Creator Fund

"The biggest mistake that university investors can make is to focus on the technology and then bring in an external management team. We back massively motivated PhD founder teams.” Forbes explains the Creator Fund model in this excellent piece exploring what we have built over the past 3 years: https://lnkd.in/eMK58NWT

Congratulations to our portfolio company AllFocal Optics (formerly Lark Optics) who announce their $5.3mm seed round and also their new commercial partnership with Jaguar Land Rover. All Focal is developing lenses for AR and VR that eliminate nausea and discomfort typically associated with experiencing virtual worlds. It is led by the inspiring Pawan Shrestha who grew up in rural Nepal and only used electricity for the first time at 8 years old, and eventually became a Research Associate in Electrical Engineering at University of Cambridge. We invested at pre-seed. And thrilled to see this round led by Speedinvest, and another.vc and Germany World Cup winning goal scorer Mario Götze. Covered in Sifted too: https://lnkd.in/epCie24A Alexandra Ntemourtsidou Jan Heck Jamie Macfarlane

Delighted to announce our investment in TreQ in Sky News today. CEO Mandy Birch is a Brigadier General in the US Air Force and worked at Rigetti Computing and is an expert in quantum computing. She launched Treq in Oxford to leverage UK universities' leadership in the field. Treq makes early quantum computing systems viable for real-world applications by connecting and integrating all the different components of the hardware and software stack. Round led by Lavrock Ventures and we were joined by our friends at firstminute capital https://lnkd.in/gr2HjmKt Mark Kleinman henry lane fox Alexandra Ntemourtsidou Adriana Vitagliano Daniel Marti Dafcik Jamie Macfarlane

Applications for our 2024/5 team are closing this Sunday 15th at midnight! If you are a student at a European University and want to learn about venture capital, or if you want to learn how to become an entrepreneurial scientist and start your own company out of your PhD... Apply now: https://lnkd.in/emwA23Z4

Applications to join our student investment team close on *September 15th*! Ahead of this, come and meet our CEO Jamie Macfarlane and COO Alexandra Ntemourtsidou to hear first-hand what helping run a VC Fund alongside your PhD is all about. 5:30 pm on Thursday 5th September. Alexandra started as a student investor on our Imperial College London team herself. https://lnkd.in/eqv-kR86

We are excited to announce our pre-seed investment in BrainZell. Our first investment in Sweden 🇸🇪, from the Karolinska Institutet. Brainzell is creating synthetic brains which transform pharmaceutical clinical trials by allowing drug companies to test on advanced human cell models. It replaces the need to test drugs on over 100 million laboratory animals every year with a far more accurate organoid alternative. Proud to be working with Petra Szeszula, PhD and Robin Pronk, PhD to change the way drugs are developed to the benefit of both patients and animals. Reece Khan Meike Bleeksma Katariina Kordemets Leon Gibson Jamie Macfarlane Alice Pettitt Jun Jie (JJ) Ong Adrian Signell

Huge congratulations to Alan Patterson and Darren Garvey as BeyondMath announces its $8.5mm seed round. Led by UP.Partners with Insight Partners joining too. BeyondMath builds AI that simulates the natural world to transform the way we design cars, airplanes, and other vehicles. Proud to back the team at pre-seed in Cambridge and also again now. https://lnkd.in/e7HnQYdC Alexandra Ntemourtsidou Konstantin Hemker

We are recruiting our 2024/5 student team for PhDs who want to help operate a Venture Capital fund and learn how to be a scientific founder themselves. If you're thinking about applying or know someone who might be a fit: join our Ask Me Anything session with some of the students you'll be working alongside and learn what CF is all about! https://lnkd.in/eMa9irri Daniel Marti Dafcik Benedetta Gaggio Reece Khan Pedro Lovatt Garcia Callum Hill

150 PhD students have now gone through our Venture Fellowship. It is a unique programme where you are involved in all areas of running a VC Fund, alongside your studies. Our alumni are now successful founders like Iain Mackie, working at top VC Funds like Adriana Vitagliano, or working in our portfolio like Locky Wright. Join them and us - and apply for the 2024/5 Class now! https://lnkd.in/emwA23Z4 Marc Moesser Ilaria Incaviglia Edward Harris Callum Hill Adam F. Alexandra Ntemourtsidou Jamie Macfarlane

Applications are now open for our 2024/5 team 🚀 🔥 . Open for students across European universities: https://lnkd.in/emwA23Z4 Over the past 4 years, 150+ students have been through our Venture Fellowship. Our alumni are now successful founders and working across top VC funds. CF is a unique opportunity to help run a VC fund alongside your studies, and it is a launchpad for turning your own PhD into a startup. You can learn more about the role & all about how CF works here: https://shorturl.at/qA0jk