Caligra

Caligra is off to a flying start thanks to our friends and portfolio fund Blackbird. In an awesome move, Blackbird not only led but also closed the entire pre-seed round in Caligra with a £1M investment at a £4M pre-money valuation, underscoring their deep belief in the founding team's vision.

To add to the awesome, Dom Pym and Caligra founder Grant Bissett have a successful history of building things together. Back in the day, they teamed up to found Pin Payments, Australia’s first all-in-one online payment gateway, and now, through Euphemia’s early support and Blackbird’s investment in Caligra, their paths have crossed again to push the boundaries of what’s possible in tech.

Most people don’t write code, or make discoveries with data, and computers are designed for their limited needs. The problem with this is that programmers, scientists and engineers use these consumer-grade systems in their work. The impact of their effort is delayed by the use of inappropriate tools. Caligra is different. With a focus on speed, not hand-holding, their systems are designed exclusively in service of creative technical work, so that innovation and discovery arrives sooner.

All technical work involves desktop computing in some form, but today’s desktop operating systems are consumer-oriented and unfocused. By stripping away the unnecessary consumer elements, Caligra ensures their systems are designed for what matters. Their response is a workstation operating system with a Linux kernel and a proprietary UI, running on their own thoughtfully-designed desktop and workstation-grade machines. Caligra provides the technical relevance of Linux in a package designed for commercial teams that want more uptime and more output.