Episode 1

Episode 1 is a London-based pre-seed and seed venture capital firm founded by Simon Murdoch, a technology entrepreneur and investor who was an early executive at Amazon UK and one of the founding team members of Bookpages, which became Amazon UK. The firm invests with initial checks from £250,000 to £1 million at pre-seed and seed stages, backing founders who are building the foundational products and platforms in large and growing markets. Episode 1 is named to reflect the belief that investing at the very earliest stage, before the story has been written, is where the most significant value is created. Portfolio companies include Zoopla, the UK property search and real estate portal that became one of the UK's most significant consumer internet businesses and was acquired as part of the ZPG group by Silver Lake for approximately $3 billion in 2018; Graze, the healthy snack subscription box service that pioneered direct-to-consumer food subscriptions in the UK; Bloom and Wild, the letterbox flower delivery company; and Lyst, the global fashion search platform. Beyond its original investments, the portfolio includes additional UK and European consumer internet, marketplace, and enterprise software companies.