Conception X Unveils Angel Syndicate For Europe’s Deeptech PhDs

It has now launched an exclusive angel syndicate, featuring top UK scientists and engineers, including successful deeptech founders and alumni from Google and DeepMind. This group will support and mentor the best science founders in Europe at the early stages.

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Conception X's goal is to turn more scientists into founders, speeding up scientific breakthroughs and creating new career paths for researchers.

I spoke with Dr. Riam Kanso, CEO and Founder of Conception X, to learn more. With a DPhil in Neuroscience from Oxford, Riam’s career includes experience in academia, industry, and venture.

Kanso shared that, as a scientist, she initially planned to pursue an academic career.

“But I quickly realized how slow the research process was. By the time results were published, the data was already two years old. I wanted to make a more immediate impact.”

After moving to UCL to work on fast-paced, industry-focused computational science projects, Riam discovered venture building. She also taught entrepreneurship at Cambridge and UCL, worked briefly in medtech, and returned to UCL Engineering in 2017. There, she helped connect the tech transfer office (TTO) with academics, which led to the idea for Conception X.

Kanso shared:“I noticed all these incredibly talented PhD students working in labs people with brilliant minds and cutting-edge research who would likely just publish a thesis, maybe a few papers, and then go work for DeepMind or Google.I thought: why not use those three funded years to build companies instead?”

Conception X helps PhD students become startup founders without having to drop out of their PhD.

Since its launch in 2018, Conception X has brought together eight cohorts from over 70 universities across 11 countries, built more than 150 deeptech companies, and celebrated two successful exits—Rahko (a quantum drug discovery company) and Kapacity.io (an energy optimization startup), with a third exit soon to be announced.

The startups have worked on everything from cancer metastasis vaccines to carbon-absorbing living building materials.The Conception X portfolio is now valued at £500 million.

anso admits that she’s been told for years, "you should launch a fund.”

“But we didn’t want to be just another fund with a program. We wanted to address a real gap: the need for early-stage, trust-based capital for PhD founders — often before they’ve even incorporated."

Founders receive support through the incorporation process, with a focus on fair and founder-friendly terms, setting a new standard for Europe's top technical talent.

The £600k syndicate, which was quickly oversubscribed in just one week, will make 15 investments of £40,000 each this year (uncapped). The focus will be on deeptech teams at the pre-incorporation and pre-seed stages.

While unable to name individual angels, Kanso shares that “we have angels from places like Google DeepMind—people who deeply understand deep tech and want to give back. They’re not here to be educated on early-stage science ventures. They’re here to help and move quickly.”

PhDs join the program at different stages, depending on their focus. Kanso explains that those working on software innovations usually join near the end of their PhD, while those focused on deeper tech often join earlier, as their thesis may revolve around the venture itself.

The program also steers clear of Silicon Valley buzzwords like “hustle” and “entrepreneur,” instead preferring the term “venture scientist,” as these are people pursuing their life's work through startups.

Conception X is structured as a non-profit. Kanson contends:“The idea was always to work in close collaboration with universities. We take no equity — there’s often no company when teams join, just IP and ideas.Being a nonprofit helped us build trust and unlock access to this incredible pipeline of research-driven innovation.”

Many university spinouts deal with complicated IP ownership. Kanso admits, “We’ve dealt with 150 unique IP conversations.”

Conception X sees itself as a collaborator, not a competitor, to university tech transfer offices (TTOs).Kanso explains that at universities like UCL, Cambridge, and Edinburgh, PhD students usually own their intellectual property (IP), unlike staff members.

“That’s a huge advantage. These startups usually go through tech transfer as startups, not spinouts, which avoids equity claims. Where universities are more involved — say with patents or faculty — most are still happy because these are companies that likely wouldn’t exist otherwise.”

Kanso points out that Conception X's teams are often too early-stage for Y Combinator (YC), and many wouldn’t be accepted without previous commercial experience.

“We’re providing that crucial ignition capital to get them started. Once they’re further along, many go on to raise more or join programs like YC. We’re the bridge.”

Participants in the program usually take one of three paths: they start a startup, take innovation roles in companies, or return to academia as commercially-minded scientists.

“All of those are wins in our book. And 100 per cent of our teams complete their PhDs.”

About Conception X

Conception X is a nonprofit focused on turning more scientists into founders, speeding up scientific breakthroughs, and creating new career paths for researchers. Since 2018, we've helped create over 150 deeptech companies, valued at £500M, with founders from 70 universities in 11 countries.

Our founders are working on groundbreaking solutions, from cancer metastasis vaccines to carbon-absorbing living building materials, creating new markets from visionary science.