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Today’s edition is all about Conception X’s demo day, which I attended in London late last week. There’s plenty to get your teeth into, so read on!

But first:

• London-based VC firm Backed has closed its third fund, totalling $100 million. The new fund will focus on startups in the fields of AI-native therapeutics, blockchain, and banking infrastructure and manufacturing automation.

• It’s not very often my writing about startups overlaps with my going to see live music, but on Friday night at BC Camplight’s big hometown show at Manchester Apollo, it was good to see Dune promoting their approach to helping fans support music artists’ careers. You can read our pre-launch profile from April here.

– Martin

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12 new deep tech startups you need to know

On Thursday last week Conception X held its annual demo day, highlighting 12 of the teams from its latest cohort of teams turning PhD research into deep tech startups.

Here’s what we took from the pitches. Hopefully it will introduce you to a wide range of new talent.

Immobilase

They say: “Immobilase is building stable, reusable enzyme systems with immobilisation technology, outperforming single-use enzymes that need refrigeration and complex infrastructure – for the production of high-value chemicals for pharmaceuticals, food and cosmetics.”

We say: This comes across as a truly impressive way to serve the growing synthetic biology market.

Enzymes typically have to be kept too cold to be flexibly practical, they’re single-use, and too expensive.

Immobilase’s tech makes enzymes reusable for up to six months, allowing them to be used multiple times at a much lower cost per test than existing approaches.

Their first product is now in testing.

From: University College London

CamVolt

They say: “CamVolt develops intelligent pressure control systems that enhance battery lifetime, performance and safety by maintaining optimal internal pressure in lithium-ion and next-generation cells.”

We say: 90% of batteries fail before their time, CamVolt CTO and co-founder Hang Weng explained in this pitch.

By controlling the internal pressure of the battery, CamVolt says it can extend battery life by up to five times, emphasising high precision and high scalability.

They’re conducting their first pilot, and have already brought in £70,000 of revenue

From: University of Cambridge

Kora Health

They say: “Kora Health develops interpretable risk models for insurers to prevent mental health crises and optimise healthcare utilisation.”

We say: CEO Laurence Freeman summarised Kora Health’s technology as a “blood pressure monitor for psychiatry.”

Mental health emergencies are common, costly, and preventable with continuous monitoring. But this monitoring is too costly for humans to do.

The idea here is that AI can make predictions to show how much money will be saved in the long run if an early intervention is made. And emphasising cost savings, US health insurers can be incentivised to support early care.

Kora Health’s co-founders both have a combination of tech industry experience and academic credentials.

From: University College London

Stars Edge

They say: “Stars Edge develops next-generation Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellites with a patent-pending plasma ramjet that extends mission lifetimes, reduces orbital debris, and enables high-resolution Earth observation, low-latency communications and defence applications.”

We say: Data from satellites can be very valuable but satellites are expensive to put into orbit and operate. Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellites are a solution but require specialist hardware, such as that being developed by Stars Edge.

Interestingly, CEO Sara Alão said that these VLEO satellites can be undetectable from the ground and can cost just 20% the price of traditional satellites.

The startup is in talks for contracts, with discussions ongoing for a satellite launch in 2027.

From: Cranfield University

SEncIL

They say: “SEncIL is developing encapsulation technology that transforms liquid drugs into polymer-encapsulated powders, delivering improved solubility and absorption for more effective oral drug delivery.”

We say: Liquid drug formulations can be more effective than traditional forms of oral drugs, but pharmaceutical companies can struggle to manufacture and administer them, Patrick Keady, chemistry technical lead at SEncIL explained in this pitch.

And so this startup is reformulating drugs to improve outcomes, transforming them into a powder that makes them easier to administer.

Fun fact: thanks to their inclusion in the Conception X demo day, this is the first non-UK startup we’ve included in PreSeed Now, hailing as they do from the Republic of Ireland.

From: University College Dublin

Quidem

They say: “Quidem is a browser-based fact-checker using advanced AI models to verify information from AI assistants and documents, providing a safety net against misinformation and hallucinations for legal and marketing professionals.”

We say: CEO Wiem Ben Rim channelled rapper Ice Cube in this pitch, with the advice “fact-check yourself before you wreck yourself.”

These days misinformation flows like water on social media. LLMs make forging information even easier, and even when they don’t present misinformation that they’ve been trained on as fact, they’re prone to hallucinating their own distortions.

And so Quidem exists to fact-check the outputs of generative AI, acting as a plug-in that means, if it works, that you only see verified facts. The startup is targeting the legal and PR worlds first and is currently at pilot stage.

From: University College London

Ocengen

They say: “Ocengen has developed advanced catalyst technology for affordable hydrogen production from seawater, enabling coastal energy and maritime decarbonisation.”

We say: Fresh water is a prime source of green hydrogen, which is in turn a potent source of clean energy.

But the UN warns that by 2030, global freshwater demand could exceed supply by 40%. As a result, projects to perform electrolysis on abundant seawater are increasingly common.

This is typically a two-step process, involving desalination followed by electrolysis. However, Ocengen says it has developed true direct seawater electrolysis. This could make it far more practical and cost-effective to create hydrogen from the sea.

A lot of hydrogen-related startups pass our desk here at PreSeed Now, but Ocengen definitely has something different about it.

From: University of Bournemouth

AURApeutics

They say: “AURApeutics uses ultrasound-activated nanoparticles to shatter the defences of drug-resistant chronic infections, making existing antibiotics effective again.”

We say: The rise of infections resistant to antibiotics is fertile ground for deep tech research. But rather than figure out how to handle a world without antibiotics as some startups are doing, AURApeutics is working to prolong the usefulness of existing antibiotics.

AURApeutics’ ultrasound-responsive nanoparticles reduce the amount of drug required 44.4-fold. The startup is working towards completing preclinical validation and plans to conduct its first human trials in 2028.

CEO Victor Choi gave a confident pitch, which won the ‘best pitch’ vote among the demo day audience.

From: University of Oxford

ORiS

They say: “ORiS has developed advanced laser transmission technology to enable wireless power for space and defence applications, improving the energy management of satellites already in orbit and enabling extended flight times for terrestrial drones.”

We say: With demand for space tech increasing, the power demands on satellites will increase more than traditional solar panels can provide.

The solution? ORiS wants to recharge satellites’ onboard batteries via lasers over distances of hundreds of kilometres.

But space tech isn’t the only market the startup is targeting. The tech has so far been tested on drones, where it provides a terrestrial defence use case. At a time when defence drone use is accelerating and defence is a hot field for investors, this seems like a timely startup.

This is another non-UK startup, hailing from Italy.

From: Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Qronon

They say: “Qronon is building a quantum-accelerated machine learning platform that provides extreme weather forecasts beyond two weeks with exponentially less compute than current methods for governments, insurers and enterprises.”

We say: A wide range of organisations and businesses need more precise weather forecasts as the weather becomes more unpredictable.

Qronon CEO Osama Ahmed explained that there is demand for high-resolution forecasts covering four to six weeks ahead, but such detailed reports are expensive and only available up to 30 days ahead.

The startup is using quantum machine learning to enhance AI for weather forecasting, extending the horizon beyond 30 days. Ahmed said this approach is already outperforming conventional AI models, using much less compute.

From: Imperial College London

HyCarb

They say: “HyCarb has developed next-generation methane splitting technology to enable local production of high-value graphitic carbon and affordable hydrogen.”

We say: Here’s another green hydrogen startup. But this time, they’re splitting methane for what founder Paula Dias describes as “the world’s cheapest clean hydrogen”.

Using electrolysis to extract hydrogen from water is too expensive, Dias argues, with high capital costs and infrastructure costs.

Instead, HyCarb is splitting methane to create high-value solid carbon and clean hydrogen, while also serving the carbon credits market. This, the startup says, is far more cost effective than alternative approaches.

HyCarb is planning its first pilot next year, and targeting a market launch by Q1 2028. This is another non-UK startup, hailing from Portugal.

From: University of Porto, Portugal.

Interpolate Labs

They say: “Interpolate Labs has built an AI control tower that detects model drift in computer vision systems to prevent costly prediction errors across healthcare, defence and agriculture.”

We say: Co-founder Israel Mason-Williams opened with a bold claim: “Every computer vision system will use Interpolate Labs”.

Computer vision can be very useful… until it mistakenly identifies something. This can lead to financial and reputational damage for the company or organisation using it.

Mason-Williams explained that Interpolate Labs’ tech “sits on top of” a model, ensuring reliable outputs. It can identify prediction errors and flag them for checking by an expert human.

The company is seeking computer vision design partnerships.

From: Imperial College London

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