Obrizum raise £1.8m in their Pre-Series A round

Obrizum raised £1.8m in their Pre-Series A round with investors including, Sekhar Investments (Hong Kong) Limited, Juno Capital, Qatar Science and Technology Holdings, Beaubridge UK Ltd, and Dubai Angel Investors; the Company also had strong follow on support from existing high net worth investors.

In 2015 Chibeza co-founded Obrizum Group Ltd with Juergen Fink and Sarra Achouri when the trio were working as Research Fellows and Students at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Agley and his co-founders led the company from its origins as an interdisciplinary academic-to-industry knowledge and technology brokerage business, into a fully scalable international technology business supporting multinational corporations in a variety of industries worldwide.

Obrizum Group’s core offering is an Artificial Intelligence powered software platform called OBRIZUM® that allows large companies working in any vertical, to automatically create, personalise and measure digital learning and assessments at scale. Dr. Agley was instrumental in orchestrating the company’s transition into a sector agnostic technology solution; as part of this process he installed the pillars of ‘automation, adaptability and analytics’ to define the company’s direction with respect to its technology, mission and culture.

Since founding the business Chibeza has established and managed relations with many of the company’s largest clients and successfully sourced and closed critical deals across every area of the business. He has also been instrumental in finding, hiring and onboarding the company’s management talent and has amassed an exceptionally capable and experienced team which boasts more than 6 PhDs as well as top tier seasoned business executives.

How did you find out about PwC Raise | Ventures, and did you expect PwC to be working in the sector?

We already had a great relationship with PwC after graduating from their ‘PwC Scale’ programme in 2019 which was aimed at helping ambitious technology executives plan, prepare and execute strategies for driving the growth of their ventures.

What were you expecting from your engagement?

To be honest, I already had high expectations of PwC after participating in their Scale programme. I was confident that we were going to receive an incredibly professional service that would ensure that my business had all the necessary bases covered. That said, I must say the PwC team surpassed my expectations in that they not only delivered on their promised offerings, they also made the whole fundraising journey more enjoyable! There was a real sense of camaraderie which I found very motivating.

How did the PwC Raise | Ventures team help you and your business?

As we had raised funds before, I feel that we were able to benefit even more fully from our engagement with PwC as we knew exactly where their support and advice would help the most. It was great to work with the team on fine tuning our investor deck, checking the robustness of our market size calculations and further professionalising the contents of our investor room. The introductions to top tier investment firms was great and so too was having the support of the Raise team in expertly managing the flow of communications with a large pipeline of interested investors. Fundraising is often a long and complex endeavor - not getting things right on even one fundraise can set your business back months. It was great to know we had the Raise team keeping an eye over proceedings to make sure that everything was kept in good order.
Also, when you have a product like OBRIZUM which contains new and sophisticated technologies, it is really useful to get external input on how best to communicate the value proposition clearly and effectively using language with which clients and investors will be familiar.

What was the end result for your business?

Having the intelligent, experienced and motivated team at PwC take a hands-on role in actively supporting our fundraise from all angles was a complete game changer. The end result was one of complete success - we met many incredible investors who understand our product and our market and appreciate the fact that we are pulling out all the stops to change the industry for the better. We received investment from those investors which were most closely aligned with our stage and mission but have open lines of communications with many others for our future fundraising rounds.

Would you recommend PwC Raise | Ventures to others in your network?

I would absolutely recommend PwC Raise, they help to organise, plan, strategize and connect which save an incredible amount of time. This meant that I could still be out talking to clients and closing other deals for the business rather than abandoning my team to focus only on fundraising! Special mention must go to Richard Abrahams, James Heath, Samatha Raven and Matthew Ward and the partners Glen Waters and Russell Taylor all of whom have had a hand in supporting Obrizum Group so far.

How would you like to develop your future relationship with PwC Raise?

We intend to keep working with PwC for future fundraising efforts as Obrizum Group keeps growing and expanding. It would be great if our relationship could develop across the board as we move more fully towards markets like the U.S., and Asia.

Any other comments on PwC or the Raise | Ventures team?

The whole team at PwC Raise are superheroes and I have a lot of time and respect for them. The care and attention towards their work is truly exemplary and their energy and enthusiasm for our company and technology was a great encouragement. When we successfully completed our raise, I even received a personal congratulatory note from one of the PwC partners - which was a nice touch and greatly appreciated.