Pre-seed investor Concept Ventures promotes Oliver Kicks to General Partner
This article covers Concept Ventures, a London pre-seed fund, and its promotion of Oliver Kicks to General Partner as it closes its new £70m Fund II. The fund aims to write cheques of up to £1.2m into roughly fifty startups over the next four years, supporting early-stage European founders.
Concept Ventures has promoted Oliver Kicks to General Partner as the London pre-seed fund closes its new £70 million Fund II. The raise positions Concept as one of Europe’s larger dedicated pre-seed backers and sets out to write cheques of up to £1.2 million into roughly fifty companies over the next four years — a signal that the firm intends to double down on being a first cheque for early-stage European founders.
Why it matters
Pre-seed funding has become a competitive space in Europe, with larger funds and specialist vehicles all vying to be the first institutional cheque a founder takes. Concept Ventures’ Fund II — and the internal promotion of Kicks, the firm’s first hire — underlines a strategy focused on early conviction bets and hands-on support through several rounds of growth.
Inside the fund
Concept Ventures says Fund II will back about fifty startups across sectors over the next four years, deploying tickets up to £1.2 million. That size of cheque at the pre-seed stage suggests the firm expects to participate meaningfully in seed rounds and occasionally in follow-on financings.
Who said what
In the announcement, Oliver Kicks, General Partner at Concept Ventures, said:
Immensely grateful to them for taking a bet on a young and hungry me six years ago, and equally to our wider team, LPs and founders for their continued trust and shared ambition. There’s still so much left to build, prove, and back here in Europe, as we continue to build the first-cheque firm of choice for founders.
Who’s behind the fund
Concept Ventures was founded in 2018 by Reece Chowdhry. Since then it has developed a reputation for backing founders at the concept stage and for prioritising repeat and first-time founders. The new close of Fund II increases the firm’s firepower at the earliest stages where conviction and founder relationships matter most.
Inside the portfolio
The fund’s portfolio includes names such as ElevenLabs, Dex, Arondite and Anam. Concept characterises its investments as spanning artificial intelligence, defence, consumer and fintech innovation. Those portfolio references point to a diverse sector mix and to the fund’s willingness to back technical and market-focused teams at an early phase.
About Oliver Kicks
Kicks joined Concept as its first employee in 2019 and has been involved in building the firm’s investment focus, brand and post-investment support. He studied at the University of Exeter, spent part of his childhood in Spain and worked in fintech and in scaling a food-tech brand before joining the fund. At Concept he has focused on supporting founders through hiring early leadership, fundraising and go-to-market growth, and has led the firm’s marketing and brand work.
Outside the office, the press material notes Kicks is a long-standing Fulham season ticket holder and plays Apex Legends in his spare time.
How Fund II fits the market
A £70 million pre-seed vehicle sits at the larger end of the market for first-cheque funds in Europe. With cheque sizes of up to £1.2 million, Concept can both seed new companies and follow up into larger seed rounds, a structure that reflects a broader industry trend: early-stage investors want to avoid early dilution of ownership while retaining the ability to support strong performers as they scale.
The bigger picture
Concept’s move is another sign of consolidation and professionalisation in the European pre-seed market. For founders, larger pre-seed funds can mean more operational support and follow-on capital without the need to change lead investors early on. For the ecosystem, it points to continued appetite among limited partners for early-stage exposure in UK and European tech despite a cautious fundraising environment over the past few years.
Concept Ventures’ Fund II and the elevation of an internally grown partner reflect the firm’s commitment to backing early-stage teams across Europe. For founders and other investors, the development adds another active actor to the pool of first-cheque firms at a time when the shape of pre-seed investing continues to evolve.
Click here for a full list of 7,526+ startup investors in the UK