Participated · Seed · Jun 2026

Houdini Bio was founded in 2025 out of Cambridge research and applies machine learning-driven software to redesign therapeutic DNA so it avoids silencing by the cell's defence machinery. The company aims to increase durability of gene and cell therapies by predicting and engineering DNA sequences that bypass the HUSH complex. Houdini Bio reports preclinical data showing more than tenfold increases in gene expression relative to current leading approaches and says it reached technical milestones in a third of the expected time. Founders include Jonathan Cohen-Gold, who discovered the molecular workaround during his PhD at the University of Cambridge, and Lee Dunham, formerly of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Financially, the startup has secured roughly £1.5M via a mix of non-dilutive grants and an oversubscribed pre-seed round. Houdini Bio plans to use the funds to grow its team and establish co-development partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2024

Dunia Innovations combines novel science-based AI algorithms with a proprietary self-driving lab to massively accelerate discovery of advanced materials. The platform targets power-to-x electrocatalysts for green hydrogen and ammonia generation and the conversion of CO2 into higher-value chemical products. Its technology aims to address key barriers to the global energy transition by speeding materials discovery for low-carbon fuels and chemicals. Founded in 2022 and led by Dr. Alexander Hammer, the founding team comprises scientists and engineers with deep expertise in chemistry, machine learning, and robotics. The company has received grants from IBB and the EIC Accelerator and recognition from programs including NZTC’s TechX Clean Energy Accelerator, the Henry Royce Institute, and RMI’s Third Derivative Accelerator. Dunia intends to use the $11.5M raised to expand operations and further develop its platform.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2024

Dunia combines novel science-based AI algorithms with a proprietary self-driving lab and chemical-robotic workflows to accelerate discovery of advanced materials. The platform leverages quantum chemistry-derived material representations and proprietary in-house datasets to give its ML systems an edge over black-box approaches. Dunia focuses on power-to-x electrocatalysts for green hydrogen and ammonia generation and on converting CO2 into higher-value chemical products, targeting key bottlenecks in the energy transition. The company says its self-driving lab can shorten conventional decades-long innovation cycles to under three years and has validated its approach in a proof-of-concept electrocatalyst ink formulation that outperformed human researchers. Founded in 2022 and based in Berlin, Dunia has received grants from IBB and the EIC Accelerator and been recognised by programs such as NZTC’s TechX Clean Energy Accelerator and RMI’s Third Derivative Accelerator. The founding team comprises scientists and engineers with deep expertise in chemistry, machine learning and robotics and is supported by industry and scientific angels, with Dr Carlos Haertel serving as chairman of the company board.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2024

Neobe Therapeutics is developing programmable engineered live biotherapeutics designed to remove physical and immunological barriers in the tumour microenvironment to enable immune cell infiltration. Its approach targets highly fibrotic stroma and other causes of immune exclusion that limit immunotherapy responses in solid tumours. Since inception the company has engineered two differentiated proprietary products with demonstrated pre-clinical efficacy aimed at colorectal, pancreatic and breast cancers. Neobe was founded in 2021 by CEO Pedro Correa de Sampaio and CSO Annelise Soulier out of a venture-creation alliance between Deep Science Ventures and Cancer Research Horizons. Leadership includes chair Keith Blundy, a serial BioMedTech executive with experience in drug development, strategy and VC fundraising. The company says the new funding and grant support will be used to advance its engineered live therapeutics toward clinical impact and broaden the benefits of immunotherapies to non-responding patients.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2023

Xonai builds software that optimizes data infrastructure to make data and AI workloads run faster and use fewer cloud resources, starting with Apache Spark. Its approach leverages hardware acceleration and compiler-driven optimizations to combine and optimize processing steps via a common language. The company says this fully automated layer can deliver roughly 2–5x speedups and reduce the number of machines required. Xonai targets data-heavy businesses such as adtech, financial services, retail and gaming. It plans to add support for other data packages over time. The company currently employs around a dozen people and announced a $3.5 million seed investment.