Octopus First Cheque Fund
Octopus Ventures is a large and active venture capital investor in Europe, focusing on investing in people, ideas, and industries that are changing the world for the better. Their mission is to invest in areas where they can make the biggest impact: building a more sustainable planet, empowering people, and revitalizing healthcare. They aim to back entrepreneurs who are reimagining how whole industries behave, specifically those eliminating carbon footprints, creating cancer vaccines, building the next phase of the internet, and charting a greener approach to space travel. They aim to invest £10 billion in industries bringing about positive change by 2030. The firm seeks founders with purpose, building revolutionary solutions to change the world, with clear visions and focused on solving society’s biggest problems. They prioritize businesses that put people, community, and the environment first, investing as early as an idea on a page and supporting every growth stage with funding and hands-on support. Octopus Ventures also runs a mentorship program, matching founders and senior leaders with seasoned professionals from their network for knowledge and experience sharing. Octopus Ventures emphasizes diversity and inclusion, striving to welcome people from the widest range of backgrounds and experience into their team and portfolio companies. They acknowledge their leadership in investing in female leaders but recognize the need to do more to support everyone, regardless of culture, race, gender, orientation, or economic status. The firm invests across seven core areas to build long-lasting relationships with founders.
OpenseedVC
Openseed VC invests in exceptional operators who are starting their own companies, providing up to $150k in seed funding and leveraging a global operator network for support from zero to one. Focuses on reinventing enterprise-scale rails for modern businesses, health innovations, and work productivity.
Oxford Capital
Oxford Capital partners with exceptional founders and high-potential scale-ups across the UK, focusing on early-stage technology startups with unfair advantages and later-stage science/tech companies demonstrating product-market fit and rapid scaling potential. They prioritize trusted relationships and tailored support to help founders and scale-ups reach their full potential.
Oxford Technology
Oxford Technology specializes in investing in startup and early-stage technology companies based in and around Oxford, UK. Their investment strategy centers around leveraging SEIS and EIS tax reliefs to provide seed and follow-on funding to innovative tech ventures. They manage two funds: a flagship three-year combined SEIS and EIS fund and a Knowledge-Intensive EIS fund, each with slightly different risk/return profiles. The SEIS fund targets earlier-stage companies, investing a portion of the capital upfront and following on with high performers in subsequent years. The Knowledge-Intensive EIS fund focuses on companies already in their portfolio, offering a potentially lower risk/return profile. The firm typically invests up to £150k of seed funding into SEIS-eligible companies and up to £300k of EIS follow-on funding. They emphasize the importance of follow-on investments for achieving the best returns and exit multiples. Oxford Technology also runs WOTAN (Wider Oxford Technology Angel Network) to provide further investment opportunities. The firm prioritizes investments in companies with novel science or technology that can disrupt existing sectors or create new ones. They seek companies that are SEIS-eligible, especially those located in or around Oxford. Oxford Technology's investment approach includes tax relief benefits for investors under SEIS and EIS schemes. They provide investors with opportunities to participate in monthly presentations of follow-on EIS-eligible pitches. They also actively assist portfolio companies in their early years, especially those located near Oxford. Their investment philosophy is oriented towards providing both capital growth and tax reliefs.
Portage
Portage is a global investment platform focused on fintech and financial services. Their mission is to empower entrepreneurs reshaping financial services by providing flexible capital and a global network of investors, commercial partners, advisors, and value creation experts. They have deep industry knowledge and entrepreneurial experience, and are committed to supporting leaders in the fintech and financial services space. Portage leverages a thesis-driven investment approach, enabling differentiated insights, understanding of market dynamics and opportunities, and deep research and expertise. They aim to be long-term partners, with various pools of capital that allow them to partner with companies across all stages, from seed to later-stage. Their Value Creation team of vertical domain experts accelerates the growth of their portfolio companies through access to expertise in go-to-market, technology and cybersecurity, commercial partnerships, and business acceleration & M&A. Portage was founded in 2016 by Adam Felesky and Paul Desmarais III to help fintech and financial services entrepreneurs navigate the challenges of scaling from local startups to global companies. They started with early-stage fintech venture capital and have since expanded to late-stage fintech and financial services through Portage Capital Solutions in 2022. They have over 115 portfolio companies in 13 countries and have facilitated 142+ partnerships for their portfolio companies. Additionally, they have 1,000+ relationships with financial institutions and investors worldwide, with over 40 institutional, corporate, and family office investors, along with 20+ advisors with deep entrepreneurial and financial services experience.
RLC Ventures
Concept Ventures focuses on providing tailored support to founders based on their experience level, rather than adhering to strict sector or vertical focuses. They emphasize the importance of the founder-VC relationship and aim to be the right fit for the founders they back. They invest in first rounds, with an emphasis on being early stage investors. The firm's team has operational know-how to guide companies to Series A and beyond.
RockawayX
RockawayX operates in the digital asset space, focusing on running blockchains and providing liquidity to fuel protocols. Their investment strategy revolves around backing early-stage projects and actively building alongside them. They are particularly convicted in the Solana ecosystem, having been seed backers and continuing to expand their portfolio within it. Their approach combines venture and yield strategies, with engineers actively contributing on-chain code. They aim to provide capital injections at crucial moments, partnering with projects to design unique products and launch liquidity programs. They also support network launches by running validators and developing protocol-ready hardware, offering bare metal solutions to accelerate network launches and improve operational efficiency. The firm aims to deliver diversified, market-neutral yield by allocating capital across institutional-grade real-world asset strategies on Solana.
Seraphim Accelerator
Seraphim VC is a global leader in SpaceTech investment, focusing on companies solving the world’s greatest problems. They invest in the brightest minds and smartest ideas to provide trailblazing, high-value solutions that disrupt, transform, and improve life. Their mission is to accelerate humanity’s next giant leap by transforming science fiction into science fact. They support space entrepreneurship from inception to exit, providing capital, expertise, and global partners. Seraphim backs pioneering space and deeptech ventures at the forefront of global security, sustainability, and resilience. Their portfolio companies redefine how critical infrastructure is protected, defense capabilities are strengthened, and pressing global challenges are tackled, including real-time Earth observation, secure communications, and climate intelligence. They aim to harness the power of space to build the next generation of game-changing companies. Their interconnected model is designed to identify, support, and grow early-stage SpaceTech companies across the full lifecycle, from inception to exit. They are backed by leading space corporations and international space agencies across their activities, including investors in their funds like Airbus, SES, Teledyne, and Telespazio, SSTL MDA. They also have accelerator partnerships with the UK and European Space Agency. Their approach generates co-investment opportunities for their LPs at Series B and beyond. Seraphim identifies as “mission control” for Spacetech founders.
Social Tech Trust
Social Tech Trust is an impact investor that focuses on backing early-stage ventures utilizing technology to address social and environmental challenges. They aim to improve lives, strengthen communities, and protect the planet by investing in startups and impact funds that are creating more equitable outcomes. The Trust prioritizes ventures that are underserved by traditional investment models and are seeking flexible, aligned capital. The Social Tech Ventures fund, seeded by Social Tech Trust, is designed to back promising UK impact tech startups, offering founder-first investments tailored to the needs of ventures pursuing scalable social and environmental change. This includes flexible equity structures, such as revenue-based growth or hybrid models, demonstrating a commitment to achieving measurable and scalable impact.
SpecialistVC
Specialist VC invests in ambitious founders across the Baltic states, Finland, Ukraine, and Belarus, focusing on B2B, SaaS, fintech, platforms, and deep tech. The firm emphasizes hands-on support, long-term relationships, and early-stage intuition to identify high-potential startups with transformative potential.
Tribal VC
Tribal.vc is an evergreen investment partnership based in Dublin that focuses on providing deep partnerships and long-term support to entrepreneurs, primarily in the software sector. They aim to be a trusted investment partner, providing big support despite being a small team. Their evergreen structure allows them to be patient, flexible, and fully aligned with entrepreneurs, adapting to the journey and timeline that best suits the company's needs. They invest early and with conviction, typically at the seed or early traction stage.
Unruly Capital
Unruly Capital positions itself as a venture capital fund that operates differently, offering transparency through its public web dashboard. The firm seems to have a broad investment mandate, participating in diverse sectors such as Health, BioHealth, and Climate. They are actively deploying capital, having invested $19.6M out of a $23.9M fund across 73 investments. Their investment activity is relatively recent, indicated by the listed transactions up to January 2026. The firm publishes a manifesto that indicates a contrarian and independent spirit. Given the range of co-investors, Unruly Capital is likely willing to participate in syndicated deals with established firms. The data presented indicates an investment approach that is active and responsive to emerging opportunities. The dashboard publicly shares fund statistics, recent transactions, and visual representations of investment categories, investments per quarter, top investment locations, co-investors, and current portfolio companies. This transparency is core to their "doing things differently" approach. Given the sector information available (Climate, BioHealth, Health) and portfolio companies (Beyond Aero, Deep Science Ventures, Renaissance Fusion), it seems the fund has some inclination toward deep tech and impactful ventures. The fund's co-investors are impressive, showing that Unruly Capital is able to attract high-caliber capital allocators. Further research would be needed to flesh out all aspects of the fund's investment strategy.
o2h Ventures
o2h Ventures focuses on seeding early-stage biotech therapeutics and related AI opportunities, particularly in the UK. The firm operates two funds: the Human Health EIS Knowledge Intensive Fund and the Human Health SEIS Fund. The EIS fund invests in companies qualifying under EIS and covering novel drug discovery along with enabling services, tools, and AI technologies. The SEIS fund targets seed-stage companies with a similar focus. o2h Ventures differentiates itself through grassroots working relationships, providing early access to deals. They aim to build a diversified portfolio of 5-10 companies and seek exits typically within 3-7 years, strategically managing exits to optimize S/EIS tax reliefs. They evaluate companies based on scientific tractability, IP position, path to the clinic, and the team's ability to navigate challenges, also attempting to gauge interest from potential acquirers early in the evaluation process. The firm actively nurtures and invests in emerging life science and tech companies, leveraging a strong pipeline of early-stage opportunities developed over 20 years of involvement in grassroots science in the UK. They operate from The Mill SciTech Park, a 2.7-acre site developed as an incubation hub for small life science companies. o2h Ventures' business model combines access to opportunities similar to China's Wuxi Ventures with an incubation approach akin to USA's Atlas Ventures, aiming to improve the prospects of successful exits. o2h Ventures emphasizes early involvement with founders, providing not only capital but also co-working lab and office space, hands-on scientific input, and ongoing board-level mentorship and strategic support. This integrated approach aims to help companies focus on innovation and rapid development. They also provide support through their research services company, o2h Discovery. The firm's investment strategy is knowledge-intensive, focusing on areas where they have deep expertise and can provide significant value beyond just capital.
Ahren Innovation Capital
Ahren Innovation Capital focuses on investing in deep technology companies that are at the intersection of groundbreaking science and high-end technology. Their investment strategy is geared towards creating outsized returns while also having a positive impact on the world. They back founders with big visions and provide support to help them achieve their goals. They believe in taking asymmetric, considered risks to capture generational opportunities in deep technology. Ahren partners with stellar founders and teams at all stages from pre-seed to pre-IPO, and are willing to help build companies from scratch or provide capital and expertise to high-growth businesses. Their approach involves deep tech expertise from their Founding & Science Partners, who have created technologies with a combined value of over $100BN. They are involved throughout the investment process, from sourcing to deep-tech diligence, and supporting businesses. They offer a Commercial Engine and Unicorn Founder advisors to help their companies achieve success. They also value strategic LP partnerships, where major LPs provide access, expertise, and customers to their portfolio companies. Ahren prioritizes strong values and treating founders well, aiming to be a trusted and respected group that can have a differentiated impact on their success. They aim to add value to exceptional founders at any stage, providing both patient and active capital to empower them to achieve the unimaginable.
Cornerstone VC
Cornerstone VC focuses on investing in early-stage technology businesses led by diverse teams in the UK. They employ a 'people first' investment strategy, believing that the potential in diversity as an asset class is significant. Their approach centers on supporting founders who are intentional about building world-class teams, excel in high-growth environments, and are obsessive about execution. They prioritize the team and the people behind the idea, as much as the product itself. The firm's investments span across three key themes: Live, Work, and Play. Within Live, they invest in Health Tech, Carbon Tech, Supply Chain and Logistics, and PropTech & Infrastructure, focusing on technologies that improve lifestyles and create a sustainable future. In Work, they target Enterprise Software, Machine Learning/AI, Fintech, and Ed Tech & Skills, supporting innovative applications for collaboration, data protection, financial empowerment, and employee wellness. For Play, they invest in Networks & Marketplaces, Online Communities, Web 3.0/Immersion, Social, Adtech, and Martech, redefining how people wind down, socialize, and spend quality time. Cornerstone VC emphasizes being an approachable and supportive partner to founders, particularly during the challenging early stages. They aim to be present during both the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey. They actively look to break barriers within the VC landscape and support opportunities for talented founders from diverse backgrounds. They started as angel investors and aim to bring that experience into their fund investing activities. They seek founders who are building world-class teams, can excel in high growth environments and are truly obsessive about execution.
Eden Ventures
Eden Ventures is an international venture capital firm focused on pre-seed startups, aiming to help founders realize their full potential. They position themselves as the "garden of Eden" for early-stage companies. Their strategy revolves around leveraging a large network of over 500 angels to provide business connections and fundraising opportunities through club deals and connections to VC partners. They seek to invest in teams with serial entrepreneurs, multidisciplinary skills, and strong commitment. The firm offers initial investments up to 100,000 EUR, with flexible financing options including SAFEs, convertible notes, and equity. They prioritize a "founders friendly" approach, acknowledging the challenges and opportunities of building a new business. Eden Ventures is backed by IAG, the main Italian business angel network, which suggests a strong tie to the Italian startup ecosystem and access to angel investors. Their investment criteria include targeting multibillion-dollar markets in hyper-growth sectors with well-defined target customers. They look for deals with the presence of professional investors, a clear roadmap, and defined KPIs, aiming to complete at least 50% of each round. They also mention synergies with the IAG portfolio of 80+ startups and scaleups as a value add. Their overall approach is network-powered, emphasizing connections, strategic advice, and maximizing next round opportunities for their portfolio companies.
Index Ventures
Index Ventures invests in individuals, prioritizing the founder's character and potential over just the business idea. They look for groundbreakers and game-changers with a passionate drive. The firm has a long history of investing at the seed stage, supporting companies through IPO and beyond. They focus on building personal relationships with founders, committing to a long-term partnership through the various stages of company building. Index Ventures also emphasizes perspectives from both the Index team and their founders. Index Origin is their newly announced seed fund which seeks to combine the focus and community of a dedicated seed fund with the resources, network, and reach of a multi-stage global firm.
Indexventures
Index Ventures focuses on investing in exceptional founders with innovative ideas across various stages, from Seed to IPO. They prioritize the individual behind the idea, looking for groundbreakers and game-changers with a unique drive. The firm emphasizes building personal relationships with founders, offering long-term support throughout their journey. Their newly announced Seed fund, Index Origin, combines the focus and community of a dedicated seed fund with the resources, network, and reach of a multi-stage global firm, demonstrating their commitment to early-stage investments. The firm seems to be particularly focused on founders who are trying to democratize or disrupt industries with technology and design. Their portfolio consists of a wide range of companies in varied spaces, including Fintech, AI, Entertainment, and Fashion.
Pi Labs
Pi Labs invests in startups transforming the built world through digital and sustainable solutions, ensuring scalability and long-term impact across 15+ countries. They focus on founders addressing climate challenges in construction, infrastructure, cities, and living spaces, with a risk-taking approach to future-proof technology.
Seraphim Space
Seraphim Space is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on investing in SpaceTech companies. They aim to accelerate humanity's next giant leap by transforming science fiction into science fact, backing visionary space entrepreneurs and providing them with the capital, expertise, and global partnerships to achieve escape velocity. Seraphim invests across the full innovation lifecycle, from inception to exit, and supports companies that address global security, enable resilient infrastructure, and tackle the planet's most urgent challenges. They are particularly interested in companies involved in real-time Earth observation, secure communications, and climate intelligence. Seraphim Space operates multiple investment vehicles, including the Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC (a growth-stage listed fund), Seraphim Space Venture Fund II (an early-stage venture capital fund), and the Seraphim Space Accelerator (the world’s first and largest accelerator dedicated to SpaceTech). This allows them to support SpaceTech companies from the earliest stages of development through to IPO. Seraphim’s interconnected model identifies, supports, and grows early-stage SpaceTech companies, leveraging a network of leading space corporates and international space agencies. They see a future where space technology addresses some of the world's most pressing problems and build the next generation of game-changing companies. Their investment thesis centers around supporting pioneers charting a course to a better future on Earth by harnessing the power of space. They actively seek out companies at the forefront of global security, sustainability, and resilience, believing these areas represent significant opportunities for growth and impact.
Sixty Degree Capital
Sixty Degree Capital is a global investment firm focused on accelerating the growth of high-potential companies. They achieve this through a combination of deep industry expertise, a robust global network, and a commitment to innovation. The firm invests across healthcare and technology, backing breakthrough opportunities with the potential to reshape industries. Their investment process is thesis-driven, employing a deeply technical team that combines domain expertise, rigorous analysis, and hands-on operational support to systematically identify transformational changes. They aim to generate lasting impact through capital, expertise, and experience.
UCEA Capital Partners
UCEA Capital Partners is a third-generation Portuguese-origin Single Family Office that initially focused on Real Estate and, more recently, clean-energy solutions in West Africa. Starting in the 2000s, the firm diversified its investment strategy across various asset classes and risk profiles, expanding its presence globally to key financial and innovation hubs like Zurich, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, New York, and London. The firm now concentrates on early-stage direct investments, venture capital, and private equity funds globally. They focus on seed and series A opportunities in four main sectors: Energy, Healthcare, Sports, and Tech. The Group encompasses companies and expertise in Sports Management (Obsidian); Energy Infrastructure (Notus Energy); a Private Family Office Online Platform (Prudential Heritage); Consulting arms in Healthcare and Tech plus the Property Development company with head quarters in Portugal (Riversun Investments). UCEA's leadership team brings over 100 years of combined experience from executive management, private equity, real estate, clean energy, and international finance. Their leaders have held senior roles in high-growth ventures and established firms, enabling UCEA to make informed, strategic decisions that support long-term value creation across multiple sectors and regions. They believe in strong relationships and collective cooperation, providing access to specialized experts in their sister companies in sports and energy.
Valu.vc
Valu.vc is a London-licensed VC firm focusing on early-stage technology investments with a strategy encompassing four strategic pillars: a startup fund, a venture studio, an accelerator hub, and an innovation hub. Their approach extends beyond traditional capital investment by offering end-to-end company building from ideation to exit through their venture studio, intensive mentorship and access to resources via their accelerator, and a collaborative ecosystem fostering R&D and talent development within their innovation hub. Valu.vc empowers startups to scale from idea to market dominance by leveraging strategic partnerships with tech giants and providing hands-on mentorship, funding, and a tech-powered ecosystem. Their investment strategy emphasizes a co-founding approach with entrepreneurs, technical architecture development, and rapid MVP development. They are sector-agnostic within technology, but have a particular focus on AI, FinTech, Blockchain, and Robotics. Geographically they are expanding across the UK and GCC markets, aiming to capitalize on local impacts and strategic mentorship opportunities. They appear to have a strong network, including 800+ VC Co Network and 1000+ mentors. Valu.vc emphasizes its ability to deliver 300x+ returns through proven strategies, industry expertise, and a scalable model. Their platform extends beyond capital to provide startup growth, innovation hub resources, market insights, tech access, and access to funding through their investor network. The firm aims to build tomorrow's unicorns today through a combination of capital, venture building, acceleration, and ecosystem support.
NoBa Capital
NoBa Capital is a venture capital firm focused on investing in ambitious startups that are changing the future of work. Their mission is to positively impact 30 million workers by 2030. They invest in companies providing solutions that improve access to work opportunities, career development, diversity and inclusion, financial stability, wellbeing, and flexibility, ultimately benefiting both workers and employers. They focus on companies that Engage workers and employers, Enable them with digital tools and improved skills and Empower them through independent work and flexibility. NoBa Capital employs a high-conviction, hands-on approach to early-stage investing. They establish relationships throughout the venture lifecycle and tailor their investment strategies and support based on the company's stage. They provide active board involvement and are particularly interested in supporting scalability. They have three investment programs: NoBa Spark, NoBa Elevate, and NoBa Scale. NoBa Spark supports idea-stage to launch, offering hands-on 0-1 support and collaborating on new business model innovation within their portfolio. NoBa Elevate focuses on pre-seed investments, helping companies transition from early build to product-market fit. Applications for Elevate are launching in November 2025. NoBa Scale invests in seed rounds, including leading rounds, helping companies scale from product to growth.