Hoxton Ventures

Quick read

Hoxton Ventures is a seed and early-stage VC firm founded in 2013, headquartered in London. It backs technical or domain-expert founders building companies that disrupt large industries or create new market categories, with a particular focus on European founders targeting the US market. Its portfolio includes breakout companies like Darktrace, Deliveroo, and GoCardless.

Key facts

Founded

2013

Founders

Hussein Kanji, Rob Kniaz

Employees

5

Sectors

generalist, saas, ai

Website

hoxtonventures.com/

Investment thesis

Hoxton backs technical or domain-expert founders — including young and first-time founders — building companies that disrupt large existing industries or create entirely new market categories. The firm invests $500K–$5M at pre-seed through Series A, typically as the first institutional cheque, and prioritises European companies that target the US market early.

Recent activity

• Jun 2026fundraise
  SEC filing confirmed Hoxton Ventures IV, L.P. has raised $60M toward a $125M target, continuing the firm's seed-stage strategy of writing $500K–$5M initial checks targeting 10–20% ownership. everythingstartups.com
• May 2026investment
  Portfolio company Avantia, an AI-native legal-tech firm, was acquired by Carta, the cap table and fund administration platform serving over 50,000 companies and investors. cityam.com
• Aug 2025leadership
  Skyla McDonald joined Hoxton Ventures as Executive Assistant, working directly with partners Bryan Gartner and Isabel Fox. She brings 12 years of experience in executive support and global events, previously at Fenergo and Xero. hoxtonventures.com
• 2023leadership
  Rob Kniaz departed as co-founding Partner to launch a new deep tech-focused VC fund. He retains the title of Partner Emeritus. superscout.co
• 2023leadership
  Bryan Gartner joined as Partner from Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, expanding Hoxton's US presence. He focuses on mobile, edtech, fintech, data and analytics, and vertical SaaS. hoxtonventures.com
• 2023press
  Hoxton was selected as one of five firms by NVIDIA to accelerate the UK's AI startup ecosystem, and ranks in the top 10 globally on the Founders Choice VC leaderboard. everythingstartups.com
• Jan 2026press
  Hoxton Ventures published a Founder Spotlight interview with Finster AI founder Sid Jayakumar, covering his path from Google DeepMind to building an AI-native platform for finance. finster.ai
• 2025investment
  Hoxton invested in Otera (formerly Deep Opinion), an Austrian GenAI platform for enterprise AI agent apps, from Hoxton Fund IV. Deal led by Bryan Gartner. hoxtonventures.com
• Aug 2025leadership
  Skyla McDonald joined Hoxton Ventures as Executive Assistant, supporting the wider team and working directly with Bryan Gartner and Isabel Fox. She brings nine years of executive support experience from Fenergo and Xero. hoxtonventures.com
• Jan 2024investment
  Hoxton co-led a follow-on investment in biomarker firm Inoviv alongside Foresight Group. Funds go toward expanding Inoviv's commercial activities in clinical proteomics and broadening its R&D into oncology. inoviv.com
• 2023press
  Hoxton Ventures ranked 8th best venture firm globally for 2023. hoxtonventures.com
• 2023leadership
  Hoxton hired Bryan Gartner from Khosla Ventures, adding a senior investment partner to the team. hoxtonventures.com

Notable investments

• AvantiaSeedMay 2026cityam.com
• CuspAISeedUnknownseedtable.com
• Malted AISeedUnknownseedtable.com
• BaseimmuneSeries AUnknownseedtable.com
• Pear BioSeries AUnknownseedtable.com
• CognaSeedUnknownseedtable.com
• Multiomic HealthSeedUnknownseedtable.com
• DeblockSeedUnknownseedtable.com
• Otera (formerly Deep Opinion)Seed2025hoxtonventures.com
• InovivFollow-onJan 2024inoviv.com
• KITTSeed2023hoxtonventures.com
• BotherSeed2021hoxtonventures.com

Key people

Named individuals at the firm. We don't expose direct email or phone — use their LinkedIn for outreach.

• Hussein Kanji · Co-Founder & Partner
• Rob Kniaz · Co-Founder & Partner
• Payton Dobbs · Partner
• Rishabh Kaul · Venture Partner
• Charles Songhurst · Venture Partner

Sources

• Hoxton Ventures – Official Website
• Hoxton Ventures | LinkedIn
• Hoxton Ventures – Tracxn Profile
• Hoxton Ventures – Crunchbase
• Hoxton Ventures – CB Insights
• Vishnu Amble on Hoxton Ventures Fund III
• https://finster.ai/resources/insights/founder-spotlight-hoxton-ventures-google-deepmind-finster-building-ai-that-works-for-finance
• https://hoxtonventures.com/portfolio/deep-opinion/
• https://hoxtonventures.com/team-member/skyla-mcdonald/
• https://inoviv.com/press-release-funding/
• https://hoxtonventures.com/latest/
• https://www.everythingstartups.com/vc-funds/hoxton-ventures
• https://www.cityam.com/avantia-hoxton-ventures-portfolio-company-acquired-by-carta/
• https://superscout.co/investor/hoxton-ventures
• https://hoxtonventures.com/team-member/bryan-gartner/

Other VCs in United Kingdom

• Balderton Capital · Early-stage VC, London·
• Atomico · Multi-stage VC, London·
• Molten Ventures · Multi-stage VC, London·
• Octopus Ventures · Early-stage VC, London·
• Episode 1 Ventures · Seed VC, London·
• Lakestar · Multi-stage VC, London + Zurich

Explore VCs by sector

• Generalist in United Kingdom
• SaaS in United Kingdom

Globally

• Generalist worldwide
• SaaS worldwide

Frequently asked