EUVC

E343 | EUVC | Announcing our investment into Silicon Roundabout Ventures

Aug 20, 2024

Francesco Perticarari, a former CTO and Lead Software Engineer with deep roots in tech startups, shares his journey in establishing Silicon Roundabout Ventures. He discusses the significance of community in deep tech investments, highlighting his impressive network of over 15,000 founders and engineers. Francesco dives into the intricacies of managing a £5 million fund, the importance of transparency, and the unique opportunities within AI and emerging technologies. His vision aims to drive innovation while addressing global challenges through strategic investments.

55:57

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Francesco Perticarari

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Quick takeaways

Francesco Perticarari's investment in Silicon Roundabout Ventures leverages his extensive experience in deep tech, networking, and community building to identify promising opportunities.

The podcast highlights the distinction between deep tech and simpler tech solutions, emphasizing that true deep tech requires significant technological innovation and faces substantial risks.

Francesco's vision for Silicon Roundabout Ventures includes fostering a tight-knit community to drive innovation and break down barriers in Europe's venture capital landscape.

Deep dives

Francesco's Journey into Deep Tech

Francesco's entry into the venture capital space began unconventionally, as he initially had little knowledge of venture funding. He moved to the UK from a small Italian town and co-founded a tech meetup that grew into the largest deep tech community in the UK. Over the years, he organized demo days for engineers and scientists, which spurred his passion for companies based on substantial engineering and scientific advancements. This experience led him to engage in angel investing and ultimately gave birth to his solo GP fund, Silicon Roundabout Ventures, which he established to focus on deep tech investments.

Intro

2min

Building Silicon Roundabout Ventures: A Deep Tech Journey

30min

Navigating AI Investment Opportunities

11min

Navigating Small VC Fund Dynamics

7min

Building a DeepTech Community for Success

3min

Building Transparency in Venture Capital

3min

We're excited to announce our investment in Silicon Roundabout Ventures, a £5 million SuperAngel Deep Tech pre/seed fund by Francesco Perticarari.

Backing Silicon Roundabout Ventures is a bet on Francesco. We’ve known Francesco for three years now and following his journey, unwavering hustle and community grow has been an inspiration. Francesco brings a strong technical background as a former CTO/Lead Software Engineer at deep tech startups and the University of London and has made 15 angel investments, 12 of which are within Deep Tech/Big Data and are progressing well.

We love Francesco for his community-driven approach leveraging his community of 15,000+ founders and engineers, built through more than 600 deep tech meetup events held in London since 2011. As an example of the opportunity this community presents, the 26 pitch competition winners from 2016 - 2020 have a combined enterprise value of £6.3 billion. The ecosystem Francesco has built around himself and plugged the fund into clearly provides unique access for SRV.

Francesco and the team at Silicon Roundabout Ventures invest in "Next-Generation technology startups" across five categories:
Technical: Leveraging in-house science and engineering expertise
Infrastructural: Solving large-scale global problems at the infrastructure level
Defensible: Building fundamental hardware or low-level software with strong IP
Trend-Setting: Disrupting industries with 1B+ revenue potential in 10+ years
Global Impact: Addressing key challenges in Computing, Climate, Health, and Defense
With this investment, we cement and announce to the world that we believe Silicon Roundabout Ventures is well-positioned to build one of Europe’s new truly meaningful deep tech firms. If you'd like an intro to Francesco, don't hesitate to reach out 💌

Chapters:

02:32 Francesco's Journey into Venture Capital
03:27 Building Silicon Roundabout Ventures
05:50 Defining Deep Tech
08:20 Challenges of Being a Solo GP
15:58 Leveraging Community for Investment Success
20:44 The Origin and Growth of the Tech Meetup Community
27:06 Impact and Achievements of the Community
29:02 Understanding Enterprise Value
29:09 Challenges of Raising a Fund
30:18 Angel Investing and Fund Commitments
31:11 Evaluating Early-Stage Companies
32:08 The AI Investment Landscape
33:01 Sector-Specific AI Investments
33:51 Fund Size and Investment Strategy
36:51 Deep Tech and Emerging Sectors
43:24 Fund Economics and Allocation Strategy
50:11 Vision for Silicon Roundabout Ventures

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