Market Maker Wintermute Merges with VC Fabric Ventures to Accelerate Accelerator, Each Team Receives $300,000 for Equity and Future Token Allocation

Market maker Wintermute has merged with VC Fabric Ventures to launch R[3]SIDENCY×CONSTRUCT, selecting 8 teams, with each team receiving an initial investment of $300,000 for equity and future token allocation, totaling $2.4 million. Outstanding performers can receive follow-on investments up to $1 million. The program lasts 12 weeks, starting in October in London, followed by a roadshow in New York and a demo day, with an additional $100,000 allocation for partners. Applications are due by September 15. The core ecosystem partner is the Solana Foundation, supported by Coinbase and the UK Solana community. The focus areas include crypto, AI, fintech, robotics, and quantum, with no restrictions on existing products, but they must be able to co-create in London.

Wintermute claims an annual trading volume exceeding $35 trillion, with its self-operated accelerator Construct launching its first cohort in 2025, offering $200,000 per team for 3 to 5 teams over 10 weeks, concluding only in London; this time, the single team investment is increased, slots expanded, and the duration extended, plus a New York exit. Fabric's residency program claims to have filtered about 1% of applicants over the years. The $300,000 is an investment, not a grant, with terms binding equity and tokens to facilitate market makers' subsequent liquidity and market-making connections.

At the same time, UK VCs are declaring London a must-stop. HSBC Innovation Banking and Dealroom statistics show that UK startups and growth companies raised $17 billion in the first half of 2026, more than doubling year-on-year, marking the strongest start since 2022, accounting for about 39% of all European VC funding, surpassing markets like France, Germany, and Switzerland combined. AI alone accounted for $12.6 billion, nearly three-quarters of UK VC funding, more than quadrupling year-on-year, capturing all four $1 billion-plus rounds and 19 out of 28 mega rounds. Corporate software AI raised $5.2 billion, health $2.6 billion, custodial $2.1 billion, and robotics $1.5 billion. Major amounts include Isomorphic Labs at about $2.1 billion, Nscale $2 billion, Wayve $1.2 billion, Ineffable Intelligence $1.1 billion, and ElevenLabs $500 million. Funding primarily comes from overseas institutions like the US. PitchBook also estimates about £14.4 billion in the first half and expects the full year to exceed the record of about £26 billion in 2021; the UK AI ecosystem ranks first in Europe, behind only the US and China globally.

The concentration is very high. A few billion-dollar rounds can account for over one-third of national fundraising, with the proportion of later rounds rising from about 42% to about 68%. European AI raised about $23 billion in the first half, with the UK alone exceeding $12 billion, accounting for about half of the region. The $2.4 million from the accelerator is a ticket to enter this game, not the main ammunition.

In market mechanics, buyers are those writing US checks into London-based dollar funds and crypto market makers, while sellers are founding teams capable of producing marketable products within 12 weeks. The transactions are driven by the UK AI fundraising wave. Funds flow from overseas VCs and Wintermute's balance sheet into equity and tokens, then connect to larger rounds through the New York demo day. Beneficiaries are the selected 8 teams and platforms that can treat London as a European hub; the pressured parties are non-AI projects unable to secure mega rounds and those misreading the 39% share as inclusive—checks are getting larger, but the number of companies receiving checks is decreasing.

Source: Public Information