Empirical Ventures
Empirical Ventures is a Bristol-based deep-science venture capital firm that backs UK scientists turning lab research into companies at pre-seed and seed stages. Empirical Ventures is a generalist, not a water specialist: of its 20-plus startups, two are in water. As of March 2026 it added a £10 million British Business Bank commitment, taking total backing to £15 million.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Empirical Ventures secured an extra £10 million in March 2026 from the British Business Bank, the UK state-owned development bank, taking the total committed to its deep-science fund to £15 million. That money does one specific thing: it backs scientists rather than generalist founders, at the pre-seed and seed stage, the first cheques a company ever raises. Empirical Ventures is a Bristol fund built on a single conviction, that the most valuable companies of the next century will be built by deep domain experts who can cross from the lab bench to the market.
Empirical Ventures has an origin worth knowing. Co-founders Ben Miles, a physicist, and Johnathan Matlock, a chemist, met as early scientific hires at Ziylo, a University of Bristol spinout whose diabetes technology was bought by Novo Nordisk. After that exit Ben built Spin Up Science, training thousands of would-be scientist-founders, and Johnathan turned full-time angel investor in deeptech. A 2021 conversation about the missing breed of domain-specialist investor pulled them back together, first as an angel syndicate, then as a fund with its own SEIS and EIS vehicles, the UK tax-advantaged schemes that channel private money into early startups.
Water sits inside that thesis as one expression of it, never the headline. Across more than 20 deep-science startups, Empirical Ventures has backed two that I track as water: Seloxium, whose engineered proteins selectively pull metals out of process and waste streams, and WASE, whose containerised reactors use electricity-driven microbes to treat wastewater while recovering energy. Both are resource recovery dressed as deep science, the unglamorous, chemistry-heavy corner where water value actually hides, and both fit the venture-scientist mould far better than a water-utility playbook would.
Empirical Ventures is the fund a newcomer should file under deep-science generalist with a resource-recovery streak, not water specialist, and the distinction changes how you read it. To my eye the open question is whether the fresh £15 million pushes more science into water-adjacent territory, since these founders keep gravitating to the messy physical problems most software investors avoid. For now water is two strong bets inside a much bigger deep-science book, not a mandate Empirical Ventures leads with.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Empirical Ventures invest in?
- Empirical Ventures invests in deep-science and deep-tech startups spun out of UK research, across life sciences, advanced materials, photonics, quantum, robotics and energy. Empirical Ventures leads pre-seed and seed rounds, the first outside money a company raises, through SEIS and EIS tax-advantaged funds. Two of its companies work in water.
- Is Empirical Ventures a water-focused fund?
- No. Empirical Ventures is a deep-science generalist, not a water specialist. Of the more than 20 startups Empirical Ventures has backed since 2024, only two are in water. Those bets sit inside a broad science thesis about recovering value from physical and chemical processes, not a dedicated water mandate.
- What water companies has Empirical Ventures backed?
- Empirical Ventures has backed two water companies. Seloxium uses engineered proteins to selectively recover metals from process and waste streams, and WASE builds containerised reactors that use electricity-driven microbes to treat wastewater and recover energy. Empirical Ventures invested alongside co-investors including ENGIE New Ventures and Elbow Beach Capital.
- Who runs Empirical Ventures?
- Empirical Ventures was co-founded in 2024 and is run by general partners Ben Miles, a physicist, and Johnathan Matlock, a chemist, who met as early scientists at Bristol spinout Ziylo. Venture partners Alexander Fink and Keith Lipman round out the investment team.
- Where is Empirical Ventures based?
- Empirical Ventures is based in Bristol, United Kingdom, and backs scientist founders across the UK, from Bristol to Manchester and Edinburgh. As of March 2026 Empirical Ventures had secured £15 million in total fund backing, including a £10 million commitment from the British Business Bank.