Creator Fund PhD Fund I

About Creator Fund PhD Fund I

UK's Creator Fund launched a pan-European fund to back university spinouts founded by PhDs. Invests up to $750k at pre-seed/seed in AI, deep tech and life-science startups.

Investment Focus

Location / RegionUnited Kingdom

Funding StagePre Seed

Industry Focus

Ai Ml

Biotech

Deep Tech

Investor Signals Profile

active

Sweet Spot

PhD founder or academic spinout in deep tech, pan-European, pre-seed

deep-tech

academic-spinouts

PhD-founders

pan-european

pre-seed

Bullish Signals

$41M first close with institutional LPs like EIFO and Equation Capitalblog

Portfolio attracted over $250M follow-on funding, incl. ElevenLabsblog

Final close of $55M planned by Jan 2026 — momentum presentblog

Loci portfolio exit to Epic Games confirmedtwitter

Helical AI portfolio raised $10M seed roundtwitter

30 campuses, 10 countries — scout network expandingtwitter

Drone blood delivery portfolio co live in Londontwitter

Contrarian Signals

Only invests in deep tech — no classic software startupsblog

Check sizes under $1M — no capital for later stagesblog

Access primarily via uni scout network — cold outreach harderblog

Unrelated 'Creator Fund' LLC causes brand confusionlinkedin

Founder Do's

Be a PhD researcher or academic spinout founder

Come from one of the 30 partner university campuses across 10 countries

Build in AI, Biotech, Robotics, Photonics, FemTech, or Advanced Materials

Show clear potential for global scaling from the lab

Use the scout network at your university as first contact

Founder Don'ts

No pure software/SaaS without deep-tech component

Don't expect fund to focus only on London or Berlin

Don't come too late — fund invests before traditional venture radar

Key GPs & Partners

Creator Fund Team

General Partner

thesis-drivencommunity-builderpatient-capital

Jamie Macfarlane

Partner

operator-mindedecosystem-connectordeep-tech-champion

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Fund Overview

Fund Size$56M

Saves0

Website

Key People

Jason Mayden

Creator Fund TeamGeneral Partner

Jamie MacfarlanePartner