Rob Dobson

Rob Dobson is the Managing Partner at Speedboat Ventures and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Southampton, based in London, England. He launched Speedboat Ventures Fund I in March 2023 with a £10 million target to back early-stage United Kingdom deep tech startups, recently investing in Enclustra in January 2025. Previously, he founded the semiconductor firm XMOS, where he raised over $40 million, and served as the Chief Executive Officer of Camgian Microsystems until its acquisition by ARM in 2015. Dobson also held the Chief Technology Officer position at Toumaz during its 2006 initial public offering, building on his electronic engineering degree from the University of Southampton. With a portfolio of more than twenty venture investments, his current focus centers on bridging engineering innovation with scalable business models across the semiconductor, artificial intelligence hardware, and photonics sectors.