London-based Concept Ventures is today announcing the close of an €75 million Fund II to back the UK and Europe’s most promising early-stage tech talent – allegedly positioning it as the largest dedicated pre-Seed fund in Europe.
The raise was backed by LPs including Aldea Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Marktlink Capital, Dominus, and Granite Capital Management. 80% of the funds’ institutional investors are US-based. In addition, over 70% of Concept Ventures’ portfolio Founders have also joined as LPs in this latest fund, including ElevenLabs CEO and Co-founder, Mati Staniszewski. The fund was oversubscribed, with the first close completed in three weeks.
Reece Chowdhry, Founding Partner at Concept Ventures, 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.
“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’ Fund II arrives in an already active and saturated sector. In London, Evantic Capital debuted with a €341 million fund to back B2B AI companies at later stages, highlighting the UK’s strength in fund formation across the capital stack. Elsewhere, Expeditions Fund II in Poland secured over €100 million for defense, AI and quantum, while KAYA in the Czech Republic closed nearly €70 million to expand support for Central and Eastern European Founders.
Against this backdrop, Concept Ventures has the potential to fill a niche: a sector-agnostic, pan-European pre-Seed specialist, bridging the gap between the smaller individual startup raises and the larger, later-stage capital pools being formed elsewhere.
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.”
After launching its first institutionally-backed fund in 2022, Concept Ventures has invested in over 44 companies at pre-Seed.
All team members come from non-VC backgrounds, helping them spot unconventional talent and emerging market sectors earlier than other funds. Their origination is supported by proprietary sourcing tools and an ‘open sourced’ fundraising process, so Founders know exactly what to expect. According to the VC, for 90% of portfolio Founders, Concept is the first VC conversation they’ve had.
Their portfolio includes voice AI giant ElevenLabs – which hit unicorn status less than two years after Concept backed their pre-Seed and is now valued at $6.6 billion – as well as physics simulation AI VSim, decarbonisation data platform Treefera, and AI avatar generator Anam.
In August, Archestra’s €2.8 million pre-Seed round was reported with Concept Ventures as lead investor. Earlier in May, EU-Startups covered Arondite’s €10.5 million raise and noted that a prior, undisclosed €1.9 million pre-Seed round had been led by Concept Ventures.
Concept Ventures now has $200 million in AUM and Fund I is reportedly a top 1% performing fund for its vintage globally. 100% of Concept Fund I portfolio companies that have gone to market to fundraise have successfully closed their next round. The Fund I startups backed by Concept at pre-Seed stage since 2022 have now collectively raised over $450 million.
With Fund II, Concept will back up to 50 companies at pre-Seed stage across the UK and Europe. With an average cheque of $1 million, Concept aims to lead over 90% of rounds.
The Fund is also pledging 1% of the total carry pool to charities of a Founder’s choosing. This pledge has already enabled school facilities to be built in India and committed to funding youth mental health provision across the UK, as well as LGBT communities affected by HIV and AIDS.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/09/british-vc-concept-ventures-raises-e75-million-to-create-europes-biggest-dedicated-pre-seed-fund/
