2023 wasn’t a good year for early-stage deal count in UK tech. There were 2.7k pre-seed, seed and Series A deals, according to Dealroom; the lowest figure since 2016 and a long drop from the 4.1k deals done in the heady days of 2021.
The figures for 2024 aren’t looking much stronger — Dealroom counts 1.1k so far this year — although a reporting lag typically means early stage rounds are under-reported.
But while VC investment might have dropped off broadly, a number of investors are still pumping money into British startups.
Using data from Dealroom, alongside investor deal count figures reported to Sifted by the firms themselves, Sifted has selected the investors that did the most pre-seed, seed and Series A deals, both new and follow-on, in the UK in the past 12 months (the start of June 2023 to the end of May 2024). Accelerators were not included.
1/ SFC
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 118 (74 new, 44 follow-on), confirmed by the firm
HQ: London
Fund focus: SFC Capital only backs startups eligible for SEIS and EIS funding — a scheme by the UK government which aims to incentivise people to support early-stage British companies by offering income tax relief on investments. It’s a generalist investor, but tells Sifted its biggest areas of investment are B2B SaaS, climate tech and medtech. SFC typically writes tickets of between £100-500k.
Notable deals:
- MetalloBio, a biotech developing treatments for drug resistant bacteria
- Blue Skies Space, a startup which provides space data to research organisations
- MeVitae, a recruitment platform
2/ Maven
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 82 (18 new, 64 follow-on), confirmed by the firm
HQ: Glasgow
Fund focus: Maven is a generalist investor, backing startups across SaaS, fintech, energy, healthtech, transport and marketing sectors. It typically invests at an early stage, but can write cheques of up to £20m per deal. The firm manages XX funds across the UK.
Notable deals:
- Laverock Therapeutics, a biotech developing cell therapies
- Carcinotech, a biotech developing cancer treatments
3/ Mercia Ventures
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 78 (22 new, 56 follow-on), confirmed by the firm
HQ: Birmingham
Fund focus: Mercia invests in software, consumer, life sciences, AI and deeptech startups, from pre-seed to Series A, writing tickets of up to £10m.
Notable deals:
- Wobble Genomics, an Edinburgh University spinout developing RNA sequencing technology
- Suiso, a climate tech building technology to produce hydrogen from natural gas
- FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, a machine monitoring platform for the manufacturing sector
4/ Fuel Ventures
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 73 (30 new, 43 follow-on), confirmed by the firm
HQ: London
Fund focus: Fuel is a pre-seed and seed investor, backing startups across B2B SaaS, marketplaces and fintech. It raised a £100m fund in July last year and writes cheques between £2m-5m.
Notable deals:
- Lunio, a website fraud monitoring platform
- Fundpath, a data platform for the wealth and asset management industry
- Odore, a digital marketing data platform
5/ Future Planet Capital
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 64 (24 new, 40 follow-on), confirmed by the company
HQ: London and Birmingham
Fund focus: Future Planet Capital manages five funds focused on regional, national and international strategies, which typically write cheques between $500k to $2m. They invest from pre-seed to Series B in sectors including deeptech, climate, space, defence, engineering biology and health, in addition to global and regional funds.
Notable deals:
- Armada Technologies, a startup developing tech to reduce fuel consumption in the maritime industry
- Machine Discovery, a machine learning platform developing technology which accelerates compute-intensive simulation tasks
- Stroll, a digital therapeutics software develop for Parkinson’s disease
6/ SyndicateRoom
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 60 (31 new, 29 follow-on), confirmed by the firm
HQ: Cambridge, UK
Fund focus: SyndicateRoom is an EIS fund, backing startups at seed stage in any sector. The firm is currently investing from a £30m fund which it launched in 2020 and writes first cheques of around £150k.
Notable deals:
- Heatio, a home energy management platform
- EnteroBiotix, a biotech developing new treatments from bacterial communities in the gastrointestinal tract
- Urban Jungle, a home insurance startup
7/ Haatch
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 52 (41 new, 11 follow-on), confirmed by the firm
HQ: London
Fund focus: Haatch is an early-stage investor backing startups across B2B SaaS, fintech and marketing tech. The firm manages four evergreen funds. Ticket sizes average between £310-500k.
Notable deals:
- Social Tip, an app which gives customers cash rewards when they post about brands on their socials
- Popp, a recruitment platform
- Happl, an employee benefits platform
8/ Octopus Ventures
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 42 (32 new, 10 follow-on), confirmed by the firm
HQ: London
Fund focus: Octopus is a multi-stage VC investing across B2B SaaS, climate tech, consumer tech, deeptech, fintech, biotech and healthtech. Collectively, the various funds managed by Octopus Ventures — including four VCTs — raised £222m between the start of June 2023 to the end of May 2024.
Notable deals:
- Pelago, a digital clinic for treating addiction
- Lapse, a new social media app
- Definely, a legaltech developing AI-powered software that aims to help lawyers understand and edit documents
9/ Seedcamp
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 41 (17 new, 24 follow-on), confirmed by the firm
HQ: London
Fund focus: Seedcamp is a pan-European, early-stage, sector-agnostic VC. It’s particularly focused on AI native solutions, manufacturing, spatial computing, pharma and biotech. It most recently raised a $180m fund in May 2023, which writes cheques of up to $1m.
Notable deals:
- Sylvera, a SaaS platform that tracks the performance of carbon offsets
- Lindus Health, a healthtech that provides clinical trials
- Visibly, a training platform for the workplace
10/ Development Bank of Wales
Pre-seed, seed and Series A deals: 33 (21 new, 12 follow-on), confirmed by the company
HQ: Wrexham, Wales
Fund focus: Development Bank of Wales specialises in early-stage funding across sectors including medtech, fintech, SaaS, semiconductors, climate tech and deeptech. It also supports angel investment in Wales via the Wales Angel Co-investment Fund, which co-invests alongside angel syndicates. It invests out of six funds and writes cheques between £25-350k.
Notable deals:
- Kubos Semiconductors, a startup developing chips for LED lights
- Tendertec, a healthtech which records health data of elderly in their own homes
- Prosper, a fintech providing insurance and pensions
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/the-uks-most-active-early-stage-investors/
