- Project Ventures has started a £5 million fund to help deep tech and AI startups linked to Imperial.
- More than 80% of the fund’s investors are Imperial alumni. This arrangement is typical in the United States but uncommon in the United Kingdom.
- The fund’s initial investments were made in Tewke, NexusAM, and Neubond, with amounts ranging from £100,000 to £300,000.
Project Ventures launched its first £5 million fund, with the aim of serving as the UK’s response to the venture model driven by alumni in Silicon Valley.
The company had, however, already been making investments for several months prior to this announcement. For instance, it took part in a £1.5 million funding round in February together with JamJar Investments, Cur8 Capital, Energy Mix Ventures, and Vlad Yatsenko, co-founder of Revolut.
The fact that Project Ventures had been investing before the official announcement demonstrates that it had adopted a soft-launch approach to build a track record before securing commitments from limited partners.
An Imperial graduate uses his network to raise capital
Shahryar Barati, Project Ventures’ founder and managing partner, who earned his degree from Imperial three times, intends to introduce the alumni-fund model used in the United States
For example, Contrary Capital puts between $50,000 and $200,000 into university-linked founders and has already supported companies including Ramp and Anduril. Imperial also maintains its own investment fund, the Imperial College Enterprise Fund, managed by Parkwalk, which is currently in its third round with 12 investments.
What sets Project Ventures apart is the fact that it is separate from the university and uses alumni funds rather than an institutional EIS fund. For each company, Barati invests between £100,000 and £300,000, with the assistance of a group of venture partners based in London and the Bay Area.
“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,” he said.
A growing and competitive sector
In addition to its investment in Tewke’s home-energy platform, the fund has also invested in Neubond, a wearable stroke-rehabilitation startup from Imperial’s bioengineering department, and NexusAM, an AI quality-assurance platform for metal 3D printing, founded by an Imperial PhD.
It is a timely launch for the sector. In the first half of 2026, UK deep tech and life sciences startups raised $10.3 billion, accounting for 41% of all European deep tech funding, according to HSBC Innovation Banking and Dealroom. However, a risk remains since more than 80% of the fund’s limited partners are drawn from a single alumni network.
Project Ventures’ success depends heavily on that one institution rather than on a wide range of investors. It has not yet been established whether an alumni-only fund can find deals on par with those of larger, more generalist deep tech investors, or whether it will have to compete for the same group of founders linked to Imperial, as Parkwalk’s fund does.
