Ruya Ventures Raises $50M to Bridge Lab-to-Market Gap

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-01

London-based Ruya Ventures, a venture capital firm run by a single general partner and founded by DeepTech investor Rick Hao, just announced a $50 million fundraise for its first VC fund. The goal? To help global DeepTech innovations move from the lab into real-world deployment. The fund hit its final close in less than a year and was oversubscribed. That tells you something about the appetite for this kind of investing. ### Why Most DeepTech Startups Fail Rick Hao, founder and solo GP of Ruya Ventures, puts it bluntly: "DeepTech is a marathon not a sprint. Any successful founder in the space will tell you that getting out of the lab is not the hardest part of the journey. Yes, timelines are lengthy and capital requirements hefty but DeepTech failures are not down to the science being wrong." He adds, "Most DeepTech companies stall because no one helps founders figure out how to cross the chasm between a working prototype and a product that can be manufactured at scale and adopted by the market." This is the core problem Ruya Ventures aims to solve. It's not about funding the science. It's about funding the messy, expensive journey from prototype to product. ### A Wave of DeepTech Funding in 2026 Ruya Ventures' first fund close comes amid a surge of capital flowing into DeepTech and adjacent areas like semiconductors, robotics, physical AI, and quantum computing. Some recent examples include: - **Openchip** (Barcelona): $130 million for AI and high-performance computing chips - **Invisix** (Eindhoven): $23 million Seed round for semiconductor metrology - **THEKER** (Barcelona): $83 million Series A for AI robotics deployment - **QuantWare**: $173 million Series B (quantum computing) - **Quobly**: $130 million Series A (quantum computing) - **eleQtron**: $65 million Series A (quantum computing) Across these 2026 rounds, total funding amounts to roughly $2 billion, or about $625 million excluding NEURA Robotics' "up to $1.4 billion" Series C. Rick Hao also appeared in earlier coverage as a Speedinvest partner related to DeepTech startup Astral Systems' 2025 funding round. ### A Global Network, Not Just a European One "DeepTech (and the supply chains that underpin it) is an inherently global game. A European lens alone is not sufficient. That is why Ruya Ventures is rooted in Europe but deliberately built with a network that spans Europe, the US, and Asia," adds Rick. Founded in 2025, Ruya Ventures plans to build a portfolio of 20 DeepTech companies worldwide. The firm will back frontier technologies tackling meaningful but difficult problems, with a particular focus on targeted technology value chains where it has built conviction through academic research networks, previous investments, and experience in commercialisation. Rather than taking a broad-based approach, Ruya Ventures will focus on sectors including AI, batteries, robotics, semiconductors, materials science, and novel computing. ### Already Deploying Capital The firm is already putting money to work. Its first investments include: - **WLF Energy**: developing energy infrastructure from generation to grid - **MegaCool**: building cooling hardware tailored to modern compute needs Ruya Ventures has also backed three additional stealth-mode startups working across AI, robotics, and semiconductors. As a day-zero fund and long-term strategic partner to startups, Ruya Ventures aims to support founders in their first financing round and, in many cases, even before incorporation. Through its networks across Asia, the firm also helps with commercialisation, manufacturing, supply chain development, and international expansion. ### The Work After the Check "We are interested in the work that happens after the check is written that closes that gap. It's the commercialisation, the manufacturing strategy, the global network that most early-stage investors are not set up to do well," says Rick. While Europe has a strong research base, many startups in the sector need access to manufacturing partners, global customers, specialist infrastructure, and cross-border capital networks. Ruya Ventures' model is designed to connect founders with this broader ecosystem from the beginning of their company-building journey.