Where UK pre-seed money actually comes from
Seven routes to money before you have revenue, from funds that write the first cheque to grants that cost no equity at all. Every figure came off the source, and the link on each entry goes to the exact page it was checked against.
It is a UK list. SEIS and EIS are UK statute, and the Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland schemes are open only to companies based there. Seven entries say on their own pages that they also work outside the UK, and those are Entrepreneur First, Antler, Playfair, Kima Ventures, Angel Investment Network, Republic Europe and Carbon13.
Raising in the United States? There is a separate US list, held to the same standard.
- Routes listed
- 31
- Last verified
- 31 July 2026
Showing 31 of 31
Entries are tagged only where their own source states the stage. If a filter hides something you expected to see, that means the source is silent, not that the answer is no. Three are tagged the other way on purpose, because Playfair, Concept Ventures and Antler each say in their own words that they stop before revenue.
Before you have an idea or a co-founder
2 of 2Two programmes back people rather than companies. You apply as an individual, and the money comes before the company exists. Three of the accelerators further down will also take you with no idea, so filter for no idea yet to see all five in one place.
Entrepreneur First
London, San Francisco, Bangalore
Equity-free grant during ideation, then up to $250k on company formation
You get an equity-free grant during the ideation phase, then up to $250,000 once a company is formed, with up to $5m available in later rounds and support through to Series B. You do not need an idea and you do not need a co-founder, because working out which idea to pursue and matching you with someone to build it with is the actual product. Open application.
Antler
London, plus 26 locations worldwide
£210k at inception, being £125k for 8.5% equity plus an £85k convertible note, less a £40k programme fee
The terms are unusually specific for this end of the market, which is a point in their favour. If you go on to raise £1.5m or more at pre-seed they will put in up to £330,000 more, or up to £165,000 below that threshold, and there is up to £25m available further down the line through Antler Elevate. Antler says plainly that it backs founders at inception, often before there is a team, product or revenue. It runs as a cohort residency in London, so check the current dates because they move.
The first institutional cheque
7 of 7Funds that lead a round when there is no product and no revenue, and that say so themselves.
Concept Ventures
London
Up to $1.5m in first rounds
The money comes out of an 88m euro fund. Their own line is that you just need a concept and the conviction to chase it, which is about as clear a statement of intent as this market produces. There are direct routes on the site for first-time and repeat founders.
Playfair
London, investing across UK and Europe
£100k for angel rounds up to £1.5m for the largest pre-seed rounds
The range comes out of a $70m third fund. Pre-seed exclusively, which is rarer than it sounds. Worth knowing that they make roughly six investments a year, so the bar is genuinely high and a scattergun approach will not work here. Chris Smith is Managing Partner, Federico Pirzio-Biroli is Founding Partner and Chairman.
Seedcamp
London
First cheque fund. Seedcamp does not publish a standard range.
Europe's original first-cheque investor, on their own description, and they have earned the phrase. Fund VII closed at $220m in June 2026 as part of $320m raised across two vehicles. They do not publish a standard cheque range, so do not go in assuming one. Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal are the managing partners.
Ada Ventures
London and Bristol
£250k to £1m in your first funding round
They state that they invest before there are clear signs of product-market fit, which is exactly the language you want to see. There is a send-us-your-pitch form on the site alongside a sourcing network of scouts and angels, so the cold route is real rather than decorative. Check Warner and Matt Penneycard are the founding partners.
Episode 1
London
£250k to £3m
£250,000 to £3m from a £76m third fund, focused on pre-seed and seed B2B software, and often the first institutional money in. You submit a deck through a form on the site, which asks for current revenue among other things, so be ready to say zero and justify it.
firstminute capital
London
£1m to £3m tickets
Tickets of £1m to £3m from around $500m under management, and the site says no stage is too early. Application is a Typeform.
Kima Ventures
Paris
€150k one-off tickets
The outlier on this list, in a useful way. One-off tickets of €150,000, any stage, any deal size, any sector, at a rate of roughly 100 new deals a year, which is about two a week. Backed by Xavier Niel. If you want a fast yes or no from a name that carries weight in Europe, this is the one that is built for volume.
The SEIS and EIS route
4 of 4The part of the market a US list cannot give you. SEIS lets a UK company raise up to £250,000 with 50 percent income tax relief for the investor, which is why these funds can move on an idea.
SFC Capital
United Kingdom, FCA regulated
Reported £100k to £300k initial, typically for 10 to 20 percent. SFC does not publish a range on its own site.
Runs the UK's leading SEIS fund plus an All-Star EIS fund for follow-on, investing in 15 to 20 companies per fund and having backed more than 500 startups since Stephen Page founded it in 2012. Reported initial cheques of £100,000 to £300,000 for 10 to 20 percent, though SFC does not publish a range on its own site, so treat that as indicative rather than a quote.
Haatch
United Kingdom
SEIS fund average around £350k; EIS fund average around £500k
Writes first cheques into pre-seed B2B SaaS teams and launched the first UK SEIS fund to use the raised SEIS limits. Average cheque around £350,000 from the SEIS fund and around £500,000 from the EIS fund, per their published fund review. Founded by Scott Weavers-Wright and Fred Soneya. You pitch through a form on the site.
Ascension
London
£150k to £850k per round
£150,000 to £850,000 per round at pre-seed and seed, across fintech, consumer and deep tech. They commit to reviewing every application and responding within a week, which is worth something when the alternative is silence.
Symvan Capital
London
No cheque range published; £57.5m under management
An SEIS and EIS fund manager running a deliberately concentrated portfolio in B2B SaaS and technology, with fintech, insurtech and proptech called out. They publish £57.5m under management across more than 60 investments and over 100 founders backed, with six exits and a failure rate they put at around 16 percent, which is unusually candid for a fund page. No cheque range, so treat the size as a conversation rather than an expectation. There is a direct founder application route.
Angel networks and syndicates
6 of 6Where most sub-£250k UK rounds actually come from. None of these publish a cheque range, because they syndicate per deal and the number depends on who round the table says yes. So the useful question here is not how much, it is who they back and what it costs you to approach them.
UKBAA
UK-wide trade body
Not an investor. A route to roughly 18,000 angels.
The trade body for UK angel investing, representing roughly 18,000 angels. You cannot pitch UKBAA itself, which is the thing to understand before you write to them. What it gives you is the map: regional Angel Hubs that are open to members and non-members, free guides on when to raise and how to approach investors, and a member directory of the firms that actually place deals.
Cambridge Angels
Cambridge and UK-wide
No range published
Membership is capped at 65, mostly former founders in tech and healthcare, and they have backed more than 150 companies since 2001. They publish no cheque range, which is normal for a syndicate. What they do publish is more useful: they charge companies nothing, and their office hours give you one-to-one feedback from an experienced investor with no obligation attached.
Angel Academe
London and UK-wide
No range published
Backs female founders, and has done since 2014, across fintech, cleantech, medtech, cybersecurity, edtech and consumer. They run the UK's first EIS fund for female founders and invest through both that fund and the angel network behind it. No cheque range published.
Green Angel Ventures
UK, climate tech only
No range published
Climate tech only, and the focus is the point. Over £50m deployed and more than a thousand opportunities screened a year, through two vehicles, an EIS climate fund and the Green Angel Syndicate. No cheque range published, so fit is the question that matters here rather than size.
Angel Investment Network
UK and international
No range published
An open listing platform rather than a curated syndicate, running for over 15 years. Free to join and free to list a pitch, which is unusual and worth using. The catch is visibility. There is a paid Featured upgrade, and without it you are one pitch among thousands.
Equity Gap
Scotland only, FCA regulated
No range published
A Scottish angel syndicate, FCA regulated, backing early-stage high-growth companies across business products, industrial and life science. Like every syndicate here it publishes no cheque range. The genuinely useful thing on their site is a readiness tool that tells you whether you are in a position to ask for angel money at all, which is worth ten minutes before you approach anyone on this page, not just them.
Equity crowdfunding
2 of 2Two platforms carry the UK market. Real money, real rounds, and a real cost: you are selling equity to a crowd, and the fees come off the top.
Crowdcube
UK
Reported 7% success fee plus a 0.75% to 1.5% completion fee, no upfront cost
One of the two platforms carrying UK equity crowdfunding. Reported fees are a 7 percent success fee plus a 0.75 to 1.5 percent completion fee with no upfront cost, but Crowdcube blocks automated checking, so those figures are reported rather than taken off their own page and are worth confirming directly. A crowd raise works best when you already have an audience, because it is a marketing campaign as much as a funding round.
Republic Europe
UK and Europe
Fees not verifiable from their own page
The other half of the UK market, and formerly Seedrs. Republic acquired the business and rebranded it, and the rebrand announcement said fees were not changing. Their pages also block automated checking, so no fee figures are quoted here at all. Same shape as Crowdcube: you are selling equity to a crowd, and you need to have a crowd.
Grants, loans and non-dilutive
5 of 5Money that costs you no equity, and the most underused route on this page. Some of it is a grant, some of it is debt you are personally liable for, and the difference matters enormously. Each row says which.
Start Up Loans
UK-wide, government backed
£500 to £25,000 at 7.5% fixed
Probably the most useful thing on this page for a founder with nothing but a plan. £500 to £25,000 at a fixed 7.5 percent over one to five years, no application fee and no early repayment fee, plus up to twelve months of free mentoring and free help writing the business plan. The business has to have been trading under five years. Read this part carefully though, because it is an unsecured personal loan rather than company debt, so you are personally liable if the company fails.
Innovate UK
UK-wide
Varies by competition
Grant money, so no equity and nothing to repay. The live route is the funding finder and its themed competitions rather than an open call. Worth knowing that Smart Grants, the open-call route most articles still point people at, has been paused since January 2025 with no rounds in the 2025/26 year, so do not build a plan around it.
Development Bank of Wales
Wales only
Micro loans £1,000 to £100,000; loans and equity £50,000 to £10m
Wales only, and genuinely generous if you qualify. Micro loans from £1,000 to £100,000, and loans and equity packages from £50,000 to £10m. You have to be based in Wales or moving there, which is a real constraint, and a real opportunity if you are still deciding where to base yourself.
Scottish Enterprise
Scotland only
No amounts published on the overview
Scotland only. The named schemes are the Scottish Venture Fund, the Scottish Co-Investment Fund, the Scottish Loan Scheme, R&D grants and Regional Selective Assistance. They publish no amounts on the overview page, so the numbers have to come scheme by scheme.
Invest NI
Northern Ireland only
Amounts sit behind a portal account
Northern Ireland only, with three startup routes: innovation-driven start-ups, start-ups, and start-ups with export potential. None of the figures are public until you have an account, so none are quoted here.
Accelerators and incubators
5 of 5Programmes rather than cheques. Some invest and take equity, some are free and take nothing, and most will not tell you which until you apply, so each row says exactly what is published and what is not. Three of them will take you before you have an idea.
Carbon13
Cambridge and Berlin, climate only
Investment terms not published
Eight months, eighty people a cohort, and it is explicitly for founders who do not have a startup yet and want to find a co-founder. That makes it one of only a handful of genuine pre-idea routes anywhere on this page, and the only climate-specific one. A separate Venture Accelerator track takes pre-seed companies already raising. They do invest, but they publish neither the amount nor the equity, so that is a question for the application rather than something you can plan around.
Techscaler
Scotland only
Free to join, no equity taken
The Scottish Government's national programme, delivered by CodeBase. It is open to a current or future founder at any stage from ideation onwards. You get courses, one-to-one mentoring from operators, playbooks and a community across seven hubs. Workspace is the only thing that costs, through tenancy fees. If you are in Scotland this is close to a free lunch and there is no reason not to be in it.
Tramshed Tech
South Wales, five sites
Fully funded programmes, free to join
Five sites across South Wales, in Cardiff, Swansea, Barry and Newport, and the programmes are fully funded so they cost you nothing. A six-week Founder Academy and AI innovation sprints both sit at pre-start, for people who are not founders yet, and a ten-week Startup Academy takes early-stage tech companies at pre-seed. Coworking, mentoring and investment-readiness training come with it, alongside a community of over 1,500. They do not state whether they take equity in anything they fund.
SETsquared
Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton, Surrey
Terms not published
A partnership of six universities, Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, and by its own count it has incubated more than 5,000 companies which have raised £5bn between them. That is the largest track record of anything in this section. Programmes run from early stage through growth and scaling, with specialisms in medtech, cyber and hydrogen. What it does not publish is what any of it costs or whether equity changes hands, which for a university incubator usually means it varies by centre.
Sustainable Ventures
London, climate tech
Investment terms not published
Climate tech only, and the numbers behind it are real: by their own count the companies in their ecosystem have raised £1.2bn and created over 7,000 jobs across more than 1,000 startups. Alongside capital they run coworking built for climate businesses, a grant-writing service aimed at non-dilutive funding, and R&D tax credit help, which for a hardware-heavy climate company is often worth more than the cheque. Investment amounts and equity are not published.
Common questions
Which UK investors will fund a startup with no product or revenue?
Several, and they say so themselves. Concept Ventures writes up to $1.5m in first rounds and says you just need a concept. Ada Ventures invests before there are clear signs of product-market fit. Entrepreneur First and Antler go earlier still, backing individuals before a company exists.
What if I do not want to give up equity?
Filter for no equity. Start Up Loans lends £500 to £25,000 at a fixed 7.5 percent, and Innovate UK runs grant competitions where nothing is repaid and no shares change hands. Read the Start Up Loans row carefully though, because it is a personal loan rather than company debt.
What is SEIS and why does it matter at pre-seed?
SEIS lets a UK company raise up to £250,000 with 50 percent income tax relief for the investor. That relief is why SEIS funds can back an idea when a conventional VC cannot. If you are UK-incorporated and pre-revenue, get advance assurance from HMRC before you start raising.
Why do the angel networks not show a cheque size?
Because they do not publish one, and inventing a range would be worse than leaving it out. Angel networks syndicate per deal, so the amount depends on how many members say yes. What they do publish is what it costs to approach them, which is the more useful number: Cambridge Angels charges companies nothing, and Angel Investment Network is free to list on.
How current is this?
Every entry was checked against its own source, and the set was last reviewed on 31 July 2026. It is reviewed again in January 2027. Funds close, schemes get paused and fees change, so if you are reading this long after that date, confirm before you act.
Do not email all of them. Pick the two or three where your stage, sector and geography genuinely match, and write about the specific thing you are building. Warm introductions first, people who already use what you have built second, and this list third.