London is undoubtedly one of the best startup ecosystems in the world and by far the largest one in Europe. Despite the messy breakup from the EU (Brexit), the British capital remains strong with local startups valued at $47 billion, fueled by $8,5 billion in early-stage funding from top venture capital firms in London and the world. According to Genome, London has maintained its second-place ranking tied with New York and behind only Silicon Valley.
We’ve put together a list of the best most active venture capital firms in London:
Accel:
With two offices in Silicon Valley, one in Bangalore, and one in London, Accel is an early and growth-stage venture capital firm that powers a global community of entrepreneurs who have what it takes to build a world-class, category-defining business.
The company brings more than three decades of experience in building and supporting companies. Accel’s vision enables it to identify the companies that will be responsible for the growth of next-generation industries.
Notable Investments: Atlassian, Dropbox, Flipkart, Slack, Spotify, Facebook, Etsy…
AlbionVC:
AlbionVC helps build the future of enterprise and healthcare. With over 20 years of experience in technology investments, the team focuses on B2B software and healthcare at Series A. The firm manages c.£500m of venture funds and has invested in 85+ companies since inception.
Notable Investments: Active hotels, Atego, Bloomsbury AI, PSE, Achilles Therapeutics…
Balderton Capital:
Balderton is Europe’s leading early-stage venture capital investor, focused exclusively on European-founded technology companies. The firm invests in companies with the potential to disrupt huge industries, and the ambition to scale globally. Balderton has raised $4.5 billion over 21 years and has invested in more than 300 companies.
Notable Investments: Dubsmash, MYSQL, Sketchfab, Tictail, Talend, Sunrise, Pusher…
BGF Growth capital:
BGF is the most active and influential investor in small and mid-sized businesses in the UK.
An established and independent company, it has £2.5 billion to support a range of growing companies across every region and sector of the economy.
BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a patient outlook, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs. With a 150+ strong team, the firm offers an unparalleled international network of business leaders, sector experts, board-level non-executives and provides in-house support with Chair and senior executive selection and appointments. Collectively, the 400+ companies in their portfolio employ close to 50000 people.
Notable Investments: Arecor, Renal Services, Pharmacy2U, Equilaw, Edgesan, Zone, Hydrock…
Entrepreneur First:
Entrepreneur First is the place where the ambitious come together to build globally important technology companies. Through their platform running in 6 cities across 3 continents, they invest in high-potential individuals to help them meet their co-founder, develop their ideas, and secure funding from leading investors in the shortest possible time.
They have built over 300 companies from scratch; have over 2500 alumni worldwide; and their portfolio is valued at over $4 billion.
Notable Investments: Tractable, Magic Pony Technology, Represent, Bloomsbury AI, Cleo…
Index Ventures:
Index Ventures is a venture capital firm based in London, San Francisco, and Geneva, helping entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into transformative international businesses. Since 1996, they’ve partnered with exceptional entrepreneurs in Europe, the U.S, and Israel, who are using technology to reshape the world. Index covers every investment stage, from earliest seed till explosive growth.
Notable Investments: Ayden, Deliveroo, Dropbox, Farfetch, King, Slack, Supercell…
MMC Ventures:
MMC Ventures is an investment firm that invests in technology companies at Seed and Series A. Their team commits to a deep understanding of each company’s underlying technology in order to become more effective partners.
Notable Investments: Gousto, Bloom, Interactive Investor, Signal AI, NewVoiceMedia…
Molten Ventures:
Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit) is one of the most active venture capital firms in London and Europe, developing and investing in disruptive, high-growth technology companies. They believe it’s their role to support visionary entrepreneurs in the hope that they will invent the future, they fuel their growth with their energy in the form of truly patient capital, access to international networks, and decades of experience building businesses.
Notable Investments: Aircall, Revolut, Trustpilot, Ledger, UiPath, Graphcore, Hopin, Lyst…
Notion Capital:
Notion is an entrepreneur-led early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2009 and headquartered in London, focused on high potential businesses in the Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service markets. The firm helps European tech companies fulfill their potential and achieve a massive scale, by investing early when it can build strong relationships in order to help shape the future of its companies.
Notable Investments: Adbrain, Dealflo, Elevate, Glow, Mya, Paddle, Shutl, Wercker, Star…
Octopus Investments:
Octopus Investments is a London-based venture capital firm that offers investment solutions to U.K. investors based on its experience in smaller company investing, along with a wide range of funding options for various companies. The entrepreneur-friendly investment firm invests from 250,000 to 25 million British pounds in the first round of funding. Founded in 2000, Octopus Investments manages more than £11.3 billion on behalf of over 63,000 investors.
Notable Investments: SwiftKey, Conversocial, Zynstra, graze, tails.com, Swoon Editions…
Passion capital:
Passion Capital is a partnership of entrepreneurs and operators who are applying their experiences to helping founders and early-stage teams build great digital media/technology companies. The firm has been personally involved in the largest European technology exits of the past decade, including the biggest exit of the year for 4 of the past 10 years by market value. Their team believes that the key asset of a successful business is the passion and ability of its founders. They are committed to fostering an ecosystem of technology, collaboration, and executional excellence in Europe.
Since 2011, they’ve funded 82 startups, backing over 100 founders who have grown their teams to include over 1000 members.
Notable Investments: Mendeley, Picklive, Readmill, Flattr, Toothpick, Adzuna, Wedo…
Seedcamp:
Seedcamp is Europe’s seed fund, investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. The Seedcamp nation includes over 400 startups building breakout businesses that change the way people live, interact, and buy.
Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder’s vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support, and a global network built upon more than a decade’s experience backing exceptional talent.
Notable Investments: UiPath, Wise, Revolut, Hopin, Sorare, Pleo, wefox, Grover, viz.ai, Ezra…
To sum up, venture capital firms are an important pillar of London’s startup ecosystem. In fact, these firms often play a crucial part in the success of a startup, by providing not only capital but also strategic assistance, introductions to potential customers, partners, and employees, and much more.
This article about venture capital firms in London is the first one about a city outside of the U.S.
Check out the best venture capital firms in other major tech Hubs. (San Francisco, NYC, Los Angeles, Boston…)