Molten Ventures

Quick read

Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit) is a publicly listed, multi-stage VC founded in 2015 and headquartered in London. It's one of Europe's most active tech investors, backing companies from Series A through pre-IPO across SaaS, deeptech, healthtech, and consumer software. Its evergreen capital structure — enabled by its LSE listing — means it's not bound by traditional five-year fund cycles, giving founders a longer-term partner.

Key facts

Founded

2015

Employees

29

Sectors

generalist, enterprise, consumer, ai, healthcare

Website

www.moltenventures.com

Investment thesis

Molten backs high-growth European technology companies across SaaS, deeptech, healthtech, and consumer software, writing first cheques at Series A or B and following companies through to pre-IPO. Its public listing and evergreen capital structure let it invest without the constraints of traditional closed-end fund timelines.

Recent activity

• Jan 2026investment
  Molten co-led a $42M Series B round in Hilo, its most recently tracked deal. startupintros.com
• Jan 2026press
  Molten Ventures executed a share buyback programme on 31 December 2025, disclosed in early January 2026. tracxn.com
• Jan 2026investment
  Participated as co-lead investor in the $5.5M seed round for Sightline, a market intelligence platform focused on the transition economy. moltenventures.com
• 2025investment
  Acquired a significant majority (97%) of Connect Ventures' first fund in a secondary acquisition, extending its strategy of buying LP interests in later-stage portfolios. moltenventures.com
• 2025investment
  Participated in a Series B round for Modo Energy, one of its more recent portfolio additions. tracxn.com

Notable investments

• HiloSeries BJan 2026startupintros.com
• SightlineSeedJan 2026moltenventures.com
• Modo EnergySeries B2025tracxn.com
• Revoluttracxn.com
• Ledgertracxn.com
• Aircalltracxn.com
• Freetradetracxn.com

Key people

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

• Martin Davis · CEO
• Stuart Chapman · Co-founder
• Vinoth Jayakumar · Partner
• Christoph Hornung · Partner
• Christel Piron · Partner

Sources

• Welcome to Molten Ventures
• News | Molten Ventures
• Investor Portal | Molten Ventures
• Molten Ventures | Investor Profile, Funding Criteria & Team
• Molten Ventures - 2026 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends - Tracxn
• Molten Ventures: Funding, Team & Investors | Startup Intros
• Molten Ventures - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding
• Molten Ventures | LinkedIn

Other VCs in United Kingdom

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

Explore VCs by sector

• Generalist in United Kingdom
• Enterprise software in United Kingdom
• Consumer in United Kingdom

Globally

• Generalist worldwide
• Enterprise software worldwide
• Consumer worldwide

Frequently asked