovators to explore eight cutting-edge technology solutions that are driving top-line growth and bottom-line efficiencies.

We’re excited to announce our strategic partnership with Represent, a UK-based luxury fashion brand reshaping the boundaries of luxury and performance sportswear.

AI is transforming consumer markets by making high-cost services more accessible and affordable. This parallels past tech revolutions, like personal computing and the gig economy, where innovation and cost reduction spurred market expansion. AI's rapid, scalable advancements, championed by major companies, are creating massive new demand. The market potential is vast, with history hinting at billion-dollar opportunities—and we're excited to support founders shaping this future.

Hush has appointed Philip Mountford, former CEO of Hunkemöller and Moss, as its new chairman. With over 40 years of executive retail experience, including his role as Managing Director at Versace and a 15-year tenure as CEO of Hunkemöller, Mountford brings valuable expertise. His appointment follows a successful brand relaunch and strengthens Hush’s leadership as it pursues growth in the UK and internationally.

The Cotswold Company have announced the opening of a delivery driver training academy (CHD) and a further delivery depot, moving them steadily closer to becoming a leading premium homeware brand in the UK.

The retail sector is in constant evolution, shifting in response to the ebb and flow of consumer demands, macroeconomic factors and increasingly, environmental concerns. As the environmental footprint of both retailers and consumers comes under growing scrutiny, we’re closely watching a handful of exciting technologies poised to address these challenges, helping the industry become more sustainable.

The customer contact landscape has undergone a substantial transformation. The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in natural language processing (NLP) and generative AI, has reshaped the customer contact landscape in ways that seemed futuristic just one year ago. This prompted us to revisit and update our research, resulting in our new Customer Contact 3.0 report. 

Portfolio company, The Cotswold Company, the digitally-led premium handcrafted furniture and homeware brand, is pleased to announce plans to open its 10th UK store, located in Stamford, in September.

In the year to date, the Group has recorded a 96% increase in revenue generated by upholstery, driven by its highly popular lines such as Talbot & Morris. Below TCC announce the roll-out of its innovative Upholstery Hubs -an in-showroom offer that provides customers with a one-stop-shop for all their upholstery needs.

At True, we pride ourselves on being specialist investors in the Consumer and Retail sectors. Many associate "Consumer" with D2C physical products, but the reality is much broader. In this blog, Mike Martin, Director in the VC team shares more on our investment strategy and remit.