Newsletter: VC Breakfast Club

/espresso

• Maxion’s €68.9M raise marks Europe's biggest biotech round in 2025.

• Oracle commits $5B to expand UK AI cloud infrastructure footprint.

• Cambridge unveils innovation council to drive 60,000 new tech jobs.

/raising (?)

Are you raising? Founders, let me know here. I angel invest up to $50k in UK-based ventures & connect startups to relevant VCs and other angels when I can.

/deals

🧠 Oxford-based Brainomix raised €16.7M in Series C funding to scale its AI imaging tools for stroke and lung fibrosis. Operating in 20+ countries, the spinout will expand US operations and grow its 75-person Oxford team.

💻 London-based TurinTech has raised $20M to launch Artemis, an “evolutionary AI” platform that optimizes and validates AI-generated code. Backed by Oxford Capital, Circle Rock, and IQ Capital, the tool addresses inefficiencies and security gaps in GenAI coding, offering performance and scalability for enterprise developers.

📝 Cambridge spinout Luminance raised $75M in Series C to expand its AI contract platform globally. Backed by Point72, Forestay, and March Capital, it powers legal automation for Fortune 500 firms and 25% of the world’s largest law firms.

⚗️ Cambridge-based ReactWise raised $3.4M pre-seed to accelerate drug manufacturing using AI. Backed by YC and Innovate UK, its software cuts process development time by up to 60%, streamlining clinical trial readiness for pharma companies with high-precision chemical optimization.

🧬 Cambridge-based Maxion Therapeutics raised €68.9M Series A to advance its KnotBody biologics platform targeting ion channel and GPCR-driven diseases. Backers include General Catalyst, British Patient Capital, Eli Lilly, LifeArc Ventures, and BGF, marking one of Europe’s largest private biotech rounds of 2025.

🥗 Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot has invested €1M in London-based healthtech startup Bioniq, joining Cristiano Ronaldo as a backer. The personalised supplement company is now valued at $82M and backed by HV Capital and Unbound.

/funds

💸 Fuel Ventures announced a €47M return to investors following a partial exit from Arbolus, which saw 3,313% revenue growth. The London VC firm has now exited four companies and invested over €270M into 188+ startups since 2014.

🌱 London-based climate tech investor Elbow Beach has launched a €95.5M Climate Impact Fund 2, backed by the British Business Bank. The fund will support up to 36 UK startups advancing efficiency-focused climate solutions in energy, agriculture, AI, robotics, and electrification.

🩺 London-based THENA Capital secured £27M in the first close of its £50M fund to back UK digital health and medtech startups, with support from the British Business Bank and other high-profile investors.

/tech

• ☁️ Oracle will invest $5B over five years to expand UK cloud infrastructure, supporting AI innovation and public sector adoption.

• 🚀 German space giant OHB will invest millions in a new Bristol hub, creating 50 jobs and boosting the South West’s thriving space tech cluster.

/flywheel

• 🤖 Oxford spinout Oxa is partnering with NVIDIA to accelerate the deployment of self-driving software for industrial vehicles. Using Cosmos Predict models, Oxa aims to unlock a $2T Industrial Mobility Automation market by generating scalable synthetic training data.

• 🧭 Cambridge has unveiled its first Innovation Advisory Council, chaired by Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser and backed by AWS, AstraZeneca, and BioMed Realty. The council will guide tech growth across the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, targeting 60,000 jobs, more unicorns, and expanded VC to cement the region’s global innovation leadership.

• 🛡️ Anduril will open a UK factory and R&D hub to build autonomous weapons, with the Oxford-Cambridge corridor under consideration. The move strengthens UK-US defence ties and could create thousands of jobs amid rising European defence spending and interest in Silicon Valley-style innovation clusters.

• 🎤 Serial entrepreneur Rupert Baines has been appointed Chair of Cambridge Tech Week 2025, aiming to boost international visibility and cement Cambridge’s status as Europe’s deep tech capital.

• 🧑‍⚕️ Indegene has opened a new AI-focused commercialization center in London to support life sciences clients across Europe, strengthening its regional presence and expanding consulting, analytics, and digital capabilities.

• 🎓 UK university startups have grown 70% since 2014, now employing over 64,000 people. With proper support, 27,000 more could launch by 2028, generating £10.8B turnover—but funding gaps risk turning the UK into an "incubator economy."

/breakfast

• London leads as Europe’s deeptech capital, raising $4.2B in 2024

• 7 young Oxford VCs backing Oxford founders

• Is public funding propping up mediocre European VCs?

📸 /techbrunch

Every week I use Midjourney to reimagine a TechCrunch story from the week.

This week, Meta spotted testing AI-generated comments on Instagram, prompting concerns over authenticity. Users can access photo-based prompts via “Write with Meta AI,” though reactions suggest the feature may clash with calls for more genuine social interactions.

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