🧤Our November Update: Who's your Companion?

Hi all,

How are you finding the shorter, darker days - and how are you keeping your energy 🧲 and health up? Are you using an AI Companion to support you? We’re very excited about AI Companions at the moment, exploring 🔎 how AI is moving from tools to intelligent partners that help people decide, not just do. Health management companions is one of the verticals we look at specifically in the recent report Me, Myself and My AI, alongside learning, work and finances. Discover more below 👇🏽, and watch out for another big 📋 report, on consumer health, coming out this week.

Meanwhile, as we are moving fast towards the Festive season, the tech event season is still on – last week was a busy one on the ground in Lisbon 🇵🇹 for Web Summit, and today it’s Moi, from Helsinki 🇫🇮, where Slush is about to kick off.

So, while we’re busy out networking, please enjoy our latest update, including:

• Selected News from the Portfolio – Zen Educate on Deloitte Fast 50

• Insights – The AI Companions Report

• Events – Legal Literacy event next week

Thanks for reading, have a fab Tuesday!

Best,
The Brighteye Team

📣 SELECTED NEWS FROM THE PORTFOLIO

🌟 Zen Educate on Deloitte Fast 50
Reason to celebrate as our portco Zen Educate 🇬🇧, the online platform connecting schools directly with teachers, helping them save money on recruitment agency fees, came out number 40 on the Deloitte Fast 50 2025 - the 50 fastest growing companies in the UK – with a 752% growth. Congratulations, team, you make us proud!

🔮 Forecast AI’s impact on education by 2028?
We are happy to include a guest announcement today, as our close partners and friends over at EdTechnical is running a unique competition to forecast AI’s impact on education by 2028. Rather than hype or vague speculation, they’re seeking specific predictions with evidence and reasoning. Education affects us all - shaping workforce readiness, social mobility, and innovation capacity - so they’re seeking diverse perspectives from anyone thinking seriously about the future of education. With 💰2,500 grand prizes per track, plus judge’s choice and honourable mention awards, this is an opportunity to contribute to a vital public conversation about education’s future. Judges will be from leading organisations such as OpenAI, DeepMind, Gates Foundation, Stanford and many others. Submit by ⏳ Tuesday, 16 December - apply here 🔗 and spread the word.

🔎 INSIGHTS

📱 Me, Myself and My AI
We recently published a report looking at the rise of AI companions, where we reflect on the changing role of AI from tools to partners. For years, we have used AI to get things done - copilots that help us write faster, search smarter, or automate boring stuff.
Now something bigger is happening. AI is starting to move from tasks to trust, from tools to partners. In our report, we call these new systems AI decision companions - they’re persistent, intelligent partners that help people decide, not just do. They remember, adapt, and learn context over time.

What’s exciting is that they are showing up everywhere, including in how people manage health 🧑‍⚕️, finances 💰, learning 🚌, and work 🚌. These relationships between user and solution are becoming more continuous and less transactional.

👉🏻 Full Report Here 👈🏽

In our report, we break down four types of companions shaping the space:
🩺 Functional - trusted advisors in regulated domains (finance, health, education)
🏡 Lifestyle - assistants for daily choices (travel, shopping, home)
💬 Relational - built for connection and support
🌐 Generalist - “life OS” companions spanning it all

🎪 EVENTS

Happening…

🇫🇮 Moi, Slush!
Our scarves 🧣 and gloves 🧤 are on - we are at Slush week in Helsinki! Benoit Wirz, Isabella Vahdati, Ghita Targhi and Hege Tollerud are in Finland 🍧 and keen to connect with all who are excited about building in the future of learning and work space!
Let us know if you want to meet ☃️ during or in between the main or side events in the next few days - 18-20 November!

Coming up…

📎 Legal Literacy for Founders

Calling all founders who can be in London 🇬🇧 next week, on 26 November... ⏰
We have teamed up with global law firm CMS to host an evening of practical legal matters, focused on building good contracts and structuring deals, including fundraising rounds. Louis Glass, Global Co-Head of Tech M&A at CMS, and Benoit Wirz, one of our Founding Partners, are hosting a Legal Literacy session - just for you!

If you are an early-stage founder and have ever wondered...
“Which terms should I expect to negotiate with my investors?”
“How should I decide which convertible instruments to use?”
“How should I set up my option pool?”
“How should I handle my early employment contracts with my team?”

... Then this is the session for you.

Click on the image ⬇️ to register your interest ✏️

Already happened…

💫 Inspiring evening for Aspiring Females
A couple of weeks back, our Senior Associate Isabella Vahdati, alongside Kirsten Meehan and Eleanor Warnock, hosted Starling Bank founder Anne Boden for an open conversation on career navigation and her journey building a category-defining company. The event was part of the work they are leading in the Aspiring Female Partners network – which is growing fast and becoming a key arena in the community of female investors on their path to partners.

🧩 Product For Learning Meetup
Our London office ground floor was packed full of founders and product leaders keen to learn from each other, from BridgeU Founder Lucy Stonehill and from our event partner Matt Walton, when Lucy shared her journey to BridgeU being acquired by Kaplan - loads of hands-on advice and food for thought to discuss in groups.

Lucy founded the university guidance platform in 2014 when such services didn’t exist. They built a market-leading position with schools and then, after being acquired by Kaplan in 2020, pivoted their business model to 🎓 universities.

Thanks to all who joined 🌟, it is always a pleasure to host you!