List of Seed investors in London

9 min readFeb 14, 2019

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 2 focusing on funds that offer seed investment.

Other entries are:

What is Seed?

The Seed Round became a bit of a messed up one with ‘seed’ varying from 100k to 1B (that's a B, not an M) and startups rising multiple Seed rounds.

Seed round now feels like its more about self-identity than anything else. Some startups choose to call the round Seed when another startup would call it Pre-Seed. Some funds (especially accelerators) call themselves Seed even though they offer less money and funding than funds/accelerators that identify as pre-seed. So Accelerators on this list identify as Seed series which means that they expect founders to come not just with an idea but with a product that works and preferably has customers.

The funds on this list will occasionally invest in Series A rounds as well as at a pre-seed level however the vast majority of their recent investments has been at Seed level.

Don’t take my word that seed is about self-identity and not valuation or money check this post.

Seed Funds

Backstage Accelerator

Official description: Less than 10% of all venture capital deals go to women, People of Color, and LGBT founders. Other VCs see this as a pipeline problem. We see it as the biggest opportunity in investment.

How they are viewed: The fund is a breath of fresh air that is not just talking about diversity and change but doing it and is not just talking about community but building one. They have invested more than $4M in 100 companies led by underrepresented founders.

They invest at Seed stage and run an accelerator.

Money they have (how big is the fund): $36M

Conditions they invest under: They invest at Seed stage into companies raising between $70k and $3M. They invested into The Riveter at a series A level.

What are they looking for: People who are invisible to the majority of VCs: Women, People of Color, and LGBT founders.

Portfolio companies: 50 according to Crunchbase/ 100 according to their website including 1 exit The Door.

Active staffers on Twitter: Arlan Hamilton (Founder), Andy Ayim (Managing Director UK), Andy Davis (Director UK), Anisah Osman Britton (Director UK Accelerator)

Bonus: Andy Ayim’s newsletter

Bethnal Green Ventures (Accelerator)

Official description: Bethnal Green Ventures is an early-stage investor in tech for good ventures. Twice a year, they run an accelerator programme for startups using technology to tackle big social and environmental problems. (via Crunchbase)

How they are viewed: If you are tech for good this is the fund you must know about.

Conditions they invest under: Work with early-stage teams and invest £20,000 in cash in exchange for 6% equity during an intensive programme of support, advice and mentoring to help build, test and launch your idea.

What are they looking for: Tech for good.

Portfolio companies: 118, including one exit with Logameal.

Active staffers on Twitter: Dama Sathianathan (communications)

Where to find their events: Meetup

Collider Accelerator (Accelerator)

Official description: Collider is an accelerator dedicated to MadTech (also known as marketing and advertising tech) startups, who help brands and agencies better identify, understand, engage with and sell to their consumers. (via Crunchbase)

Conditions they invest under: Investing 50k-100k.

What are they looking for: Marketing, commerce, and adtech.

Portfolio companies: 70, including one exit with Avocarrot.

Active staffers on Twitter: Rose Lewis (Co-founder)

Startupbootcamp (Accelerator)

Official description: Startupbootcamp is a global network of industry-focused startup accelerators that provides investment and mentorship services. (via Crunchbase)

How they are viewed: Similar to FF, TechStars and Founders Factory they run accelerators with corporates.

Conditions they invest under: Provides €15,000 towards living expenses for the team during the program, 6 months co-working space, over €450,000 in sponsored services. In return, Startupbootcamp takes a 6–8% equity stake.

Portfolio companies: 526 portfolio companies with 24 exits include Relayr, Sunrise, and StartMonday.

TechStars (Accelerator)

Official description: TechStars is a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed.

How they are viewed: This is the fund that everyone including people who are outside tech has heard about. They are known for having a strong alumni network and literally, everyone I met who have gone through it loved the experience. Fun fact London had an accelerator called Springboard that was acquired by TechStars when they expanded here from the States.

Conditions they invest under: In exchange for 6% common stock, each company accepted into Techstars currently receives $20,000 plus a $100,000 convertible note, access to the Techstars network for life, over $1M worth of perks, and a three-month accelerator program. (via Wikipedia)

What are they looking for: They run multiple accelerator programmes , each has its own requirements.

Portfolio companies: 1,640 companies, 146 exits including SendGrid, PillPack, and Grockit.

Seedcamp

Official description: Seedcamp is Europe’s seed fund, identifying and investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global market and solving real problems using technology. (via Crunchbase)

How they are viewed: One of the main ecosystem creators in London, one of the first VC funds that wanted to create and engage a community.

Money they have (how big is the fund): $110.7M

Conditions they invest under: Seed round from £250k to £4M

What are they looking for: Looking at the portfolio companies Seedcamp invests across the majority of industries however the majority of the recent investments have been within FinTech.

Portfolio companies: 279 including 28 exits eMoov, Holvi, and Codeship.

Active staffers on Twitter: Carlos Espinal (Managing Partner), Reshma Sohoni (Co-Founder & Managing Partner)

Firestartr

Official description: Firestartr helps the most promising digital entrepreneurs take their companies from seed stage to Series A and beyond.(via Crunchbase)

How they are viewed: Invest only 3–5 times a year.

Conditions they invest under: Investing at seed level into companies raising between £500k and £5M.

What are they looking for: Their portfolio looks really varied from property like Second Home to funds like Fabric Ventures, to Fintech like Transferwise.

The only thing that unites most of their investments is a white male founding team, the exceptions to the rule are Baby2Body (both co-founders are female), BridgeU (female co-founder), Skin Ninja (female founder). Just pointing out a bias.

Portfolio companies: 40 investments with 12 exits including Coins.ph, Chain, and Korbit.

Firstminute Capital

Official description: Firstminute Capital is a European seed fund based in London it invests in European early-stage tech companies. (via Crunchbase)

Money they have (how big is the fund): $100M

Conditions they invest under: Investing in companies looking to raise Seed rounds between €1.6M and $4M.

What are they looking for: Relatively many of their portfolio companies focus on blockchain, as well as fintech, with a few consumer focused.

Portfolio companies: 22 including Heist Studios.

Active staffers on Twitter: Brent Hoberman (co-founder), Spencer Crawley (co-founder)

Fuel Ventures

Official description: Fuel Ventures is a technology fund focusing on marketplaces, platforms and SaaS companies in the UK. (via Crunchbase)

Money they have (how big is the fund): £20M

Conditions they invest under: Invest in companies raising between £250K and £2M.

What are they looking for: Marketplaces, platforms and SaaS companies.

Portfolio companies: 20

Active staffers on Twitter: Mark Pearson (founder)

JamJar Investments

Official description: JamJar Investments is a venture capital firm that invest in high growth consumer brand businesses in both digital and non-tech. JamJar is run by the Innocent drinks founders Richard Reed, Jon Wright, Adam Balon and Katie Marraché.

How they are viewed: If you have a strong consumer brand this is the investor to go to.

Conditions they invest under: Invest in companies raising between £1M and £8M.

What are they looking for: Consumer brand businesses in both digital and non-tech.

Portfolio companies: 45 including well-known brands such as Graze, Babylon, Bulb.

Pi Labs

Official description: Pi Labs is Europe’s first property tech venture capital platform. (via Crunchbase)

Money they have (how big is the fund): $10M

Conditions they invest under: Invest primarily at a seed level into companies raising between £250K and £2.5M however they also make an occasional pre-seed and Series A investments.

What are they looking for: Proptech

Portfolio companies: 42 including 1 exit, which was eMoov.

Active staffers on Twitter: Faisal Butt, Dominic Wilson

Where to find their events: subscribe to their newsletter.

Tekton Ventures

Official description: Tekton Ventures is a seed-stage investment firm that partners with technology-focused entrepreneurs to build category-defining companies. (via Crunchbase)

What are they looking for: E-commerce, Marketplace, Enterprise software, Fintech, Social, Mobile.

Portfolio companies: 62, 11 exits including Chute, Sidecar Technologies, and BrightFunnel.

Ascension Ventures

Official description: Ascension Ventures invests in early-stage companies operating in the digital media and tech sectors. (via Crunchbase)

Conditions they invest under: Invest into companies raising between £100K and £3M.

What are they looking for: online video and content, advertising tech, publishing, EdTech, e-commerce, FinTech, applied ai, social impact, tech 4 good.

Portfolio companies: 63, 1 exit which was Albert.

AiSeed

Official description: AI Seed provides investment and support for the UK’s AI & machine learning startups. (via Crunchbase)

How they are viewed: The general partner of the fund is John Spindler who is also the CEO of Capital Enterprise, a co-founder of London Co-Investment Fund.

Conditions they invest under: Every year they invest £100,000 in up to 20 early-stage startups they look to receive 5–10% equity.

What are they looking for: Startups using ai and machine learning. Looking at the portfolio the majority can be considered deep tech.

Portfolio companies: 27

Outlier Ventures

Official description: Outlier Ventures invests and partners with tokenised communities that will create the new decentralised economy. (via Crunchbase)

What are they looking for: Blockchain startups, ai, IoT

Portfolio companies: 6

7percent Ventures

Official description: Next generation early stage tech investing, bridging Europe and the USA. 7percent Ventures invest in early-stage tech startups which represent billion-dollar opportunities.

Conditions they invest under: They invest at seed level into companies raising between $500k and $3M.

What are they looking for: USA and European companies. Their portfolio covers the majority of sectors and both B2B ad B2C. There seem to be a preference for hardware/software such as Number Eight, Iron Ox and Kheiron.

Portfolio companies: 47 including Magic Pony Technology.

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If you feel like I missed a seed opportunity please do flag it up in the comments :) or DM me via twitter @JennyJudova.