QuantumLight Closes $500M Fund II – and Algorithmic VC Stops Being an Experiment
Fifteen months after its first fund, Nik Storonsky's QuantumLight has closed an oversubscribed $500M Fund II - deployed by an algorithm, not a partnership. LPs have repriced systematic venture at 2x. The track record has yet to arrive.
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QuantumLight, the London-based venture firm co-founded by Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky, has closed an oversubscribed $500 million second fund – roughly €432 million – double the size of the $250 million Fund I it raised in May 2025. The close, announced in August 2026, took around six months and came in above the firm’s original target. What makes it notable is not the size but the method: QuantumLight invests through a proprietary AI system, with what the firm describes as little human intervention.
Fifteen months separate Fund I from Fund II. In that window, LPs have effectively repriced systematic venture capital at twice its previous valuation – before a single fund cycle has run to completion.
QuantumLight Fund II: the key facts
- Fund size: $500 million (~€432 million), oversubscribed and above target
- Predecessor: $250 million Fund I, closed May 2025 – Fund II is double the size
- Raise period: roughly six months, announced August 2026
- Firm: QuantumLight, founded 2023, London; co-founded by Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky, led by CEO Ilya Kondrashov
- Method: a proprietary AI model, Aleph, with minimal human intervention
- Stage & sectors: growth stage, global – AI, fintech, SaaS, healthtech, deeptech
- Portfolio: 27 companies, five unicorns, including Together AI, Function Health, Factory, Robin AI, Ben and Fuse Energy
How QuantumLight’s Aleph model works
QuantumLight was founded in 2023 and is led by CEO Ilya Kondrashov. Its investment engine is an in-house model called Aleph, which evaluates growth-stage companies at scale using quantitative signals rather than partner-led sourcing, warm introductions and conviction-based judgement.
The intellectual lineage is not venture capital but quantitative hedge funds – the discipline Storonsky worked in before Revolut. The core claim is that venture returns are driven by observable company-level signals that a model can detect earlier and more consistently than a partnership constrained by its own network, and that removing human discretion removes a source of bias rather than a source of alpha.
The firm invests globally across AI, fintech, SaaS, healthtech and deeptech at growth stage – after the search for a business model is over and the question is how fast capital can be deployed into it.
The QuantumLight portfolio so far
QuantumLight has backed 27 companies to date, five of which have reached unicorn status. Named holdings include Together AI, Function Health, Factory, Robin AI, Ben and Fuse Energy, the last of these carrying a reported $5 billion valuation.
Five unicorns from 27 positions is a striking mark-up rate. It is also, at this stage, exactly that: a mark-up rate. None of it is realised, and a 2025-vintage fund investing into the 2025-26 AI market would be expected to show strong paper performance almost regardless of selection method.
We have a short track record – we are counting on the model to keep improving.
Ilya Kondrashov, CEO, QuantumLight
That is an unusually candid framing from a firm that has just closed an oversubscribed fund, and it locates the bet precisely. LPs are not underwriting a demonstrated edge. They are underwriting the proposition that the edge compounds as the model ingests more data.
Why LPs bought the algorithmic VC thesis
Three things are doing the work here. The first is Storonsky, whose Revolut track record buys a level of trust that a first-time quant manager would not otherwise command. The second is the market context: 2026 fundraising has been brutal for emerging managers, with capital concentrating heavily in established franchises, and a differentiated strategy attached to a recognisable name cuts through that.
The third is structural. A model-driven firm promises the thing traditional venture cannot: scalability without proportional headcount. If Aleph works, fund size stops being constrained by partner bandwidth. That is a genuinely different economic shape, and it is the part of the pitch institutional allocators find hardest to ignore.
What to watch
The open question is whether an algorithm can outperform experienced venture partners across a full cycle – including the part of the cycle where marks come down and exits either arrive or do not. Fund I has not yet reached that point. Until DPI, not TVPI, is the number being discussed, the systematic thesis remains unproven rather than validated.
There is also a selection question that quantitative signals do not obviously solve at growth stage: the best rounds are frequently allocation-constrained, and access is still won through relationships. A model can identify the right company and still not be invited into the round.
For founders, though, the practical implication is worth taking seriously. A firm that sources by signal rather than by network is one of the few growth investors where not knowing anybody is not disqualifying. For European founders outside the London-Paris-Berlin introduction circuit, that is a meaningful change in who might call. It also sits alongside the public-capital response to the same problem – the EIF’s €15B ETCI 2 fund of funds – and the steady flow of rounds we track in our weekly European fundraising roundup.
For Sesamers readers tracking how European capital is being deployed, QuantumLight is the clearest test case going of whether venture capital’s craft can be automated – and the results will not be in for years.
Frequently asked questions
What is QuantumLight?
QuantumLight is a London-based growth-stage venture firm founded in 2023 and co-founded by Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky. It is led by CEO Ilya Kondrashov and invests through a proprietary AI model rather than partner-led sourcing.
How big is QuantumLight Fund II?
Fund II closed at $500 million (roughly €432 million) in August 2026 – oversubscribed, above target, and double the $250 million Fund I raised in May 2025.
What is Aleph?
Aleph is QuantumLight’s in-house investment model. It scores growth-stage companies on quantitative signals at scale, replacing warm introductions and conviction-based partner judgement with a systematic process borrowed from quantitative hedge funds.
Does algorithmic venture capital actually work?
It is unproven. QuantumLight reports 27 portfolio companies and five unicorns, but those are unrealised marks from a 2025-vintage fund invested into a strong AI market. Until distributions (DPI) rather than paper value (TVPI) are being discussed, the systematic thesis remains a bet rather than a result.
What does this mean for founders raising in Europe?
A firm that sources by signal rather than by network is one of the few growth investors where having no introduction is not disqualifying – relevant for founders outside the main European hubs. Access to allocation in competitive rounds, however, is still won through relationships.
