Project Ventures Launches €5.8 Mn Fund to Back DeepTech and AI Startups

The firm focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups. Project Ventures says it is the first independent VC fund created and backed by Imperial alumni that is dedicated to the university’s startup ecosystem.

Project Ventures plans to invest between €116,000 (£100,000) and €349,000 (£300,000) in each portfolio company. The firm has already made three investments in Tewke, NexusAM, and Neubond.

“It’s a proud moment to officially launch our debut fund which has the Imperial ecosystem at its heart. Imperial has been an integral part of my own journey and I’m excited to establish the alumni-backed venture model used to great success across leading US universities within the Imperial community,” says Shahryar Barati, Founder and Managing Partner of Project Ventures.

He adds: “This is such an exciting moment for DeepTech, with AI accelerating development cycles that historically took years while bringing an entirely new intelligence layer into the physical world. Imperial’s depth across science, engineering and medicine makes it an exceptional ecosystem from which to find and back companies at that intersection, and our deep roots across the Imperial community put us in a particularly strong position to support these pioneering businesses from an early stage.”

“We’ve hired from Imperial’s impressive pool of graduate and PhD talent to fill a wide range of positions, from interns to technical leads as we’ve grown Tewke, so partnering with an Imperial-rooted VC felt like a natural next step. While it’s relatively common to see alumni-backed VCs in the US, it’s almost unheard of in the UK. For us, it’s exciting to be backed by a fund that’s building that exact model here,” says Rowan Dixon, co-founder of Tewke.

Project Ventures was founded in 2023. The firm invests in DeepTech and AI startups that come from or have strong links to the Imperial College London ecosystem.

The firm supports pre-seed and seed-stage founders building technologies that connect the digital and physical worlds. Its areas of interest include energy and climate, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and healthcare.

Project Ventures is led by Shahryar Barati, its Founder and Managing Partner. He is a three-time Imperial alumnus. The firm's alumni-focused model is similar to venture networks supported by university alumni in the US.

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