Solo investor raises £1.2 million for AI, deeptech startups
Project Ventures, led by solo investor Shahryar Barati, has secured £1.2 million to invest in very early-stage startups working on AI and advanced technologies linked to Imperial College London. The fund targets the earliest funding rounds—called pre-seed and seed—especially for companies building software for research, chemistry, or even quantum computing. This is the first round of Barati’s new fund, and he’s the only decision-maker.
- Project Ventures targets pre-seed and seed rounds
- Focus on AI and advanced technology companies
- Linked closely with Imperial College London
- Sole general partner makes all investment calls
- First close totals £1.2 million
Sources covering this
More in Startups
Uber invests $10 million more in Carrum Mobility
Uber has put another $10 million into Carrum Mobility, an Indian fleet management startup. This brings its total investment for the year to $17 million. Carrum runs a platform for managing CNG and electric vehicle fleets, focusing on premium cars for Uber Black. The new cash will help Carrum expand to more cities, improve its tech, and hire more staff.
Google says startup accelerator alumni now valued at $139 billion
Google says startups graduating from its accelerator programs have hit a combined valuation of $139.2 billion. Since launching its first accelerator ten years ago, Google reports alumni collectively raised $47.8 billion and now employ 205,100 people. The company currently runs 20 accelerator programs spanning early-stage startups, nonprofits, AI labs, and app developers, across six continents.
Y Combinator led August startup investments, Nvidia increased pace
Y Combinator invested in at least 18 U.S. startup funding rounds of $5 million or more in August, making it the most active backer by deal count. Nvidia sharply ramped up its startup investments, taking part in nine such deals—its busiest month on record—with $1.3 billion in led or co-led financings. Global venture funding hit $42 billion for the month, more than doubling year-on-year.
Lucius AI automates global tender platform with one operator
Lucius AI, a startup run by a single founder, manages a platform tracking over 210,000 public contract opportunities across five continents using Google’s AlloyDB for PostgreSQL. By switching its search tech to a ScaNN index, it dropped query response times from over a second to just 24 milliseconds. The founder uses an AI agent via Google’s Model Context Protocol to automate database maintenance, letting the entire operation run without a data team.