Portfolio
Deeptech Labs invests in Seed stage deep tech companies with an established technology, an extraordinary team, and strong initial traction. We help the entrepreneurs we invest in to prepare for their Series A as they move from prototype and proof of concept to scalable products and services.
Learn more about our portfolio
Community
Deeptech Labs works alongside a community of leaders who have built and scaled deep technology companies. With them, we develop our cohort’s networks with new connections, advice, and opportunities that will help them to succeed.
Programme
Our structured, 10-week programme is custom-built to reflect the needs of each cohort. It is made up of weekly Fireside Chats and in-depth Expert Sessions.
During each programme our entrepreneurs gain practical, deployable advice in one-to-one sessions with successful deep tech leaders and experts. These sessions, like all of our programming, are designed specifically to meet the needs of each cohort.
Learn more about the Deeptech Labs programme
The Deal
We invest between £100k and £350k in a small number of deeptech post-Seed startups. Investing at Seed helps us to support our cohorts with new insights and partnerships, resulting in their long term growth.
We invest in a small number of deep tech startups. Investing at Seed helps us to support our cohorts with new insights and partnerships, resulting in their long term growth.
Cohort
Deeptech Labs invests in post-Seed deeptech companies with an established technology, an extraordinary team, and strong initial traction. We help the entrepreneurs we invest in to prepare for their Series A as they move from prototype and proof of concept to scalable products and services.
Learn more about our cohort
Community
Deeptech Labs works alongside a community of leaders who have built and scaled deep technology companies. With them, we develop our cohort’s networks with new connections, advice, and opportunities that will help them to succeed.
Learn more about the Deeptech Labs community
Programme
Our structured, 10-weeks programme is custom-built to reflect the needs of each cohort. It is made up of weekly Fireside Chats and in-depth Expert Sessions.
During each programme our entrepreneurs gain practical, deployable advice in one-to-one sessions with successful deeptech leaders and experts. These sessions, like all of our programming, are designed specifically to meet the needs of each cohort.
Learn more about the Deeptech Labs programme
The Deal
We invest between £100k and £350k in a small number of deeptech post-Seed startups. Investing at Seed helps us to support our cohorts with new insights and partnerships, resulting in their long term growth.
Our Team
Miles Kirby
Chief Executive Officer
Miles is leading Deeptech Labs, a deeptech accelerator founded with the University of Cambridge, Arm, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Martlet and Ewan Kirk. Deeptech Labs helps companies commercialise new technologies and makes seed investments alongside the accelerator.
Miles is an International Venture Capitalist with experience in the US and Europe in Financial and Corporate venture investing. He set up and co-managed the €150m AV8 Ventures fund and ran Qualcomm’s Venture Capital group in Europe. He also started and ran an incubator at Qualcomm in California and formed and managed the Machine Learning, Augmented Reality and Wireless Charging programs. He holds an MBA from University of California, Irvine and BEng in Electronics and Communication Engineering from University of Bristol, UK
David Groom
Partner
David is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and advisor, with deep expertise in building and scaling advanced AI and deep tech ventures from the earliest stages of R&D to fully realized, market-leading businesses. As a Partner at Deeptech Labs, David’s focus spans fundraising, portfolio management, strategic development, and driving industry partnerships.
Drawing on an extensive background that includes founding and leading multiple ventures, David has worked hand-in-hand with global corporates, top-tier venture funds, and high-performing scale-up teams, bringing novel technologies to market and leveraging deep strategic insight to refine business models, accelerate commercial traction, and deliver meaningful enterprise value.
Ania Karbownik
Events and Programme Coordinator
Ania is the first point of contact for companies participating in the accelerator programme and she works closely with the team to deliver the programme and a range of digital and physical events. Ania also liaises with community members within the programme and links them up with portfolio companies and other professionals within the community.
Ania has extensive experience supporting start-ups in their pursuit of tackling many global challenges including climate change, clean energy, responsible consumption and gender equality. Ania has previously worked with entrepreneurs within not-for-profit organisations.
Chris Anderson
Operations Manager
Chris joined Deeptech Labs as Operations Manager in September 2021. Working closely with the Deeptech Labs team, Chris brings a wealth of office and facilities management experience ensuring that the operational aspects of the business are running efficiently and effectively. Chris has previously worked in both the public and private sectors in Glasgow and London, predominantly in higher education.
Ambrose Thwaites
Investment Analyst
Ambrose joined Deeptech Labs in July 2022 after completing a degree in Politics, Philosophy & Economics at the University of Warwick. He has previous experience working for a tech startup developing a fitness app called Eastnine (exit to Puregym Q3 2021). Complementing his experience at Eastnine, Ambrose also worked as a KMPG Strategy Intern where he focused on market entry opportunities for Big Pharma and Fintech clients into SE Asian markets.
Ambrose’s work at Deeptech Labs is centred around portfolio and market analysis coupled with assisting the deal-sourcing process.
William Macpherson
Investment Analyst
Before joining Deeptech Labs at the beginning of 2024, Will was part of a research group at University College London, where he contributed to the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies. In addition to his research experience, Will has worked as an intern at Octopus Ventures and worked with deep tech startups Surrey Nano-Systems and Wave Optics. He holds an MSc in Financial Technology from UCL’s Centre for Blockchain Technology and a BSc in Computer Science from Newcastle University, where he focused on Quantum Computing.
At Deeptech Labs, Will’s primary focus is on deal-sourcing, commercial partnerships and programme support.
Board
Ewan Kirk
Cantab Capital Partners
Dr. Ewan Kirk is a technology entrepreneur, early-stage investor, and Founder of Cantab Capital Partners.
For over 30 years, Ewan has been involved in a number of ventures to commercialise, apply and leverage technology, science, and mathematics research in business, philanthropy, and academia. He is the Chairman of Deeptech Labs, a Cambridge-based accelerator focused on building deep technology companies, and in recent years, has invested in a number of technology startups in the UK. He was appointed Non-Executive Director of BAE Systems plc in June 2021.
He is most known for founding Cantab Capital Partners, a science-driven investment management firm, which is widely regarded as one of the leading quantitative investment companies in the UK. Under his leadership, he grew the business from a team of 2 with £30m AUM to 60 people with £4.5bn AUM from 2006 to 2016. As well as leading the firm’s quantitative investment strategies, he was responsible for the scaling of the business that successfully brought together mathematicians, physicians and statisticians under one roof.
In 2016, the business was successfully acquired by global investment firm, GAM Invesments. Upon acquisition, Ewan went on to serve as the CEO and CIO of the newly-formed GAM Systematic Cantab, and latterly as its President from 2020.
Prior to founding Cantab, Ewan headed up Goldman Sachs’ quantitative technology group, leading a group of over 120 mathematicians, scientists and statisticians, responsible for researching, testing and implementing systematic investment strategies.
Active in philanthropy, Ewan Kirk is also the Chair of the Management Committee of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and Founder of the Turner Kirk Trust.
In 2007, he founded the Turner Kirk Trust, an evidence-led, strategic charitable foundation, which supports STEM, education and conservation causes in the UK and the developing world. The Trust is one of the largest private funders of fundamental mathematics research in the UK, and in 2015, Ewan made a £5m gift to the University of Cambridge to establish the Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information.
Paul Bailey
Martlet
Paul co-founded Bailey Fisher Executive Search in 1998 and led the growth of the business as Managing Director for 20 years during which time he built the boards and management teams for some of the most innovative companies to have emerged from the European technology market. After a successful exit in July 2018, he took on the role of Executive Chairman and since January 2020 is an NED.
In January 2019 Paul joined Martlet Capital as an Investment Director with a particular focus on talent management across the existing portfolio, deal origination and overall operational matters. In 2019 he also joined Cambridge Enterprise as an Entrepreneur in Residence responsible for supporting spin-out companies with team and business strategy, helping founders develop their business propositions and advising academics on commercialising their technologies.
Paul was named in the 2016 Maserati 100 list of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs, mentors and advisors supporting the next generation of business talent and was recognised as one of the most influential business people in Cambridge in 2017. He has held advisory roles with NESTA Impact Investments and New Wave Ventures and was previously a member of the steering committee for the ideaSpace Enterprise Accelerator, a member of the Board of Cambridge Ahead and a founder of The Perse School Enterprise Conference.
Miles Kirby
Deeptech Labs
Miles is leading Deeptech Labs, a deeptech accelerator founded with the University of Cambridge, Arm, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Martlet and Ewan Kirk. Deeptech Labs helps companies commercialise new technologies and makes seed investments alongside the accelerator.
Miles is an International Venture Capitalist with experience in the US and Europe in Financial and Corporate venture investing. He set up and co-managed the €150m AV8 Ventures fund and ran Qualcomm’s Venture Capital group in Europe. He also started and ran an incubator at Qualcomm in California and formed and managed the Machine Learning, Augmented Reality and Wireless Charging programs. He holds an MBA from University of California, Irvine and BEng in Electronics and Communication Engineering from University of Bristol, UK
Hassan Parsa
Arm
Hassan Parsa is Vice President and head of Corporate Development at Arm and has held this position since 2010. In this role he is responsible for all strategic transactions and serves as chairman of the Investment Committee working with the company’s leadership team to fulfill Arm’s strategic growth initiatives through M&A and investments, with more than 20 acquisition executed and managing $500 million in strategic venture investments. Hassan is a member of the Board of directors at Ambiq Micro and Arduino S.A. and an advisory board and investment committee member at Catapult Ventures, Hopu Arm Innovation Fund and Candou Ventures.
Prior to joining Arm, he was most recently founding general partner at Lucent Venture Partners, a $350M early stage information technology VC fund focused on investments in semiconductor, infrastructure and optical networking. Hassan previously held various executive positions at leading public and private semiconductor companies including Centillium Communications and Tpack and he started his career as an electrical engineer at AT&T Bell Labs.
Hassan received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland and his MBA degree with honors from Columbia University.
Marcus McElroy
Arm
Marcus is a dynamic engineering leader with over 20 years’ experience in semiconductor engineering. He excels at building, developing and leading global engineering teams to productise awesome technology. At Arm, Marcus is VP Systems Engineering and Operations. He is an influential member of the Arm Engineering Leadership team and is known for his contributions to strategy, change, planning and delivery.
Andrew Williamson
CIC
Andrew is the Managing Partner of Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC). A venture capital firm focused on deep technology and life sciences investments in Cambridge, UK. CIC has a strategic relationship with the University of Cambridge and deep relationships with consultancies, research institutes, accelerators, angel groups, and seed funds in the Cambridge ecosystem.
Prior to joining CIC, Andrew spent 20 years in the US at Physic Ventures and True North Venture Partners in San Francisco and Chicago investing in venture-backed companies that are commercialising technology in the fields of materials, devices, energy and scientific computation.
A Physicist by training, with a PhD in computational materials science. Andrew spent the first 10 years of his career leading materials science research and development projects at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Andrews research group developed novel materials for energy applications ranging from photovoltaic cells, to thermoelectrics, batteries and fuel cells.
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