Deep tech venture builder that raised £25M across 11 startups. Luke Robinson @ Post Urban Ventures

Numbers & insights from a deep tech venture builder that launched 11 companies (all are active) in the last 7 years, reaching £85M valuation across the portfolio:
1. Post Urban Ventures, initially bootstrapped by Luke Robinson, an academic with a PhD in physics from Cambridge, now operates with external funding from a UK-based fund.
2. Launched 5 companies during the first 5 years and 6 companies during the last 2 years.
3. All 11 completed pre-seed rounds; 1 of them got Series A, 2 of them are approaching their Series A.
4. The startups have collectively raised ~£25M in venture capital, in addition to receiving grants. The total valuation of the 11 companies is ~£85M, half of which have not yet undergone subsequent funding rounds.
5. Initial equity splits: the venture builder 20%, CEOs of startups 35% (vests over 4 years), CTOs – 20-25%, employees 10-15%.
6. The initial valuation of startups was £2 million, with £300K invested by the venture builder. The last 2 startups were at £3.5-4M initial valuation.
7. Building deep tech ventures requires significantly higher initial funding because these projects need more time to develop demonstrable products. Two portfolio companies hit £1M in ARR.
8. The venture builder has increased the capital for the last 2 startups to ensure they reach meaningful milestones. The CEOs of the startups were able to secure additional funding through their networks, £350K and £450K, respectively.
9. The deep tech investor pool is smaller than that for sectors like SaaS, which requires a stronger proof of concept and market readiness to attract funding.
10. 3-4 times, potential customers became investors in Post Urban Ventures. This is a great approach because it secures investment and validates the concept by gauging whether these potential customers truly believe in the solution and its market necessity.
11. They don’t start with a technology or an idea; instead, they integrate insights about global problems and, by actively engaging with advisory boards, founders, and industry experts, identify pain points and align them with technological solutions.
12. They do not bring universities in as co-founders but source scientists or professors to contribute to research and development. This involves leveraging academic expertise to support the technical aspects of startup projects until a prototype is developed.
13. The studio maintains strong connections with major academic institutions, including Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, and UCL, supporting its deep tech focus and facilitating access to new technologies and potential founders.
14. Areas of focus in deep tech: AI (Knowledge Graphs, NLP, DNNs, Computer Vision, Edge AI, Active Learning), Quantum Technologies, Biotech, AgTech, Enterprise SaaS.

Watch the full interview to gain insights into the portfolio companies, handling IP collaborations with universities, key challenges, and team construction.

Timecodes:

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:19 About Luke Robinson
00:00:41 Welcome: Luke Robinson
00:02:33 Beginning & developing of Post Urban Ventures
00:07:14 Portfolio & numbers
00:09:11 What’s the most important in building a Deep Tech startup?
00:10:39 Validation: how they choose startups & create companies
00:12:59 From idea to attempt
00:20:00 Collaboration with universities & scientists
00:29:21 What comes first: technology or idea?
00:31:10 Investments & valuations
00:36:45 About intellectual property
00:39:30 Special approach to developing the studio
00:44:09 Additional numbers

Luke Robinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlukerobinson/
Post Urban Ventures: https://www.posturban.vc/

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