Begin Capital closes £75m fund to back UK deeptech founders
This article covers Begin Capital, a London-based venture capital firm, closing Begin Capital Fund II at £75m to continue backing deep tech founders. The fund aims to back companies working on AI infrastructure, hardware and physical AI, with a global remit and a stated focus on European technical talent.
Begin Capital has closed Begin Capital Fund II at £75m to continue backing deep tech founders, with a global remit and a stated focus on European talent. The London-based VC says Fund II will target companies working on AI infrastructure, hardware and silicon, and physical AI — and has already deployed capital into nine opportunities, including one still operating in stealth.
Why it matters
Deep tech — particularly areas that combine hardware and AI — requires different capital and time horizons to purely software plays. Begin Capital’s second fund is notable for doubling down on a strategy of fast, small initial cheques followed by larger follow-ons, and for leaning into European technical talent at a moment when the region is trying to close gaps in AI infrastructure and chip development.
Inside the portfolio
Begin Capital says it has already made nine investments from Fund II: All3, SurrealDB, AregAI, Crewline, xmemory, DesignVerse, Zencoder, Tomorrow Things and one company still in stealth. Rather than a list of isolated bets, these names are presented as a spread across the fund’s target areas — from AI infrastructure and developer-facing tooling to physical AI and silicon-adjacent companies — signalling the firm’s intent to build exposure across multiple layers of the stack.
Who’s behind the fund
The firm’s investment team on Fund II is led by Alex Menn, Ruslan Sarkisyan, Joël Van Dijk and Saagar Bhavsar. Begin Capital has also brought former portfolio founders into advisory and investing roles: Flaviu Radulescu of Runware, Elias Schneider of Codesphere and Dan Lifshits of Dwelly are listed as venture partners on Fund II. Several founders from Fund I have also invested in the new fund as limited partners.
Strategy and track record
Begin’s approach is consistent with its first fund: write small, flexible first cheques, move quickly on decisions and then build a larger stake in top-performing companies ahead of later rounds. The firm points to Fund I as evidence this playbook can work. Fund I was an early backer of founders behind Runware, Fundraise Up, Native Teams, Codesphere and Dwelly, and is reported to rank in the top 1% of its vintage globally.
That track record is important context. Early, nimble bets that can be expanded into meaningful ownership are a common approach among seed-stage specialists, but delivering top-decile returns on a fund focused on deep tech is less common and will be closely watched by Limited Partners and peers.
How it fits the market
European venture has been pushing to build stronger capabilities in AI infrastructure and hardware. These are capital-intensive and require domain expertise to underwrite technical risk. Begin Capital’s Fund II underscores a broader shift: more Europe-focused managers are willing to back the foundational layers of AI rather than only application-level startups. The fund’s willingness to back companies globally while preferring European technical founders reflects the continent’s ongoing bid to retain and scale engineering talent.
Founder perspective and ecosystem links
Begin’s decision to recruit successful alumni as venture partners and to accept founder LPs mirrors a trend where operators who have built exits or significant outcomes move to the investment side. That creates a feedback loop: founders with portfolio experience help source and support new companies, while also signalling conviction to other entrepreneurs and limited partners.
The bigger picture
Begin Capital’s £75m Fund II arrives amid growing interest in the infrastructure that powers AI and the hardware that could sustain its future development. For the UK and Europe, funds that can reliably underwrite early technical risk and then double down on winners are central to keeping startups local as they scale. How successfully Begin translates its Fund I performance into repeatable value for deep tech founders will be a useful barometer for the region’s ability to build — not just use — next-generation AI systems.
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