Molten Ventures
London-listed European venture firm (formerly Draper Esprit); co-led IMU Biosciences' £40m Series A.
Last refreshed: 7 June 2026
Timeline for Molten Ventures
co-led the IMU Biosciences £40m Series A
UK Startups and Innovation: IMU raises £40m to read blood- What is Molten Ventures and was it always called that?
- Molten Ventures is a London Stock Exchange-listed European venture capital firm. It was formerly known as Draper Esprit and rebranded in 2022 to establish an independent identity.Source:
- Which life-sciences company did Molten Ventures back in 2026?
- Molten Ventures co-led the oversubscribed £40m Series A for IMU Biosciences in June 2026, alongside IQ Capital and the British Business Bank.Source:
- How is Molten Ventures different from a standard venture capital fund?
- Molten Ventures is listed on the London Stock Exchange and operates as an evergreen fund, continuously reinvesting realisations without a fixed fund life, giving investors liquid exposure to private European technology companies.Source: Molten Ventures
Background
Molten Ventures is a London Stock Exchange-listed venture capital firm that invests across the European technology ecosystem. It was formerly known as Draper Esprit until rebranding in 2022, a change designed to establish an independent identity separate from the US Draper network. Molten operates as an evergreen fund structure, continuously reinvesting realisations rather than running to a fixed fund life, which gives it flexibility to support companies from Series A through to pre-IPO. Its portfolio spans fintech, enterprise software, consumer technology, and deep tech, with significant holdings in companies including PrimaryBid and Thought Machine.
In June 2026, Molten Ventures co-led the oversubscribed £40m ($53m) Series A for IMU Biosciences alongside IQ Capital, with the British Business Bank also co-investing. IMU develops a platform that extracts actionable clinical intelligence from blood samples at higher Fidelity than conventional assays, targeting diagnostics in oncology and metabolic disease. Molten's co-lead role signals its continued appetite for UK life-sciences instrumentation deals.
As a listed vehicle, Molten provides retail and institutional investors with liquid exposure to European private technology markets, and its net asset value is tracked quarterly by the market. The IMU investment comes at a moment when UK life-sciences VC is under structural pressure from reduced grant availability, making institutional LP-backed funds like Molten increasingly important as a source of growth capital.