List of Pre-Seed investors in London
At the end of 2018 I put together 5 lists on Twitter of over 100 VC firms based in London working across the pre-seed to Series A+ categories. The original blog post did harness some interest so this will be a short series of 5 articles going into detail and listing all the funds within each category. This is part 1 focusing on funds that offer pre-seed investment.
Other entries are:
- List of Pre-Seed investors in London
- List of Seed investors in London
- List of Seed/Series A investors in London (part 1)
- List of Seed/Series A investors in London (part 2)
- List of Seed/Series A+ investors in London (part 1)
- List of Seed/Series A+ investors in London (part 2)
- List of Series A+ investors in London (part 1)
- List of Series A+ investors in London (part 2)
- List of Series A+ investors in London (part 3)
What is pre-seed?
Pre- sed funds are essentially accelerators or incubators that invest not so much in the idea but in the founders. They are usually organised into cohorts, they provide a mixture of financial investment to get you started and mentoring (some funds like Founders Factory will put a value on that). Often pre-seed programmes are funded by large corporates for whom its a mixture of marketing (we are cool we support startups) and r&d. Usually, pre-seed funds take 5–10% and give money as well as a network. It is also good to have these brands attached to your companies CrunchBase profile as many angels and some VC funds will see it as a stamp of approval.
This is one of the better articles I know that explains current VC stages.
Funds
Entrepreneur First
Official description: Entrepreneur First is a company builder that invests in individuals “pre-team, pre-idea” to help create new technology startups. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: ‘Love island for co-founders’ is possibly the funniest description I heard and ‘A startup factory’ is possibly the more accurate description, the truth is really somewhere in the middle. Essentially a bunch of exceptional talent from technical and business development backgrounds are thrown together to mix’n’match until they find their co-founders. Older entrepreneurs tend to scoff saying that EF ‘is only for young people’, according to teh co-founder Matt Clifford the youngest founder was 19, oldest 67, average age around 28.
EF is well liked and well respected with many angels and VCs almost blindly investing into companies that come out. Their network is phenomenal and arguably outweighs most other.
They do focus on founders rather than ideas so if you want to co-found a startup but you don’t have an idea it’ s still worth applying to join a cohort.
Conditions they invest under: EF invest £80,000 plus £6,000 per founder (so usually £92,000) in London at 8% equity share
What are they looking for: deep technology companies, b2b and b2c.
Portfolio companies: 132 including Bloomsbury Ai, GTN, Magic Pony
Active staffers on Twitter: Alice Bentinck (co-founder), Matt Clifford (co-founder), Reid Hoffman (board member), Anne Marie Droste (director of expansion)
Where to find their events: Eventbrite
Founders Factory
Official description: Founders Factory was established to help early-stage companies rapidly become viable and sustainable businesses. They have a blend of what early stage companies require: expedited pre-seed funding, agile technology development, lean acceleration, and world-class mentors. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: Accelerators funded by corporates. Founders Factory has a strong brand and name, money wise their proposition is weak and it's worth reading T&C’s as some of the ‘money’ is received in support and mentoring. This said their network is great, and I have yet to meet a founder who has not enjoyed their time in their programme.
Money they have (how big is the fund): Founders Factory is not a fund they partner with corporates to find new technologies and new products in a certain area/industry.
Conditions they invest under: Accelerator £30,000 of cash Founders they give a three to ten percent stake to the accelerator — and, in turn, its corporate shareholders.
What are they looking for: AI & Big Data, Beauty (supported by L’Oreal), Education, Fintech, Media, Travel (supported by EasyJet)
Portfolio companies: 30
InsureTech Gateway
Official description: InsurTech incubator meets venture capital, with an entrepreneurial twist. The InsurTech Gateway is the fastest place to build and launch an InsurTech idea. As the world’s first authorised incubator, and with an ability to provide their portfolio with instant insurance capacity, the Gateway can get a business idea into market, with real customers, in just a few months, cutting the cost of entry from £1m to £200–300k.
How they are viewed: The fund is very new and very niche so it is not really known in mainstream tech circles, but it is known and well regarded amongst InsurTech startups.
Conditions they invest under: At Pre-Seed / Seed they invest £200–300k, before following-on at subsequent investment rounds through their LP Fund.
What are they looking for: Highly disruptive InsurTech startups to incubate outside of the industry.
Portfolio companies: 10 including By Miles, FloodFlash and Guardhog
RebelBio
Official description: RebelBio is the London based team of the venture capital firm SOSV. RebelBio specializes in pre-seed investments in BioTech, HealthTech & Life Sciences. It invests broadly in science-based, tech-enabled early stage startups.
How they are viewed: Essentially its Hax for life sciences, or YC for life sciences.
Conditions they invest under: around 100k (200k according to their website) per company, this includes services, and access to a lab.
What are they looking for: Life sciences
Portfolio companies: 44
Active staffers on Twitter: Eleonora Mantovani
The Bakery
Official description: Innovation programmes to enable corporates to innovate at speed. Powered by entrepreneurs and startups. (via website)
How they are viewed: Wait what, they are a pre-accelerator now? The Bakery got its reputation as a connector of startups and corporates, in fact in one Crunchbase profile their category is advertising, and in the other its everything but ‘investor’. They started their first cohort in Jan 2019 and knowing the team it should be great.
Money they have (how big is the fund): The Bakery is not a fund they partner with corporates to find new technologies and new products in a certain area/industry.
What are they looking for: here is a list of their programmes
Active staffers on Twitter: Alex Dunsdon (co-founder)
Wayra UK
Official description: Wayra is Telefonica Open Future’s start-up accelerator that promotes entrepreneurship and accelerates disruptive start-ups in Europe and Latin America. It supports entrepreneurs grow and build successful businesses. Wayra’s acceleration program gives its users funding up to 50,000 U.S. dollars, a place to work, mentors, business partners, access to a global network of talent, and the opportunity to reach millions of Telefónica customers. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: Accelerator funded by Telefonica. It exists in multiple locations and each one of them is different.
Money they have (how big is the fund): £8M
Conditions they invest under: Each accelerator has a different objective, check their website. The investment can go up to £50,000.
What are they looking for: Each accelerator has a different objective, check their website.
Portfolio companies: 961 (21 exits)
Zinc VC
Official description: Zinc.VC is a London-based business builder that runs 9 month mission-led programmes to build scalable commercial impact-led businesses. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: EF for tech for good. You don’t need to have a business to apply an idea you want to explore is enough.
Money they have (how big is the fund): £3M
Conditions they invest under: At the end of the six-month programme, Zinc expects to form between five and 10 early-stage companies in which it will take an 8% stake.
What are they looking for: Social good and social impact companies.
Portfolio companies: 16
Where to find their events: Their website
HS VC
Official description: HS build, scale and invest in the best health-tech companies. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: EF for health. Founders can apply without a team and without an idea.
Conditions they invest under: Being part of the programme does not guarantee investment.
What are they looking for: Health startups and founders.
Antler
Official description: Antler is a startup generator & early-stage VC that enables the world’s most determined people to build global businesses from the ground up. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: Asian EF.
Conditions they invest under: Selected founders get a stipend of £2,500 per month the first two months. We invest £120,000 for a 10% equity stake in each company selected by our investment committee.
For all companies we invest in, £40,000 is used to cover the program fees so you get £80,000 in the bank to start building the foundations of a great business.
What are they looking for: Talented people who want to become founders.
Resources for super early-stage startups that do not give money but are still amazing opportunities.
Color in Tech — 5-week pre-accelerator in the evenings — at no cost to you (we also don’t take equity!). Requirements to join: You have a startup idea & You’ve bootstrapped or have raised less than £500k & From an ethnic minority background & You can attend evening sessions.
Founders Programme by Forward Partners — a five-week evening course run by Forward Partners, on customer development, ideation, growth, product/solution, and investor readiness. If they like you they might invest at the end.
FFWD — FastForward, the UK’s Pre-Accelerator Programme (FFWD for short) is an initiative by City University and the Accelerator Academy to prepare startup teams for first funding and successful application and entry to leading accelerators.
Hatch — Since 2013, Hatch has pioneered a unique approach to enterprise incubation and entrepreneurship support activities across London, and we are one of the UK’s leading community enterprise charities tackling social inequality.
Campus Residency — The programme is application based and is run every 3- 4 months. The teams get free office space from Google for Startups as well as mentoring.
The Family — you have to be invited to join The Family. Which provides founders with a wide network and various introductions. The Family does take equity though :)
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Update 31/01/2019 — A few changes were made to the EF entry based on factual corrections from Matt Clifford.
Update 24/03/2019 — RebelBio was added to the list.
Update 23/04/2019 — InsureTech Gateway section was updated based on corrections from Charlie Evans.
Update 10/07/2019 — Antler was added to the list.
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If you feel like I missed a pre-seed opportunity please do flag it up in the comments :) or DM me via twitter @JennyJudova.
