Project Ventures Launches €5.8M Fund for Imperial College Deep Tech

TL;DR

Shahryar Barati, a three-time Imperial College London alumnus, has officially launched Project Ventures' debut fund at £5 million (€5.8 million), targeting pre-seed and seed deep tech and AI startups with roots in Imperial's ecosystem. More than 80% of the fund's LP base is itself made up of Imperial alumni, making this less a conventional VC launch and more an institutionalized alumni capital network — a model that's proven durable at Stanford, MIT, and a handful of other deep tech-heavy universities, and is now getting a dedicated, independent vehicle in the UK.

Key Takeaways

Alumni-powered capital is a differentiated distribution advantage. With over 80% of LPs being Imperial alumni, Project Ventures isn't just raising money from people who trust Barati — it's building a network of alumni who have direct incentive and credibility to open doors for portfolio founders inside the Imperial ecosystem, from lab access to technical hires to corporate introductions.

Deep tech at pre-seed is a capital-intensive, patient bet. A £5 million fund writing £100K–£300K checks across energy, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and healthcare is explicitly choosing a sector where technical risk retirement takes longer and costs more than typical software pre-seed — this fund is betting on Imperial's research pipeline to derisk that timeline.

First fund, first-time institutional GP. Barati is an operator and three-time Imperial alumnus rather than a career VC with a prior fund track record, which is both the fund's differentiator (genuine insider access to Imperial's startup pipeline) and its central execution risk (no prior fund-management track record to point to).

The "first independent, alumni-powered fund for Imperial" claim is a real market gap. Imperial College London is one of Europe's most productive deep tech research universities, and the absence of a dedicated independent fund until now is notable given how thoroughly other top research universities' alumni networks have been monetized into venture vehicles.

Fund Overview

Fund Name: Project Ventures Debut Fund
Fund Size: £5 million (€5.8 million)
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
Check Size: £100,000–£300,000 (€116,000–€349,000)
Geography: UK, centered on the Imperial College London startup ecosystem
Focus: Deep tech and AI at the intersection of frontier science, engineering, and medicine — specifically energy and climate, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and healthcare
Key LPs: Predominantly Imperial College London alumni (more than 80% of the LP base); specific names not disclosed

Why This Fund Matters

Imperial College London sits alongside Oxford and Cambridge as one of the UK's most productive sources of deep tech spinouts, yet unlike those two, it hasn't had a dedicated independent venture fund built specifically around its alumni and research pipeline — university venture funds and innovation offices exist, but Project Ventures is positioning itself as something different: alumni-owned and alumni-funded, independent of the university's own commercialization structures.

That independence matters practically. University-affiliated funds and tech transfer offices often come with strings attached — equity terms shaped by institutional policy, slower decision cycles, and sometimes competing incentives between the university's interests and the founder's. A genuinely independent fund staffed and funded by people who came through the same system but now operate purely as investors can move faster and negotiate more founder-friendly terms, assuming it has the capital and conviction to do so.

The sector focus — energy, advanced manufacturing, robotics, healthcare — tracks directly with where Imperial's own research strength lies, particularly in engineering and medicine. This isn't a generalist fund that happened to land near a strong university; it's explicitly designed to harvest deal flow from specific departments and labs where Imperial has genuine global standing. That focus should, in theory, give Project Ventures better-than-average access to technically differentiated founders before they're widely known outside the university's walls.

The risk is one common to every alumni-network fund: deal flow concentration. If the fund's pipeline is genuinely dependent on warm Imperial connections, its long-term success is tied to how deep and how technically strong that pipeline actually is beyond the three portfolio companies disclosed so far — and whether Barati can keep sourcing quality deals as the fund scales beyond its founding cohort.

The Team

Project Ventures is led by Shahryar Barati, Founder and General Partner, who describes himself as a three-time Imperial College London alumnus with a background spanning startup building, venture investing, and institutional asset management. The firm is formally registered as Project Ventures Consulting Ltd (Company No. 15265851) and, per its own public materials, operates independently of Imperial College London despite its deep alumni ties. We were not able to identify additional named partners or investment team members from primary sources at time of writing, which is consistent with this being a solo-GP first fund.

Early Portfolio

Three portfolio companies have been publicly disclosed: Tewke, an intelligent home operating system focused on energy optimization; NexusAM, an AI-powered quality assurance platform for metal 3D printing; and Neubond, a wearable neurotech company focused on stroke rehabilitation. The spread across energy, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare reflects the fund's stated sector focus fairly precisely.

What This Means for Founders

If you're a deep tech or AI founder with an Imperial College London connection — alumnus, current researcher, or spinout from an Imperial lab — Project Ventures should be near the top of your pre-seed and seed outreach list. The fund's alumni-LP structure means it's likely to offer more than capital: expect access to a network of Imperial graduates who have direct interest in seeing portfolio companies succeed, which can translate into technical hires, corporate pilot introductions, and follow-on fundraising support.

Founders without an Imperial connection are a harder fit here, not because the fund is formally restrictive, but because its entire sourcing and value-add model is built around that network. If your deep tech company sits outside that orbit, this fund is worth a cold outreach but shouldn't be a core part of your fundraising strategy.

Fund Momentum Take

We think the alumni-powered deep tech fund model is genuinely underbuilt relative to demand in the UK, and Project Ventures is a sensible first mover for Imperial specifically. £5 million is a small fund for deep tech, though — hardware, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare companies typically need more capital-intensive follow-on rounds than software, and this fund's ability to participate meaningfully in Series A rounds for its own portfolio companies will be limited without a larger Fund II.

The bigger question is durability: can a solo-GP, first-time fund manager sustain the alumni network's engagement and capital commitment over a full fund cycle, particularly if early portfolio companies take the long, expensive path that deep tech typically requires before showing traction? The 2027 closing target suggests the fund is still actively fundraising, which means the LP base and total size could still shift meaningfully from what's been disclosed today.

Our take: worth watching as a template other UK research universities' alumni networks could replicate, but the real test comes when Tewke, NexusAM, and Neubond (or their successors in the portfolio) need Series A capital and the fund has to prove it can either write bigger checks or credibly hand off to larger deep tech investors.

Frequently Asked Questions

How large is the Project Ventures debut fund?
The fund is £5 million, reported as €5.8 million, with a targeted final closing by summer 2027.

Who founded Project Ventures?
Shahryar Barati, a three-time Imperial College London alumnus, founded and leads the fund as General Partner.

What makes this fund different from a typical university venture fund?
Project Ventures describes itself as the first independent, alumni-powered VC fund dedicated to Imperial College London's startup ecosystem, operating separately from the university's own commercialization or tech-transfer structures.

What sectors and stages does the fund invest in?
Pre-seed and seed-stage deep tech and AI companies in energy and climate, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and healthcare, writing checks of £100,000 to £300,000.

What companies has the fund backed so far?
Three disclosed portfolio companies: Tewke (home energy optimization), NexusAM (AI-powered metal 3D printing quality assurance), and Neubond (wearable neurotech for stroke rehabilitation).

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