Creator Fund is a $50mm+ Deep Tech Fund investing in startups across Europe’s leading universities. We believe that the next generation of great Deep Tech businesses will be founded by entrepreneurial scientists, and that’s why we have a team of PhDs who run our fund at universities across Europe. Our student investment programme has been the launchpad for students who are now working at top VC Funds across Europe, or become founders building great Deep Tech companies after their PhD (often backed by us!)
To date, Creator Fund has invested in 55 companies in 9 countries across Europe and focus on Artificial Intelligence, BioTech, Compute Infrastructure, Advanced Materials, and Robotics.
We are the earliest believers and first backers of founders building on the frontier of what’s possible. That includes: 💉 mutation proof vaccines, 🦾 electronic skin for robots, 🏎️ computational fluid dynamics for F1, 💾 AI models that run on CPUs, 🧠 synthetic brain organoids, 👶 therapeutics for fertility, and ⚗️ digital chemistry laboratories. We help our companies raise from the top Funds in the world; our portfolio has raised £126mm+.
As a student at Creator Fund you will get exposed to every part of this VC and startup journey. We run Creator Fund alongside our PhD team.
Join us, and help run a VC fund alongside your university degree. Every year, Creator Fund brings together 40-50 of the smartest students in Europe and trains them to become VCs and founders. Our students work on deals from start to finish, they go through a 16-part Entrepreneurship Training Programme, have mentors in the VC industry, and when they graduate we help them found companies, go into VC, or join one of our portfolio.
Applications are live for the 2025/6 cohort and will close on 3rd September 2025. To apply you must be a PhD, Master’s, or Undergraduate student at a UK or European university in 2025/6 academic year:
<aside> 👉 **You can apply here.**
</aside>
Creator Fund invests in scientific founders building businesses on the frontier of what’s possible. To do this, we have a student team embedded in the best universities and programmes across Europe. Our student team meet potential founders first and often manage a deal from start-to-finish. They also contribute to our technical analysis, helping us evaluate everything from LLMs to RNA.
You will be joining a team of 40+ of the smartest PhDs across Europe, partnering across universities and countries to identify, analyse, and win deals. We provide comprehensive “How to be a VC” and “How to build a company out of your PhD” training courses. And you will receive mentorship from experienced VC industry professionals. However, the most important learning comes from working on live deals.
Many students join Creator Fund because they want to found a company after their PhD. They want to learn how fundraising works and become a better founder by meeting hundreds of startups during their time with Creator Fund. Our largest investment to date has been in Malted AI (distilled LLMs for enterprise), led by former CF student Iain Mackie. We recently led the pre-seed of OSM AI (query optimisation framework), again co-founded by a former student Jakob Mayer. And we have helped many other alumni go on to found companies, from Richa Bajpai who has built $100mm Indian Fund Campus Fund to Nina Warner who founded sustainable hair dye brand Edulis Labs.
Applications are currently open for the following opportunities. There is only one application, and applicants will be signposted to the most appropriate opportunity during the interview process.
📚 Venture Fellowship: An educational one-year programme for Undergraduates and Postgraduates without significant previous startup or VC experience. You will receive interactive masterclasses and one-on-one mentoring sessions with someone aligned with your professional goals. You will also source and win deals on campus and contribute to the due diligence of potential investments. This track is designed to be one year educational pathway to a career as a Deep Tech founder or venture capitalist.
🧑🏻🎓 Student Investment Partners: As a Creator Fund Student Investor you will work on deals from start-to-finish, guiding them through our due diligence process and Technical Investment Committee. You will aid our decision-making when investing up to $1mm into exceptional founders working on cutting-edge technologies across Deep Tech categories. Our most senior student team members develop close relationships with founders and in some cases, are directly invited by the founding team to serve on their startup boards.
Both tracks offer unparalleled exposure to the European startup ecosystem. There is no other programme that gives you the opportunity to help lead an investment from start-to-finish and then often support the portfolio company afterwards.