Creator Fund, a UK-based pre-seed venture capital firm focused on scientific founders, has closed its first European fund at $56 million. The capital will support Creator Fund's strategy of identifying and backing researchers and PhD students at the earliest stages of company creation, with a focus on deep tech sectors including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics, advanced materials, and computing infrastructure.
The final close includes participation from KfW Capital, the investment arm of Germany's state-owned promotional bank KfW, which joined as the fund's largest investor. Other major backers include the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), alongside Equation Capital, Basecamp (Phoenix Court), JIMCO, and Allocator One. In total, 71 limited partners from 21 countries committed to the fund.
Founded on the belief that scientific talent is one of Europe's strongest assets for startup creation, Creator Fund focuses on identifying researchers before they enter the traditional venture capital ecosystem. To source opportunities, Creator Fund has built a network of student investors across 30 universities in 10 countries and operates a Scientific Founder programme designed to help researchers navigate the process of building companies from academic research.
With the new fund, Creator Fund plans to expand this model across Europe, becoming the first student-led venture platform to operate at continental scale. Creator Fund has already invested in 11 companies, including startups developing technologies in reproductive health, robotics, advanced materials, and next-generation data storage.
Since launching in 2019, Creator Fund has backed 62 companies. It achieved its first fund return following the sale of portfolio company Loci to Epic Games and says two of its portfolio companies have surpassed $100 million in cumulative funding over the past six months.
Jamie Macfarlane, founder and CEO of Creator Fund, said the organisation was established to address a gap in the venture ecosystem that has historically overlooked scientists as company founders:
The world's biggest problems are being solved in European university labs. The scientists working on them are extraordinary but for too long, they've been overlooked by venture capital and encouraged towards academia rather than entrepreneurship. This fund allows us to support more of these founders across Europe and help translate scientific breakthroughs into companies.
Christian Röhle, co-head of Investment Management at KfW Capital, said the fund's approach provides access to emerging founders at leading European universities while helping bridge the gap between academic research and high-growth technology businesses.
Creator Fund's Scientific Founder programme remains central to its investment strategy. Each year, the programme selects venture fellows from universities across Europe and trains them to identify promising scientific founders and support them through the earliest stages of company formation. Three of the first investments made from the new fund were founded by former fellows.
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments