Silicon Roundabout Ventures, Community Updates June '24
Silicon Roundabout Ventures, Community Updates June '24
Our Community & Fund update, with fresh fund highlights, community events, and deeptech market insights. Written by our AI. Edited by our humans.
In this edition
Fund Rundown: Overview of our current portfolio, performance metrics, and upcoming pipeline.
Upcoming Events and Community Updates: Deeptech Demo Day 2024 in November, highlights from London Tech Week Deep Tech Showcase 2024.
Portfolio Updates: Greenjets' partnership announcement and government grant win, Archangel Lightworks' rapid deployment demonstration, Anaphite's RSC accreditation achievement, Nu Quantum's insights from The Economist's Commercialising Quantum event.
Market Update: The importance of collaboration in fusion energy and the UK’s Automated Vehicles Act.
GP Personal Updates: Reflections on balancing fund management and parenthood.
A reminder of what we are about
Silicon Roundabout Ventures is a Super-Angel Seed fund in the UK investing in European Deep Tech startups. It leverages their community of 15,000 entrepreneurs and engineers, through which the team previously attracted, selected and helped launch 33 Deep Tech and Big Data startups now valued at over £6 Billion.
The fund is backed by top-tier VC Molten Ventures (LSE:GROW) and exited founders, engineers and execs: including ex googlers, amazonians and from 4 unicorns.
📅 Upcoming Events and Community Updates
Deeptech Demo Day 2024
We’re going to be running another Deeptech Demo Day in November this year. With our first sponsor already confirmed, we are now busy working out timing and set-up. Stay tuned for more info!
From our community this month:
London Tech Week Deep Tech Showcase 2024
Our Deep Tech Showcase co-hosted with Frontier Deep Tech and sponsored by the amazing team of Mishcon de Reya LLP was a great success , with a room full of inspiring deep tech founders and investors. Founders showcasing included Seabird Technologies, clare&me, Hirsch & Mann, PI Energy, Lumirithmic and our portco Greenjets.
Fund rundown
New investments since last update: 0
Total Portfolio Companies: 8
Fund: 1
Vintage: 2023
Top-of-the-funnel Pipeline: 5
Key Deeptech Areas: Computing, Climate, and National Security Infrastructure
Performance Snapshot
Here is each fund’s performance to date. These numbers are taken directly from Vauban’s back office and represent our ownership position based on the most recent priced rounds, including any down rounds to better represent the current market value.
Note: We do not book non-priced rounds as markups.
Silicon Roundabout Ventures LP Fund 1
Vintage: 2023
Status: Open for new LPs (via equalisation)
Fund Target Size: £5M
Currently invested: [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
First closing: Dec 2022
TVPI: n/a
DPI: n/a
Net IRR: n/a
MOIC: [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
Most Valuable Positions: n/a
Investments: 8
Target Pipeline Closing soon: 5
GP’s Angel Portfolio + 4 “Fund 0” SPVs
Vintage: 2020 (H2)
Investments: 15
TVPI: 1.5X
DPI: n/a
Highlight Companies: Ori.co, Aegieq.com, Kaizan.ai, Nanusens.com, rnwl.co.uk, Ecosync, Axiom.ai
Status: closed
Community “Virtual” Portfolio
Vintage: 2016
Companies considered: 26
Method for selection: Silicon Roundabout community pitch winners until the beginning of the GP investment activity
Assumed “virtual” investment: £200,000 cheque into each company; No follow-on
Simulated TVPI: 6-6.9X
Simulated Most Valuable Positions: 50-58X
Notable companies: Monzo, Zego, BlueVision Labs, Sano Genetics, Admix, Humanising Autonomy, CausaLens, iProov, Proximie, Senseon, VividQ
Portfolio
[REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]* is a snapshot of the current portfolio.
*Link to a private Airtable base with a list of all portfolio companies and include the company’s name, short description, why we invested, URL, and category.
➕ New Additions
[REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
Co-investment Opportunities
We are excited to offer a co-investment opportunity in [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs], our next fund investment.
[REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs] technology has outperformed competitors, including [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs], in key US government evaluations, highlighting its potential in [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs] technology for [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs] and the radiopharma industry. The company is ahead of schedule in [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs] and generating revenue from [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]. No minimum check on the SPV, and EIS is available for UK taxpayers.
🚀 Portfolio Updates
Greenjets
$1.25M government grant won by Greenjets and partners to developed next generation electric engines and unmanned systems using AI/data-driven methods.
Greenjets has partnered with Sentinel Flight Services and Striekair Engineering to form SentinelJets. This partnership will provide global customers with advanced uncrewed aviation systems, including aircraft provision, propulsion systems, and integration support. Combining Sentinel's UAV expertise, Striekair's engineering skills, and Greenjets' engine technology, this joint venture is set to deliver comprehensive solutions to the defence industry and unlock further revenue for Greenjets already in the upcoming months.
Archangel Lightworks
Archangel have demonstrated their capability for rapid deployment of their optical ground stations, without the need for on-site calibration.
Anaphite
Anaphite is now accredited by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). They are the first SME to achieve this milestone, validating their commitment to high-quality training and development. This accreditation supports their chemists in achieving MRSC and CChem status. Congratulations to the Anaphite team for this significant achievement!
Nu Quantum
Nu Quantum participated in a panel at The Economist's Commercialising Quantum event. Key insights included modular strategies, integration with existing data centre tech, and making quantum systems enterprise-ready.
Watch the full panel here.
The Deeptech Lowdown (Market update)
The U.K. has pushed the accelerator on its venture into the future of transportation by officially enacting the Automated Vehicles (AV) Act, marking a significant milestone in bringing self-driving cars onto British roads.
ITER's delays underscore the urgent need for startups and governments to work together on fusion energy. While ITER faces setbacks, private companies are advancing rapidly, showing the potential for faster, cheaper solutions. Combining public research with private innovation is key to achieving clean energy goals.
Governments’ and Armies’ hunger for quantum capabilities continues, with UK quantum company Aegiq now contracted to deliver their Artemis quantum hardware to the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) as part of a larger consortium set to receive £30m through the combined contract.
(It doesn’t harm that our GP is a personal angel investor in Aegiq from their first round in 2021 and has recently enjoyed a 3X MOIC markup on their £6m follow on 2024 raise 😎)
GP Personal Updates
So to recap where I’m at in June 2024:
Fund 1: 18 months
Kid 1: 9 months in
Keeping the 2 lives separate? Almost impossible 😂
Learning to juggle life as a solo GP (my first job in venture capital) and a parent of a 9-month-old (my first kid) has been nothing short of a wild ride!
Balancing pitch meetings with nappy changes and board calls with bedtime stories has added a whole new dimension to my multitasking skills.
Sometimes, my little co-founder even makes surprise appearances during Zoom calls ─or as in the picture above, fellow emerging managers’ catch ups.
Talk about early exposure to the startup world!
So far both roller-coasters have been extremely rewarding for me, with our final closing coming together on the fund as I type, and little Catalina… Just being awesome tbh. 👶
Anyone else amongst you veteran LPs navigated new business life with tiny humans before? I’d love to hear YOUR stories of surfing through the edge of chaos.