Year in Review & 13 Deeptech Cheques Reflection - Silicon Roundabout Ventures
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
🏆 2024 Year-End Review: Highlights include Anaphite's Series A, Nu Quantum's quantum data centre prototype, and Origin Robotics' €5M defence contract.
🌍 Where We’ll Be in 2025: Planning visits to Milan, Amsterdam, Munich, and Berlin (for SuperVenture)—get in touch if you’d like to help us organise a local dinner!
➕ New Investment: Our investment in [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]’s first institutional round, with their cutting-edge fusion tech outpacing global competitors.
A reminder of what we are about
Silicon Roundabout Ventures is a SuperAngel 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
LP Dinner - Milan 🍽️
We’re working to organise an LP dinner in the 1st week of February in Milan. If you’re interested, or in the area, let us know!
Where we’ll be in 2025
We’re planning visits to Milan, Amsterdam, Munich and other cities: if you’re happy to help us organise dinners there, do give us a shout!
We’ll also attend SuperVenture in Berlin in June, where we will announce something new :) stay tuned!
Markups
[REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs] completed the main part of their seed round, confirming a gross 3X valuation increase from initial investment, and an overall nearly 2X increase in our overall stake, including the double down we completed late last year.
[REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
Performance Snapshot
Here is each fund’s performance to date. These numbers are taken directly from Carta’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
New investments since last update: 1
Total Portfolio Companies: 13
Top-of-the-funnel Pipeline: 5
Key Deeptech Areas: Computing, Climate, and National Security Infrastructure
Status: closed
Fund Target Size: £5M (Actual Size £5.05m)
Currently invested: [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
First closing: Dec 2022
TVPI: [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
DPI: [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
Net IRR: [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
MOIC: [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
Most Valuable Positions: [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
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.
Looking to acquire 1-3% of a company at pre-seed or seed in critical infrastructure technologies across our main themes with £150-200k cheques.
➕ New Additions
We completed an investment into [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs] first institutional round, led by [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]. The round news is still confidential and the company has, since our initial commitment, demonstrated Nuclear Fusion technology outperformance against their main competitor, US company [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs], generated revenue through [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs], and advanced in their preparation for the supply of [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs].
💸 Co-Investment Opportunities
[REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs]
🚀 Portfolio Updates - Year end Review
Anaphite
Anaphite closed a $13.7M Series A round to scale their EV battery technology—becoming the first seed bet in our fund to graduate to Series A! Recently, they bagged RSC accreditation and ramped up partnerships with major automotive OEMs in Europe, Korea, and the US. Big things ahead as they gear up for automotive series production. They were also recognised as the "Most Promising Start-up" at the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK TDAP Showcase.
Nu Quantum
Nu Quantum announced results on their Qubit Photon Interface (QPI), a proof-of-principle prototype that enables modular, distributed quantum computers to connect to a quantum network. In collaboration with Cisco, they secured a major UK government contract to deliver a world-first modular, rack-mount, and scalable quantum data centre prototype. Nu Quantum also establish a US office, and were named a WIRED Trailblazer!
Origin Robotics
Origin Robotics closed their pre-seed funding, rapidly scaled production, and shipped precision-guided drone systems to the Ukrainian battlefield. This year saw major upgrades to their drones, enhancing performance in GNSS-denied environments—a critical capability for modern conflict zones.
More recently, Origin signed a €5M contract with the Armed Forces of Latvia.
Finchetto
Finchetto entered the portfolio with their passive optical switch, delivering 40x lower latency and 26x lower power consumption compared to traditional data center switches. They also won the 2024 Deeptech Demo day, from a field with hundreds of incredible startups.
Panakeia
Their flagship breast cancer solution demonstrated industry-leading performance and received recognition for its impressive levels of performance in clinical settings. Panakeia collaborated with Friends of Cancer Research and industry leaders to establish robust standards for AI diagnostic tools, ensuring maximum benefit and maintaining the highest safety standards. They also represented UK healthtech innovation globally, with support from Innovate UK, Grow London, London & Partners, and the Department for Business and Trade.
Archangel Lightworks
This year, Archangel opened a state-of-the-art laser communications facility to triple their operational capacity. They secured funding from the EUREKA Globalstars Japan Program to collaborate with Infostellar on optical comms for future satellite missions. From rapid deployments to expanding commercial agreements, they’re fast-tracking their roadmap for next-gen satellite communications.
Ephos
Ephos officially announced their $8.5M raise to open the world’s first glass-based quantum photonic chip fab. Their Milan-based facility is set to revolutionise photonic quantum computing, with a unique platform that promises near 100% photolithography yield. The team is making moves across NATO and massive quantum infrastructure partnerships, keeping Europe at the frontier of deeptech innovation.
Greenjets
Greejets Engines are now operational in high-risk zones, with contracts solidified to provide their uncrewed aviation systems globally. Their joint venture SentinelJets is set to redefine defense with AI-powered high-speed drones capable of game-changing missions.
Gama Space
Gama Space is tackling the space debris crisis with Astrobrake, their patented drag sail for satellite deorbiting. Supported by CNES and DLR, they’ve drawn interest from major space operators for a solution that’s compact, fuel-free, and future-proof.
A ballooning market for debris mitigation tech is emerging amid stricter regulations. Gama’s tech stands out with successful orbit tests and an exceptional team combining expertise from NASA and Delft University.
Note: we did not include the most recent additions as they are still fresh from the round.
Asks & Portfolio Roles 🙏
Archangel Lightworks are hiring for a Senior Project Manager
Origin are hiring for Mechanical Design Engineers and Embedded Software Engineers.
GP Personal Updates
Dear LPs,
Thank you for your ongoing backing and support.
What a year it's been at Silicon Roundabout Ventures! As we wrap up 2024, I'm excited to share our journey from community-driven angel investing to launching and deploying over half of our first institutional £5M deeptech fund.
Fund Progress
Our thesis of leveraging the 15,000+ Silicon Roundabout community for deal flow continues to prove powerful. We've deployed capital into 13 promising deeptech ventures (out of our 22-25 portfolio target), with 2 priced markups and 1 Series A graduation already under our belt.
Recent Investments
- Finchetto (UK) - £150k - Semiconductor / Photonics / Networks
- Origin Robotics (Latvia) - £150k - Defence / Aerospace / AI
- Gama Space (France) - £185k - SpaceTech / Satellites
- Hippos Exoskeletons (UK) - £150k - Orthopedics / Robotics / AI
- [REDACTED: ONLY FOR LPs] - £200k - Nuclear Fusion / Radiopharma
Community-First Approach
Our unique edge remains our deep roots in Europe's technical community. This network, built over a decade, has previously helped launch 26 Deep Tech and Big Data companies now worth £7 Billion between 2016-2020, and guided my personal angel investments between 2020-2023, some of which are clocking in $40m in revenue or delivering national security contracts. In 2024 we hosted the 2nd edition of The Deeptech Demo Day, which has resulted in 1 of our existing portfolio securing leads for their follow on round, and 1 lead we have now turned into a commitment for Q1 2025.
Tech-driven VC
Our CTO and venture partner Ralph has helped us become increasingly data-driven and our tech sharper and sharper. We continue to experiment with database interlinking, web scraping, and LLMs to improve efficiency, cut costs, and optimise our operations. While we are not yet using this for sourcing, like larger, later stage VCs, we are seeing very interesting results in helping us streamline the backoffice operations and will soon be able to “platformise” this even more. Keep an eye out on our website!
Looking Forward
We’ve managed to lead 2 angel rounds for companies just starting out: Infiniti Recycling and Hippos. We wrote the first cheque into 3 others alongside smaller VCs and large angels. Behind the scenes, we're working on initiatives to strengthen UK-Europe ties in defence and deeptech, including roundtables with key stakeholders and policymakers. Going forward we are now preparing to launch our next fund, which we plan to take to market later this year.
Our goal is to be able to be a consistent lead at pre-seed and to increase our stakes at seed, writing cheques in the region of £500-750k.
Please let us know if you’d be interested in discussing your allocation early on.
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Here's to backing the next wave of transformative deeptech that will shape our collective future!
Cheers,
Francesco
P.S. For the tech nerds - yes, a tiny 0.035 m/s velocity change can indeed save Earth from an asteroid impact. Similarly, we believe the right early-stage deeptech investment can ultimately change the trajectory of human progress. We want to be here to write that cheque.
