Octopus Ventures

Every great founder needs someone who believes in their vision before the world catches on. 🌍 🚀 ✨ Our Partner, Kirsten Connell, recently shared why that first believer can be the difference between an idea and a thriving business in conversation with Patricia Cullen and Entrepreneur UK. 💡 In the piece Kirsten also shares essential tips for when considering that all important first raise. You can read the full article here 👉 https://lnkd.in/dKxdXHN6 At Octopus Ventures, we’re proud to back bold founders from that very first cheque to IPO – investing in sectors like AI, B2B SaaS, fintech, and healthtech.💡 Building something bold? Let’s talk: https://bit.ly/4o9XCVV #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #Startups

🎧 Our very own CEO, Erin Platts, recently joined James Pringle on the Riding Unicorns podcast. 🎙 Their conversation covered everything from Erin’s career journey and leadership wisdom, to the exciting plans ahead for Octopus Ventures, and the future of the UK tech ecosystem – it's an episode packed with insights you won’t want to miss. 🚀✨ If you’re passionate about startups, leadership, and innovation, this is a must-listen! 🎧 Tune in on Spotify, Apple, or your favourite platform: Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dskjFt2x Apple: https://lnkd.in/dbnrS-iS

There’s been a lot of coverage of today’s Budget. While we won’t dive into the details, we’re delighted that the Chancellor has reinforced her commitment to the innovation economy, and that venture-backed businesses and the founders behind them are central to the UK’s growth strategy. It’s a sentiment that we completely agree with. Over the past few decades, the UK has established a world-leading ecosystem for founders. If the UK is to remain a global leader in innovation, we must seize this opportunity to enhance our position. Efforts to ensure high-potential companies can access patient capital through the critical stage of scaling, are always welcome. At the same time, new AI commitments and updates to the EMI scheme, will help the UK to continue to cement this position. It’s now up to us as investors to do our part. At Octopus Ventures, we’re committed to being a driving force behind the UK’s entrepreneurs, partnering with them as they build transformational businesses at every stage, from pre-seed to growth stage. Erin Platts Uthish Ranjan Kirsten Connell Kamran Adle Laura C. Willming Paul D. Samantha Ling Will Gibbs Zihao Xu Hitesh Sanganee

Huge congrats to the team at Monq on raising $3M in pre-seed funding! 🎉 We’re delighted to invest alongside Outward VC, Cornerstone VC, Portfolio Ventures, Endurance Ventures, Lakestar Halo, and Monq’s angel investors. This investment will accelerate Monq’s product roadmap and fuel expansion across Europe, the US, and the Middle East. 🌍 👏 We can’t wait to see what’s next for the team! 🚀 #preseed #venturecapital Kirsten Connell Tilly Fleming

We’re thrilled to have our Partner, Edward Keelan, representing Octopus Ventures at the London AI Startup Conference 2025! 🚀 This curated event will bring together 120 leaders from the UK’s AI startup ecosystem for a day of learning, discussion, and networking. At Octopus Ventures, we back bold founders from first cheque to IPO, investing in sectors like AI, B2B SaaS, fintech, and healthtech. 💡Building something bold? Let’s talk: https://bit.ly/4o9XCVV #AI #Startups #VentureCapital 

Our very own partner, Will Gibbs, recently headed to The Oxford Science Park (TOSP) to join an expert panel featuring leaders from investment, biosciences, and legal sectors. 💡 Throughout the evening, the panel explored the essentials of funding and growth, sharing insights designed to empower entrepreneurs and founders. 👉 Hosted by EnSpire Oxford – the University of Oxford’s Entrepreneurship Hub – Will joined Jack Edmondson (CIO, Oxford Science Enterprises), Malin Svanberg Larsson (Partner, Freeths), and Per Lundin (CEO & Co-founder, Evox Therapeutics Ltd). 🎤 The discussion, expertly moderated by Ros Deegan (CEO, OMass Therapeutics), covered everything founders need to know: from when to seek VC funding, to strategies for scaling and staying legally aligned. This Investor Engagement Event was a fantastic opportunity to connect with the next generation of founders and share practical advice to help them take their start-ups to world-changing heights. 🌍 At Octopus Ventures, we back bold founders from first cheque to IPO, investing in sectors like AI, B2B SaaS, fintech, and healthtech. Building something bold? Let’s talk: https://bit.ly/4o9XCVV

🎉 Huge congrats to Partly for this incredible achievement! We’re proud to support Partly, a company connecting the parts supply chain, improving efficiency and unlocking automation for everyone. We can't wait to see what's next for the team 🚀 At Octopus Ventures, we back bold founders from first cheque to IPO, investing in sectors like AI, B2B SaaS, fintech, and healthtech. Building something bold? Let’s talk: https://bit.ly/4o9XCVV #automation #venturecapital #supplychain

Last week, our very own Partner, Uthish Ranjan, took to the stage at HubSpot’s annual GROW Europe to share insights on how funding strategies are evolving in the era of foundation models and agentic systems💡🤖 As moderator, Uthish was joined by three leading European VCs, Sitar Teli, managing partner at Connect Ventures, Will Wells, partner at Speedinvest and Luke Smith, head of early investing at Molten Ventures 🎤 Together, they unpacked what’s next for funding strategies in this uncharted age of AI. From the spaces they expect to see soar, to the criteria for assessing early-stage AI start-ups, they found consensus on excitement: AI is set to have a major impact on the European ecosystem 🚀🌍⚡ ✅ Key Learnings: 📈 AI is disrupting traditional SaaS metrics, and the parameters of acceptability for churn and gross margin are changing 🚀 Product execution capabilities have to extend all the way to founders, if AI-native start-ups are to realise their potential Keep an eye on our LinkedIn to hear where you can next find Uthish or one of our other Octopus Ventures colleagues 👀 And if you want to learn more about how AI can be deployed in your B2B SaaS start-up operations, why not check out our latest blog series, the AI Diaries, here 👉 https://lnkd.in/d5SVDE9u #AI #VentureCapital #AgenticAI

🎉 Huge congrats to the team at Dost for raising a £6M Series A funding round! 🚀 We’re proud to have led the round, alongside support from TQ Ventures, Draper B1, Born Capital, and Eoniq.fund. 🙌 Dost is an AI-powered financial automation platform, already serving 150 enterprise customers globally. We can’t wait to see what’s next for the team! 🌍 At Octopus Ventures, we back bold founders from first cheque to IPO, investing in sectors like AI, B2B SaaS, fintech, and healthtech. 🚀 Building something bold? Let’s talk: https://bit.ly/4o9XCVV #AI #Startups #VentureCapital

At Octopus Ventures, we believe people power growth. Founders and teams are at the heart of every world-changing business. That’s why we asked Kamran Adle, one of our Partners, to share his perspective on why talent matters – and what great founders do to unlock it. “In a past life, I spent a couple of years building a start-up incubator in Tehran. Alongside half a dozen of my core incubator colleagues, we acted as the founding team for every new business which we’d launch from scratch. 🌍 Once we had a minimum viable product (MVP) and validated the thesis, we’d hire a dedicated team to take the reins while we moved on to the next idea. ⏩ Fast forward 10 years: the incubator is thriving – and so are many of the businesses we started. 💡 The lesson? 🏗️ Builders matter just as much as architects. Success came from the teams we put in place, not just the founding vision. At Octopus Ventures, we back the people, ideas, and industries that will change the world. There’s a reason people come first. 📈 People power growth. People means founders and teams. At the earliest stages, we look for signs that founders can attract and retain world-class talent. In more mature companies, we go deeper to understand the key players driving success. Why? 💬 Because, as Steve Jobs said: ‘A players hire A players.’ Founders who embrace this truth set their businesses apart. Hiring the best builders is critical. It shows a founder knows their strengths – and hires to fill the gaps. But great founders know something else: talent can also reveal itself internally – without an expensive, time-consuming external search. 🌱 Spotting and nurturing talent within a team is leadership at its finest." None of this is easy. That’s why at Octopus Ventures, we give founders access to our expert People + Talent team. They help build frameworks so every architect finds the builders they need to create something truly world-changing. 👉 Want to learn more about what we do – or tell us about what you're building? We'd love to hear from you, you can start a conversation here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ebaB4uE9