Investor profile
IQ Capital
VC
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IQ Capital is a dedicated European deep tech venture capital firm, built on the conviction that frontier technology will underpin the next generation of globally significant companies. The firm prioritises teams creating breakthrough technologies across the largest global markets — advancing intelligence, reinventing energy, accelerating computation, decoding biology, and building resilience. Since 2005, IQ Capital has partnered with over 200 of Europe's most ambitious deep tech founders, supporting them to iterate towards product-market fit, reach technical and commercial inflection points, and develop compelling narratives about why their technology and products matter. The firm leads rounds at pre-Seed to Series A, deploying initial investments of £0.5m–£10m, and can follow on with up to $40m through its dedicated Growth Funds. IQ Capital's PhD-rich team combines deep technical expertise across sectors with wide-ranging experience helping early-stage founders commercialise IP-rich breakthrough technologies with the ambition to scale globally. Over six fund cycles and $1bn+ in AUM, the firm has supported founders through to acquisition by Apple, Meta, Google, Siemens, Qualcomm, and Oracle, as well as multiple high-profile IPOs.
Notable quotes
“Deep tech will play a pivotal role in the UK's ambitions to become a science superpower – with investment topping $17 billion over the last two years. IQ Capital backs IP-rich technologies with the potential to dominate massive global markets.”
“The world has seen many examples of the transformative impact that deep tech can create to achieve vital improvements in all spheres of life and help address some of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Breakthroughs in 'novel AI' models, new energy & climate, robotics and space-tech, quantum computing, synthetic biology – all demonstrate what a significant opportunity deeptech now presents.”
“With the close of our latest funds, we are continuing to identify deep tech startups that will have a lasting global impact and back them with the right mix of skills and experience.”
Team
Simon Hirtzel
General Partner & COO
Ed Stacey
General Partner
Archie Muirhead
Partner
Alex Wilson
Partner
Recent investments
| Company | Round | Size | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thought Machine | Seed | $3m | 2016 |
| Nyobolt | Series C | — | 2026-05 |
| Paragraf | Series C | $55m | 2025-08 |
| Speechmatics | Series A | — | 2018 |
| Cambridge GaN Devices | Series C | $32m | 2025-02 |
| Nu Quantum | Seed | — | 2020 |
| IMU Biosciences | Series A | $53m | 2026-06 |
| RevEng.AI | Series A | $15m | 2026-05 |
| Mytos | Seed | — | 2022 |
| CyberSmart | Series B | $15m | 2023-02 |
Frequent co-investors
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