Amadeus Capital Partners

Amadeus Capital Partners Research

Investment Thesis

Amadeus Capital Partners backs "trailblazers solving hard problems in large markets" through deep technology investments. Founded in 1997 by Dame Anne Glover and Dr. Hermann Hauser FRS, Amadeus was one of the first UK venture capital firms to focus exclusively on technology. The firm organizes its thesis around three domains: Intelligence (AI, machine learning, advanced computing, and quantum technologies), Human (health, medicine, and wellness innovations), and Planet (sustainability, energy, novel materials, and space utilization). Across all three areas, the firm looks for technical founders — frequently university spinouts — building on deep, defensible science rather than thin application-layer software.

Stage Focus

Amadeus invests "from seed to growth" but its center of gravity is Seed and Series A, where it most often serves as first institutional capital for university spinouts (Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College) and other deep-tech founding teams. It also maintains meaningful growth-stage exposure through follow-on reserves in winners like PolyAI and Improbable, and runs a dedicated early-stage vehicle (the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with APEX Ventures) focused specifically on Seed and Series A European deep tech.

Check Size

Typical initial investment: roughly £1M-£10M ($1.3M-$12.7M), with capacity to deploy up to £20M ($25M+) over a portfolio company's lifetime through follow-on rounds. Recent rounds observed span from ~$2M-$5M co-investments at Seed (Refute, enclaive, Stateful Robotics, Pimloc) up to $60M Series A leads/participations (Nu Quantum) and much larger growth-stage exposure in mature winners.

Lead Tendency

Amadeus frequently leads or co-leads at Seed and Series A (Refute, Stateful Robotics, Pimloc, Nu Quantum's earlier rounds, historical rounds like Seldon and Cryptosense), and participates alongside other investors at growth stage. Overall pattern: leads early, follows later.

Recent Activity

Fund status: actively deploying. In the last 12 months the firm has made at least six new investments and one major exit:

• Stateful Robotics ($4.8M pre-seed, March 2026) — led, Oxford spinout building long-term memory for embodied AI/robotics.
• Slamcore ($14M Series B, May 2026) — participated, spatial AI/visual localization for industrial robots.
• Refute (£5M seed, Feb 2026) — led, AI-powered counter-disinformation platform for hybrid-warfare threats.
• enclaive (€4.1M seed, Feb 2026) — co-led via the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, confidential computing / multi-cloud security.
• Nu Quantum ($60M Series A, Dec 2025) — participated (existing investor), quantum networking.
• Pimloc ($5M growth investment, July 2025) — led, AI video-privacy and redaction platform.
• OrganOx exit ($1.5B acquisition by Terumo, announced Aug 2025 / completed Oct 2025) — one of the largest UK medtech exits on record, and the largest exit in Oxford University's spinout history.

Notable recent: Led the $4.8M pre-seed round in Stateful Robotics (March 2026), an Oxford spinout building long-horizon memory for physical AI.

Portfolio Highlights

Notable exits:

• OrganOx — acquired by Terumo for $1.5B (2025), organ-transplant device maker and Oxford spinout.
• Graphcore — intelligent AI microprocessors (acquired, ~$2.4B outcome referenced by third-party trackers).
• ForeScout — cybersecurity (NASDAQ IPO, ~$800M).
• Oxford Nanopore Technologies — DNA/RNA sequencing (LSE IPO, ~$4.5B).
• IndiaMART — B2B online marketplace (NSE IPO).
• VocalIQ — speech recognition (acquired by Apple).
• CSR — single-chip Bluetooth (acquired by Qualcomm).

Active highlights: PolyAI (enterprise conversational AI, ~$750M valuation), Improbable (simulation/spatial computing, ~$3.4B valuation), V7 (AI data labeling for enterprise), Nu Quantum (quantum networking), Slamcore (spatial AI for robotics), Pimloc, Refute, enclaive, Seldon (ML deployment), Cryptosense, Paragraf (graphene), Phoremost (drug discovery), PROWLER.io (AI decision-making).

Across trackers, the firm shows roughly 200+ companies backed since 1997, 17 IPOs, and 11 unicorn-scale outcomes — concentrated in cybersecurity, biotech/life sciences, and AI.

Team

• Anne Glover — Chief Executive & Co-founder. Previously at Apax Partners, Virtuality Group (COO), and Bain & Company.
• Hermann Hauser FRS — Co-founder & Venture Partner. Serial deep-tech entrepreneur and investor (co-founded Acorn Computers, ARM lineage).
• Nick Kingsbury — Partner.
• Pierre Socha — Partner.
• Pat Burtis — Partner.
• Amelia Armour — Partner; leads several Intelligence-domain deals including Slamcore.
• Manjari Chandran-Ramesh, PhD — Partner, Early Stage investing.
• Carl Dickinson — Partner & General Counsel.
• Kelly Richdale — Venture Partner; deep-tech, cyber, quantum security, blockchain, identity management, and AI expertise (also serves as Pimloc's Chairwoman).
• Steve Young — Venture Partner.
• Craig Marshall — Venture Partner (joined June 2026); former CEO of OrganOx, supporting deep-tech founders scaling science-led businesses.
• James Baker — Principal.
• Perman Jorayev — Investment Manager.
• Tom Weatherall — Associate.

Decision Process

Partnership-driven; deals are led by named Partners/Venture Partners (e.g., Nick Kingsbury on Pimloc, Amelia Armour on Slamcore) with investment committee sign-off typical of a 40+ person, multi-office institutional fund rather than a solo-GP structure.

Founder Preferences

Amadeus consistently backs technical founders — often academic spinouts from Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College — building on hard science (robotics, quantum, cryptography, biotech, AI infrastructure) rather than pure application-layer software. Repeat founders and operators with deep domain credibility (e.g., Stateful Robotics' team from Oxford's autonomy/robotics research group; OrganOx's leadership) are a recurring pattern.

Geographic Focus

Primarily UK (London HQ, offices in Cambridge and Oxford), with meaningful investment activity across Europe (Germany, via the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund with Berlin-based APEX Ventures) and selective exposure to the US, Sweden, India, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, and Brazil through its broader portfolio.