Pixoneye → Edgify
An investment made in Pixoneye in 2017 continued through its pivot into Edgify. The company now brings product recognition, loss prevention and real-time intelligence directly to retail hardware.
- $9m Series A+ announced in August 2026, backed by Rank Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners
- 2,042 stores, 9,437 connected devices and more than 400m retail samples reported by Edgify in August 2026
- Recent recognition: finalist at The Deeptech Demo Day 2025 and the 2026 Vendors in Partnership Retail Tech Disrupter Award
Read the investment story
Pixoneye began as a privacy-conscious consumer photo-analytics business, analysing images on a user's phone so they did not need to leave the device. The technology built to train and run machine-learning models within the constraints of a phone later became a platform in its own right.
The business relaunched as Edgify, applying on-device AI to self-checkouts, scales, scanners, point-of-sale systems and cameras.
In 2025, Edgify was selected as a Deeptech Demo Day finalist from more than 180 European applicants assessed by 120 venture-capital investors. It was subsequently named a finalist for the 2026 Vendors in Partnership Retail Tech Disrupter Award.
Current
Professional learning
Finance Unlocked → xUnlocked
An investment made in Finance Unlocked in 2019 continued as the business broadened into sustainability, AI and data, compliance, human skills and specialist academies under xUnlocked.
- £5m Series A and strategic partnership with BPP Education Group announced in November 2023
- 100,000 learners reported in 2023; Certified B Corporation since July 2022
- Recognised on the 2026 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning for a fourth successive year; finalist for Ed Tech & Content Provider of the Year at the 2026 EducationInvestor Awards
Read the investment story
Finance Unlocked was created to modernise specialist financial education through expert-led, on-demand video. Sébastien invested when the business was focused on a single financial-learning platform.
Its progression into the wider xUnlocked group—from a focused initial product to a broader professional-learning platform—is the central investment story.
The 2026 Fosway recognition continued a four-year sequence of inclusion in the independent analyst's Digital Learning 9-Grid. Separately, the EducationInvestor Awards named xUnlocked on its official 2026 shortlist; Aptem ultimately won the category.
Bolden → RiverBank
An investment in French SME-lending platform Bolden continued through its acquisition by RiverBank in 2020. Sébastien later exited the investment.
- Bolden featured among L'Usine Digitale's “50 de la Fintech” selection
- Acquisition by RiverBank publicly recorded in 2020
Read the investment story
Bolden connected lenders with small and medium-sized businesses. Its acquisition by RiverBank marked the company's progression from an independent lending platform into a regulated European bank.
The story presented here is the evolution of the business—not the economics of the personal investment.
Historical
Deep technology
Alditech
An early investment in a Grenoble CEA-Leti spin-off founded in 1998 to commercialise integrated magnetic components on silicon. The company later ceased operations.
- First prize in the CEA innovative-company creation competition in 1998
- First prize in the Catapulte competition organised by 3i and Les Echos in 2000
Read the investment story
EDN reported in August 2000 on Alditech's silicon-batch-processed recording heads and a design intended to store more than 100GB of uncompressed data on a standard digital cassette. The technology attracted attention but did not reach commercial scale.
The two prize references are attributed to founder Jean-Baptiste Albertini's public profile. The business later ceased operations.
These are selected personal venture investments made by Sébastien Gianfermi and are presented as professional background only. Unless otherwise stated, Sébastien Gianfermi’s involvement in the companies presented was solely as a personal investor, without an operating, advisory or board role. Company-reported figures are dated to their public source and may change. No investment performance or private transaction information is shown.