Lifelong entrepreneur, board advisor and non-executive director with international experience across numerous industries including deep tech, automotive, property, manufacturing and retail.
Current roles include CEO at AutoM8, Board Director at SPRYT, Founder at Prospex, Board Director at Fountech.ai and board advisor to numerous deep tech start-ups.
Nikolas brings 4 decades of hands-on experience in the field of artificial intelligence innovation, as an entrepreneur, investor, developer, writer, and advisor. He bridges the divide that usually exists between entrepreneurs and scientists; this leads to the creation of novel, practical and impactful AI-centric solutions.
Joseph H. McCall has a lifetime of investment experience. A President's Scholar merit recipient at Texas A&M University, he occasionally enjoyed an early career as an oil-field insurance surveyor during the boom of the latter 70's. He found his calling as a Financial Advisor for Merrill Lynch and Prudential Securities for over 20 years. He acted as a conduit between the firm's analysts and investment bankers and the Austin tech community. During that time he helped found and was Program Chair for the two longest lived technology networking organizations in Austin, TX - Austin Technology Council and Technology Advisors Group. He held a position as Executive Director for the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, a statewide trade group for the industry. He is an investor in a boutique investment bank in NYC. He is also an investor in International Accelerator in Austin, has been judge and MC at IA pitch events, as well as participating in the investment committee to select candidates to join IA.
He still mows his own lawn and doesn't forget the milk when his wife sends him to the grocery store.
As a native Texan, Erik is a creative, industrious, and results-oriented financial executive with a solid background in equity and debt capital raises, M&A deal execution, corporate strategy, business development, turnarounds and restructuring, institutional investment readiness, entrepreneurship, portfolio management, and corporate governance.
For over 18 years, Erik has worked successfully in both the start-up world and for large corporates and is one of those unusual individuals who feels just as at home in the boardroom as he does at the ranch.
Financial Economics undergraduate with a passion for fast cars, big ideas and even bigger challenges. Whether it involves climbing frozen volcanoes in Iceland, riding horses over obstacles taller than he is, or building the next generation of deep tech startups, Alex is always ready to dive straight into the deep end. He has a strong track record in UK & Pan-European investment banking/asset management, local government, project management, business development and venture building.
Co-lead / Co-founder of several deep-tech AI projects / startups.
An attorney on the cutting edge of technology law. He has experience throughout the technology space having counselled numerous companies from start-up through acquisition. Brian has many years of experience negotiating a variety of agreements and deal structures, including licensing, consulting, and outsourcing arrangements. In addition, he provides services around entity formation and early stage funding including convertible debt financing and Series A investments. Brian acts as an outsourced general counsel for many of his clients.
Jennifer is a versatile executive with 30 years of accounting and finance experience leading technology companies through start-up, turnaround, and continuous profitable growth situations. A hands-on problem solver with an extensive background in accounting, auditing, financial modeling, M&A, systems implementations, international business and related. Jennifer has held financial and operational leadership roles in multiple privately held, private equity backed and public organizations. Jennifer has been instrumental in completing numerous capital transactions from $1 million to over $100 million in the form of venture capital, private equity and IPO’s as well as exit transactions.
When not working Jennifer can be found teaching scuba diving in Roatan, Honduras or traveling the world by motorcycle.
As The Entrepreneur's Doctor, Dr Behbod helps Entrepreneurs create a healthier, happier world through their ventures. As a Harvard & Oxford trained public health physician, author of Startup Therapy, and host of The Entrepreneur's Doctor podcast, he serves as Chief Medical Officer, mentor, and board advisor to startups and scaleups.
Hunter has launched ML / AI products in the IOT / Smart City space for 8 years, where he led development and new business units for multiple venture backed startups. Everything from HVAC to garbage.
Studying physics and product development in college, Hunter worked in the Office of Technology and Commercialization and helped launch over 20 companies based upon deep tech research, coming out of the University of Minnesota. He currently leads AI and computer vision for Flash, a parking and mobility hub technology company based in Austin, TX. Outside of work, Hunter can be found spending time with his wife and three kids, building in his shop, or kiteboarding.
Sabbir has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and has enjoyed a distinguished career in optics, sensors, LiDAR, and movement automation. He currently heads Patience Consulting, a specialist in assisting customers with market, management, strategic and technology analysis as well as serving on the board of multiple companies and being a regular Forbes contributor.
Previously, Sabbir pioneered development of high-performance LiDAR systems at Princeton Lightwave and led the Automotive LiDAR business, where he was pivotal in the company’s sale to Argo.ai.
Dr. Iosif is a scientist in the field of natural language processing and blockchain technologies with over 12 years of research experience. His passion is computational semantics, and he holds two ‘best system’ awards for his contributions in this regard.
Aliki has been in the field of education for over 20 years as a teacher, leader and teacher trainer, complemented by a Doctorate in Educational Leadership focused on the impact of training in online cooperative learning techniques on self-efficacy.Aliki is consistently fascinated by what enhances learner engagement and how the dynamics of such engagement incessantly metamorphoses with the changing times and technologies to which we are exposed. Learning more about how to engage learners in order to enhance their learning experience are her major priorities as an educator.
Chris has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Michigan and has enjoyed a diverse technical and academic career, starting at Microsoft and working most recently as a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Middlesex.
Chris has published over 100 papers in his time at Middlesex, with most of his work concentrating on spiking neural models as reasonable models of the biological neuron in neuropsychological models and agents built from artificial neurons, whilst his work in vision processing has been based on models of the primary and secondary visual cortex.
Chris has also led work on hybrid and electric vehicle programs in conjunction with leading automobile manufacturers and the US Department of Energy.
David has a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Bristol and is a respected academic, heading all Data Science activities and working as an Associate Professor of Data Science and Machine Learning at the University of Middlesex.
David has authored approximately 150 peer-reviewed publications, covering topics on computer vision, deep learning, quantum computing, biometrics, cognitive bootstrapping, human-computer interfacing and autonomous vehicles. Within this work, David has played a leading role in a number of industrial and academic projects including ESPRC ACASVA, EU DIPLECS and DREAMS4CARS.
Hakima (Linda) has a PhD in Molecular Astrophysics from the University of Paris, where she graduated summa cum laude. She has since enjoyed an impressive variety of technical and academic roles.
Linda is an ambassador for Women in AI, and the designer/developer of a deep-learning algorithm used for eye tracking and gaze prediction. Her interest in deep-learning stems from looking at how solid-state materials play a role in star and planet formation. Linda is a regular member of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and a respected research scientist, working on various AI-centric projects involving the monitoring and understanding of facial movement.
Hugo mixes business strategy, technology and design thinking to drive true transformation both internally and externally from challenger to multinational organisations, enabling them to leapfrog their competitors.
Consistently brought into both startup and global businesses to create new products and revenue streams he is particularly interested in accelerating transformation with the application of Data, Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies. He has 20+ years experience working across agencies, brands and consultancies, and is deeply involved with the startup and VC world. Keynote speaker and lecturer, specialising in virtual learning in the digital and data disciplines.
Celine has over 25 years of international experience in major corporations and start-ups alike, and is a true expert in brand and digital marketing, e-commerce, strategic foresight and digital transformation. She has ran large teams and worked with US Fortune 500 companies in complex technical and cultural environments. She is experienced in delivering go-to-market strategy and leading cross-platform, cross-channel customer acquisition and retention,
Steve has built a business from scratch and grew it to Revenue of £55m before exiting after a trade sale. He has also spent 20+ years working with large corporates, SME organisations and Start-ups, in UK, USA and Europe, as a Board Director and senior commercial leader.
He uses this experience to help ambitious business owners to realise the full potential of their business and prepare them for exit, enabling creation of a clear strategy, focused set of business goals and outcomes, creating or improving systems and processes, recruiting and building a team, assisting with identifying, buying and bolting on acquisitions.
Ian Clarke is a Computer Scientist and Entrepreneur, with a track record of both technical and business innovation, and an outspoken thinker and activist on issues relating to freedom of speech, intellectual property law, and technology.
Ian is best known as the founder and coordinator of the Freenet Project; designed to allow true freedom of communication, Freenet was the first decentralized anonymous peer-to-peer network, and a precursor of the “distributed hashtable” data structure. Ian has also founded a number of innovative and diverse commercial ventures, including Revver, the first online video website to share revenue with video creators, Thoof, a collaboratively generated personalized news website, and SenseArray, a powerful machine learning engine.
Mercedes holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham and has been an academic with the University since. She is at the forefront of taking machine learning where others do not dare to go, leading the design, development and deployment of novel ML techniques using small or skewed datasets as a member of the Computer Vision Lab and Horizon Research Institute.
Gary holds a Chair in Transport Human Factors within the University of Nottingham’s engineering department, focused on human centred design within emerging technologies for the automotive sector. He has published over 200 peer-reviews papers on behalf of OEMs, governing bodies and automotive technology supply chain members, and has strong industrial relationships.
You are a founder with a fully formed idea using deep tech AI. You are going to solve a really gnarly problem with global market potential. Nothing stands in your way. Nothing, except bridging the huge divide between a great idea and commercial success.
This is why we created Fountech Ventures - to act as Deep Tech AI Venture Builders.
Our model is surprisingly simple and enormously effective. We proactively seek out impressive individuals with stellar ideas. We directly invest in a select few and immerse ourselves as corporate co-founders for the long-haul; providing ongoing investment, technical knowhow and commercial knowledge transfer from our in-house team of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. Thinking incubator? Don't! We are far more than an incubator or an accelerator or an investor. We are all three, and then some.
We are Fountech Ventures, Deep Tech AI Venture Builders.
Keep up-to-date on launches and funding rounds over the coming weeks and months.
In-Cubed™ is our unique, AI founder-specific program delivered over a 12, 24 or 36 month period. In-Cubed™ is designed to carefully blend all the key ingredients for startup success; investment, maximizing of technology, commercial and financial modeling, IP management, marketing and sales training, founder one-to-one development and access to early adopter corporate partners.
As we are technologists at heart, we also plan to launch an AI-powered solution that will further support our people-to-people intervention. This solution will provide one-to-one tutoring of founders via three minute micro-lessons delivered by our own knowledge-bot. More on this soon.
Austin, Texas with a satellite office in London.
As the US launchpad, Austin is already home to tech giants like Dell, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Oracle, alongside a fast-growing number of tech startups and scaleups. With a Metro population of 2.1 million, a rapidly growing tech workforce and a world class flagship research institution in the University of Texas at Austin, access to talent is not the challenge faced by other tech hubs.
We are in the process of securing a co-working space to provide a focused yet relaxed environment of collaborative working for all of our founders. It will enable us to host events and training workshops to enhance and grow the capabilities of all startups.
Similar to both angels and VCs, we like to have skin in the game at every stage starting at pre-seed and all the way through to Series B. This gives our portfolio companies the space and freedom to focus on growing their businesses rather than making endless pitches.
Our model enables us to invest strategically from startup through to Series B. We also work with early and later stage investors like VCs, corporate strategic investors, HNWIs and PE firms.
If investing in the innovators of tomorrow is your space, we would love to hear from you.
You are looking to address huge problems by using deep tech AI solutions in radical, yet pragmatic ways
Your deep tech AI is centered in Artificial Intelligence applied to any industry
You are still very early stage, with a fully formed idea but before a prototype
You are determined to have an impact and drive significant change
You want to make a positive difference and build a better future
If this is you, we would love to hear from you.
> Reach out to usDon't miss out, keep up-to-date on launches and funding rounds over the coming weeks and months by subscribing to our newsletter.
> Subscribe to newsletterIn-Cubed™ is designed by us and specifically aimed at the founders of deep tech AI startups. It carefully blends all the key ingredients for startup success; technical and commercial know-how, connections, guidance and strategic investment.
Find a creative way to get our attention...
Will we be impressed?
Not fun, but essential
Ongoing learning & development / Building-out commercial model / Exploring partnerships / Mentoring & Guidance
Our faith in you realized
Test ideas & assumptions
You're on your way
Test the market, unit metrics secured
It's getting really serious now
It works, the market loves you
Time for global domination
We are a passionate bunch who are keen to see the next generation of innovators and game-changers come to life. Being founders from various backgrounds ourselves, we also know that having a world-view, an open-mind and being inclusive builds better teams, so think of us as your team.
Lifelong entrepreneur, board advisor and non-executive director with international experience across numerous industries including deep tech, automotive, property, manufacturing and retail.
Current roles include CEO at AutoM8, Board Director at SPRYT, Founder at Prospex, Board Director at Fountech.ai and board advisor to numerous deep tech start-ups.
Nikolas brings 4 decades of hands-on experience in the field of artificial intelligence innovation, as an entrepreneur, investor, developer, writer, and advisor. He bridges the divide that usually exists between entrepreneurs and scientists; this leads to the creation of novel, practical and impactful AI-centric solutions.
Joseph H. McCall has a lifetime of investment experience. A President's Scholar merit recipient at Texas A&M University, he occasionally enjoyed an early career as an oil-field insurance surveyor during the boom of the latter 70's. He found his calling as a Financial Advisor for Merrill Lynch and Prudential Securities for over 20 years. He acted as a conduit between the firm's analysts and investment bankers and the Austin tech community. During that time he helped found and was Program Chair for the two longest lived technology networking organizations in Austin, TX - Austin Technology Council and Technology Advisors Group. He held a position as Executive Director for the Texas Nanotechnology Initiative, a statewide trade group for the industry. He is an investor in a boutique investment bank in NYC. He is also an investor in International Accelerator in Austin, has been judge and MC at IA pitch events, as well as participating in the investment committee to select candidates to join IA.
He still mows his own lawn and doesn't forget the milk when his wife sends him to the grocery store.
As a native Texan, Erik is a creative, industrious, and results-oriented financial executive with a solid background in equity and debt capital raises, M&A deal execution, corporate strategy, business development, turnarounds and restructuring, institutional investment readiness, entrepreneurship, portfolio management, and corporate governance.
For over 18 years, Erik has worked successfully in both the start-up world and for large corporates and is one of those unusual individuals who feels just as at home in the boardroom as he does at the ranch.
Financial Economics undergraduate with a passion for fast cars, big ideas and even bigger challenges. Whether it involves climbing frozen volcanoes in Iceland, riding horses over obstacles taller than he is, or building the next generation of deep tech startups, Alex is always ready to dive straight into the deep end. He has a strong track record in UK & Pan-European investment banking/asset management, local government, project management, business development and venture building.
Co-lead / Co-founder of several deep-tech AI projects / startups.
An attorney on the cutting edge of technology law. He has experience throughout the technology space having counselled numerous companies from start-up through acquisition. Brian has many years of experience negotiating a variety of agreements and deal structures, including licensing, consulting, and outsourcing arrangements. In addition, he provides services around entity formation and early stage funding including convertible debt financing and Series A investments. Brian acts as an outsourced general counsel for many of his clients.
Jennifer is a versatile executive with 30 years of accounting and finance experience leading technology companies through start-up, turnaround, and continuous profitable growth situations. A hands-on problem solver with an extensive background in accounting, auditing, financial modeling, M&A, systems implementations, international business and related. Jennifer has held financial and operational leadership roles in multiple privately held, private equity backed and public organizations. Jennifer has been instrumental in completing numerous capital transactions from $1 million to over $100 million in the form of venture capital, private equity and IPO’s as well as exit transactions.
When not working Jennifer can be found teaching scuba diving in Roatan, Honduras or traveling the world by motorcycle.
As The Entrepreneur's Doctor, Dr Behbod helps Entrepreneurs create a healthier, happier world through their ventures. As a Harvard & Oxford trained public health physician, author of Startup Therapy, and host of The Entrepreneur's Doctor podcast, he serves as Chief Medical Officer, mentor, and board advisor to startups and scaleups.
Hunter has launched ML / AI products in the IOT / Smart City space for 8 years, where he led development and new business units for multiple venture backed startups. Everything from HVAC to garbage.
Studying physics and product development in college, Hunter worked in the Office of Technology and Commercialization and helped launch over 20 companies based upon deep tech research, coming out of the University of Minnesota. He currently leads AI and computer vision for Flash, a parking and mobility hub technology company based in Austin, TX. Outside of work, Hunter can be found spending time with his wife and three kids, building in his shop, or kiteboarding.
Sabbir has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and has enjoyed a distinguished career in optics, sensors, LiDAR, and movement automation. He currently heads Patience Consulting, a specialist in assisting customers with market, management, strategic and technology analysis as well as serving on the board of multiple companies and being a regular Forbes contributor.
Previously, Sabbir pioneered development of high-performance LiDAR systems at Princeton Lightwave and led the Automotive LiDAR business, where he was pivotal in the company’s sale to Argo.ai.
Dr. Iosif is a scientist in the field of natural language processing and blockchain technologies with over 12 years of research experience. His passion is computational semantics, and he holds two ‘best system’ awards for his contributions in this regard.
Aliki has been in the field of education for over 20 years as a teacher, leader and teacher trainer, complemented by a Doctorate in Educational Leadership focused on the impact of training in online cooperative learning techniques on self-efficacy.Aliki is consistently fascinated by what enhances learner engagement and how the dynamics of such engagement incessantly metamorphoses with the changing times and technologies to which we are exposed. Learning more about how to engage learners in order to enhance their learning experience are her major priorities as an educator.
Chris has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Michigan and has enjoyed a diverse technical and academic career, starting at Microsoft and working most recently as a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Middlesex.
Chris has published over 100 papers in his time at Middlesex, with most of his work concentrating on spiking neural models as reasonable models of the biological neuron in neuropsychological models and agents built from artificial neurons, whilst his work in vision processing has been based on models of the primary and secondary visual cortex.
Chris has also led work on hybrid and electric vehicle programs in conjunction with leading automobile manufacturers and the US Department of Energy.
David has a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Bristol and is a respected academic, heading all Data Science activities and working as an Associate Professor of Data Science and Machine Learning at the University of Middlesex.
David has authored approximately 150 peer-reviewed publications, covering topics on computer vision, deep learning, quantum computing, biometrics, cognitive bootstrapping, human-computer interfacing and autonomous vehicles. Within this work, David has played a leading role in a number of industrial and academic projects including ESPRC ACASVA, EU DIPLECS and DREAMS4CARS.
Hakima (Linda) has a PhD in Molecular Astrophysics from the University of Paris, where she graduated summa cum laude. She has since enjoyed an impressive variety of technical and academic roles.
Linda is an ambassador for Women in AI, and the designer/developer of a deep-learning algorithm used for eye tracking and gaze prediction. Her interest in deep-learning stems from looking at how solid-state materials play a role in star and planet formation. Linda is a regular member of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and a respected research scientist, working on various AI-centric projects involving the monitoring and understanding of facial movement.
Hugo mixes business strategy, technology and design thinking to drive true transformation both internally and externally from challenger to multinational organisations, enabling them to leapfrog their competitors.
Consistently brought into both startup and global businesses to create new products and revenue streams he is particularly interested in accelerating transformation with the application of Data, Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies. He has 20+ years experience working across agencies, brands and consultancies, and is deeply involved with the startup and VC world. Keynote speaker and lecturer, specialising in virtual learning in the digital and data disciplines.
Celine has over 25 years of international experience in major corporations and start-ups alike, and is a true expert in brand and digital marketing, e-commerce, strategic foresight and digital transformation. She has ran large teams and worked with US Fortune 500 companies in complex technical and cultural environments. She is experienced in delivering go-to-market strategy and leading cross-platform, cross-channel customer acquisition and retention,
Steve has built a business from scratch and grew it to Revenue of £55m before exiting after a trade sale. He has also spent 20+ years working with large corporates, SME organisations and Start-ups, in UK, USA and Europe, as a Board Director and senior commercial leader.
He uses this experience to help ambitious business owners to realise the full potential of their business and prepare them for exit, enabling creation of a clear strategy, focused set of business goals and outcomes, creating or improving systems and processes, recruiting and building a team, assisting with identifying, buying and bolting on acquisitions.
Ian Clarke is a Computer Scientist and Entrepreneur, with a track record of both technical and business innovation, and an outspoken thinker and activist on issues relating to freedom of speech, intellectual property law, and technology.
Ian is best known as the founder and coordinator of the Freenet Project; designed to allow true freedom of communication, Freenet was the first decentralized anonymous peer-to-peer network, and a precursor of the “distributed hashtable” data structure. Ian has also founded a number of innovative and diverse commercial ventures, including Revver, the first online video website to share revenue with video creators, Thoof, a collaboratively generated personalized news website, and SenseArray, a powerful machine learning engine.
Mercedes holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham and has been an academic with the University since. She is at the forefront of taking machine learning where others do not dare to go, leading the design, development and deployment of novel ML techniques using small or skewed datasets as a member of the Computer Vision Lab and Horizon Research Institute.
Gary holds a Chair in Transport Human Factors within the University of Nottingham’s engineering department, focused on human centred design within emerging technologies for the automotive sector. He has published over 200 peer-reviews papers on behalf of OEMs, governing bodies and automotive technology supply chain members, and has strong industrial relationships.
Our team is a rare beast. We are scientists, we are software engineers, we are academics and we are tech entrepreneurs.
We are a passionate bunch that are keen to see the next generation of innovators and game-changers come to life. Being founders from various backgrounds ourselves, we also know having a world-view, an open-mind and being inclusive builds better teams, so think of us as your team.
I have an idea for a deep tech AI business. Should I contact you?
Do you have a sector preference?
Why is In-Cubed™ special?
Are you a VC?
What is the difference between Pre-Seed and Seed investment at Fountech Ventures?
What is the difference between Series A and Series B investment at Fountech Ventures?
How much investment do you provide?