Early-stage founders across the UK and Europe face a daunting challenge: few investors truly understand the hurdles of the concept stage. Many promising startups end up underfunded or overlooked.
Concept Ventures has stepped in to fill this gap, specialising exclusively in pre-seed investments that identify and nurture exceptional talent well before the rest of the market takes notice. Today, the London-based firm announced the closing of its oversubscribed $88 million Fund II.
The latest raise attracted backing from institutional LPs including Aldea Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Marktlink Capital, Dominus, and Granite Capital Management. 80% of the fund’s institutional investors are based in the US, underscoring strong transatlantic confidence. Adding to this, over 70% of Concept Ventures’ portfolio founders have come on board as LPs for this round, including ElevenLabs’ CEO and co-founder, Mati Staniszewski.
Eric Fitzgerald, General Partner, Top Tier Capital Partners, comments: “In today’s venture market, there’s nothing more important than partnering with managers who can spot exceptional talent before anyone else – and that’s exactly what makes Concept Ventures so special.
The team brings together multi-generational expertise and unmatched networks, which we think gives them an edge in backing the next wave of standout founders. Their transparent, thoughtful, and high-conviction approach to pre-seed investing is differentiated, and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with Concept Ventures.”
Outsiders backing outsiders
Concept Ventures was founded by Reece Chowdhry and his team, driven by a philosophy of ‘outsiders backing outsiders.’ Coming from non-traditional venture backgrounds, the team leverages fresh perspectives to identify unconventional founders long before others have noticed them.
Fund I, launched in 2022 with $65 million, ranks in the top 1% of its vintage globally. Its portfolio companies have collectively raised over $450 million, with every company that has gone to market successfully securing follow-on funding.
Chowdhry brings hands-on early-stage investing experience, having backed breakout successes like ElevenLabs, which reached unicorn status under $6.6 billion in less than two years after Concept’s pre-seed investment. Beyond ElevenLabs, the portfolio includes innovative startups such as AI avatar generator Anam, physics simulation AI VSim, decarbonization data platform Treefera, and defence software firm Arondite.
Chowdhry says, “To have 70% of our portfolio founders now backing us as LPs is a further validation of the people-centric approach we’ve worked so hard to develop and deploy. This close cements our position as Europe’s largest dedicated pre-seed fund and gives us the firepower to keep saying ‘yes’ at the very beginning of a founder’s journey.”
Concept Ventures’ core strength lies in its exclusive pre-seed focus, sidestepping the alignment and signalling risks inherent in multi-stage funds. The firm uses sourcing tools and an open-sourced fundraising process that demystifies venture capital, with 90% of founders having their first VC conversation with Concept.
What’s next?
Looking forward, Concept plans to back up to 50 companies with Fund II, leading over 90% of rounds with average checks of nearly $1 million. Their commitment goes beyond capital, pledging 1% of carry to charitable causes chosen by founders, supporting everything from education initiatives in India to youth mental health and LGBTQ+ community programs in the UK.
Chowdhry comments: “As outsiders to VC, we’ve always believed pre-seed investing requires true specialists – partners who can spot and support founders before the wider market sees their potential. Raising an oversubscribed $88m fund from a majority-US investor base (as well as making first close in just three weeks) is a huge vote of confidence in this thesis and in the European market at large.”
