Abstract

Nothing ventured, nothing gained – from ECS PhD to a £100m Venture Capital Fund

From designing microchips in the labs of ECS to deploying over £100 million into early-stage startups, Reuben’s career has been shaped by small moments that became pivotal turning points. In this talk, he reflects on an unconventional journey that led from academia to entrepreneurship and venture capital - sharing the unexpected decisions, lucky breaks, and hard lessons that defined the path.

Reuben will take the audience inside the world of startups and venture investment, showing how curiosity, risk-taking, and resilience can transform an engineering mindset into a platform for innovation and impact. Along the way, he’ll reveal the surprising ways that his time at Southampton, and even the smallest side projects, set the stage for everything that followed.

Whether you’re a student, researcher, or budding entrepreneur, this is a story about how the ventures we take, both big and small, can open doors we never imagined.

Dr Reuben Wilcock bio:

Dr Reuben Wilcock is an entrepreneur, investor, and technologist with a passion for turning ideas into impact. After earning his BEng and PhD at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science, Reuben stayed on as a researcher designing microchips while founding his first companies - combining technical curiosity with an emerging passion for entrepreneurship.

As Head of Ventures at Blackfinch, Reuben designed and launched one of the UK’s fastest-growing early-stage investment platforms, deploying over £100 million into more than 40 high-growth technology companies across SaaS, deep tech, and IoT. Under his leadership, Blackfinch Ventures became one of the most active VCT and EIS funds in the country.

Before moving into venture capital, Reuben founded and scaled four technology startups, including Joulo, an award-winning smart-energy venture acquired by Quby, and Custom Idea, which developed and patented the world’s first direct-connect geotagging device for Nikon cameras. He also founded the Future Worlds Accelerator at Southampton, mentoring over 200 entrepreneurs and helping more than 50 startups launch, raise capital, and scale.

Today, Reuben is co-founder of Bar Analytics, an IoT company transforming how beverage dispense is monitored globally, and serves as a non-executive director with cutting-edge technology ventures, Minimal, Placed, Neuranics, and Tended.

ECS Annual Professor Geoffrey Sims Lecture with Dr Reuben Wilcock