Human Native AI is a London-based startup founded by James Smith and Jack Galilee in 2024, which is aiming to empower content creators and owners of IP to take control of, and get paid for, their data being used for training AI models.
Mercuri co-led the investment in Human Native alongside LocalGlober in the company’s £2.8m seed funding round, which closed in May 2024.
Commenting on the investment, Alan Hudson, founding partner at Mercuri, said: “Rights holders are demanding greater control over how their works are being used to train AI systems, and we think Human Native AI is the answer to this problem, preserving human creativity in the face of rapid technological developments.”
Ittybit is a Salford-based startup founded by Paul Anthony Williams in 2021 to meet the rising demand for high-quality image, video and file uploads. Ittybit has developed an AI compression tool to reduce upload and download times, as well as reduce storage requirements for files. It also offers tools to filter unsafe uploads, enhance content searchability and automate the tagging and transcription processes.
Ittybit raised £1.5m in its seed funding round in May 2024, which was co-led by Mercuri and Sure Valley Ventures, with participations from Oxford Capital, Baltic Ventures and angel investors.
James Pringle, Mercuri principal and newly appointed investor director at Ittybit said: “As specialists in media and technology industries, we see Ittybit as a groundbreaking solution that excels in speed, quality, and cost-efficiency. While it’s still early, we are enthusiastic about Ittybit’s potential to significantly impact and grow within the dynamic media landscape.”
Both investments fit within Mercuri’s thesis of investing in companies at the intersection of media, entertainment and technology.
The Harbottle team which advised Mercuri in connection with these investments was led by co-managing partner Tony Littner and senior associate Rosie Marston.
Tony advises on a wide range of corporate transactions, including investments and venture capital deals, buying and selling businesses and shareholder arrangements. Tony is widely recognised as one of the leading venture capital lawyers in the UK and is a trusted adviser to entrepreneurial businesses and to the investors in such businesses, with a particular focus on the technology, media and entertainment sectors.
Tony frequently advises emerging companies and the founders behind such companies on their full lifecycle from inception of an idea through to funding rounds, exit and beyond as well as the venture capital funds and investors that invest in such high growth businesses.
Tony is recognised as a "Leading Partner" by The Legal 500 and ranked by Chambers in venture capital work.
Rosie’s practice focuses on supporting startups and investors in the venture capital ecosystem. She has extensive experience advising on a wide range of corporate transactions, including venture capital and growth stage fundraisings, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder arrangements, early stage SEIS/EIS investments, convertible instruments (including ASAs, SAFEs and convertible loans), founder disputes, share incentive schemes (including EMI options), joint ventures and corporate reorganisations.
Rosie acts for startup and scale-up companies, entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capital funds, family offices and other corporate investors across a wide range of sectors, with particular experience advising clients in the technology sector.
Rosie trained and qualified at Allen & Overy, where she worked in the corporate M&A team for four and a half years, including secondments to the Singapore office and a client secondment to Virgin Management. She subsequently spent two years at law firm MJ Hudson, before joining Harbottle & Lewis in June 2023.
Rosie is passionate about improving the existing gender imbalance within the startup community and has co-written two articles about how diversity has been threatened by rule changes in the UK venture capital ecosystem, both published by FT Adviser. Read the articles here and here.