List of Seed/Series A investors in London (part 1)
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 series of 6 articles going into detail and listing all the funds within each category. This is Part 3 focusing on funds that offer Seed as well as Series A investment, because of the number of such funds the article will be divided into 2 parts.
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)
Late Seed to Series A
In recent years Seed has been divided up into Early Seed (List of Seed investors in London) and Late Seed. Early seed is about building the product, Late Seed is about building traction and Series A is about scaling once you archived traction.
The funds on this list can mostly be identified as Late Seed and Series A, though a handful have already started dipping into Series B. It is true that more money is invested, however its bigger amounts invested into fewer later stage teams.
Seed/Series A Funds
Anthemis
Official description: Anthemis Group is a London-based venture investment and advisory firm focused on financial services companies across the world. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: A well liked and respected international VC fund focusing on FinTech and adjacent areas such as InsureTech.
Money they have (how big is the fund): $106M
Conditions they invest under: At seed level their startups raise over a million pounds, and at Series A it can go all the way up to $20M
What are they looking for: Startups focusing on financial services, in other words primarily FinTech and InsureTech.
Portfolio companies: 102 companies, with 11 exits including The Climate Corporation, Indix, and Automatic.
Backed.VC
Official description: Backed is a community-driven seed stage VC fund, based in London. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: Backed.vc is one of those funds that is quietly doing their own thing and every time you check up on them you stop to say ‘Huh, thats kind of amazing.” They are bad at shouting about themselves but their work is solid. They offer more support to their founders than most especially when it comes to recruitment, and out of their most recent announcements the scouts network is something that I will not be surprised if many will copy.
Money they have (how big is the fund): €50M
Conditions they invest under: Though they advertise themselves as Seed they are known to make Series A investments. They invest across Europe.
Portfolio companies: 29, including one of my favourites JukeDeck.
Active staffers on Twitter: Jenny Gyllander (ex-Slush), Sarah Noeckel (Femstreet)
Bonus: Check out Jenny’s Thing Testing.
Ballpark Ventures
Official description: Ballpark Ventures is a small, boutique fund investing in early stage technology startups. Their partners are all successful entrepreneurs. (via Crunchbase)
Conditions they invest under: Most of the companies they invested in where raising 2 million or less.
What are they looking for: Their investments vary greatly but they seem to have an interest in FashionTech (Unmade, Shopological, and AppearHere), and B2C.
Portfolio companies: 23 including 2 exits Tapdaq and Blink Booking.
Beacon Capital
Official description: Beacon Capital is a VC firm based in London with a particular focus on Enterprise Software. (via Crunchbase)
Money they have (how big is the fund): £25M
Conditions they invest under: companies raising between £500K and £6M.
What are they looking for: Enterprise software
Portfolio companies: 39
Crane VC
Official description: VC firm investing into seed and early stage intelligent enterprise and deep tech companies in Europe.
Conditions they invest under: They invest across Europe.
What are they looking for: Enterprise and deep technology.
Portfolio companies: 18
Bonus: Their Medium has some Forward Partners / Rocketship.FM styled blogs, in other words it’s really useful.
Downing Ventures
Official description: Downing Ventures, a division of Downing LLP, invests venture capital into early and growth stage technology businesses. (via Crunchbase)
How they are viewed: Although they are viewed as an early stage fund and over 2018 they have invested in Seed and Series A their first two 2019 investments have been Series B.
What are they looking for: In the last 6 months they have supported startups raising amounts between £4M and £7M
Portfolio companies: 59
Frontline Ventures
Official description: Frontline Ventures invest in ambitious seed-stage B2B companies in Europe. (via Crunchbase)
Money they have (how big is the fund): €110M
What are they looking for: B2B and European.
Portfolio companies: 65 with 4 exits including Logentries, Orchestrate, and PageFair.
Illuminate Financial
Official description: Illuminate Financial Management is a venture capital firm that crosses the chasm between capital markets fintech and the financial institutions it should serve. (via Crunchbase)
Money they have (how big is the fund): $50M
What are they looking for: FinTech
Portfolio companies: 14
Initial Capital
Official description: Initial Capital is an investor in seed and early-stage technology companies with a focus on games, consumer services & technology enablers. (via Crunchbase)
Conditions they invest under: At Seed and Series A level, into startups raising between $700K and $4M
What are they looking for: Games, consumer services, technology enablers.
Portfolio companies: 64, with 6 exits including Supercell, Nexmo, and Tenor Inc.
InMotion Ventures
Official description: InMotion Ventures is Jaguar Land Rover’s venture capital fund. We invest in early-stage technology companies that change the face of transportation, and deliver unique travel experiences. (via Crunchbase)
Conditions they invest under: Invest internationally
What are they looking for: Transport and travel.
Portfolio companies: 23, including 1 exit SPLT (Splitting Fares).
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If you feel like I missed a vc please do flag it up in the comments :) or DM me via twitter @JennyJudova.
