December’s Top Investors: The Angels and VCs Backing the Fastest Growing UK Startups
December’s ranking reflects the investors most active in November, based on our tracking of 63 funded UK startups and the activity of 37 angel investors, 152 VC firms and 32 institutional and corporate backers. November’s funding landscape was layered and purposeful, with angels, venture capital and corporates concentrating dealflow in AI, healthtech and fintech while maintaining steady interest in cyber, regtech and industrial applications such as mobility and energy.
Angels clustered around seed and early tickets in the sub-£1m to around £3m range, providing visibility and specialist validation. Venture capital acted as the mid-market bridge from pre-seed into Series A and growth rounds, defined by clear cheque bands and deliberate portfolio construction. Corporate and institutional investors deployed strategic, often larger cheques into late-stage clinical and industrial opportunities, often using structured finance or debt-like mechanisms to accelerate commercial adoption.
| Angel Investors | Location | Connect | Investment Focus | Startup Investments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Peter Jones is one of the UK’s most recognisable angel investors, best known as ... | ||||
 Dan Cobley is an angel investor and cofounder/advisor in various startup busines... | ||||
 Pierre Decote is the Group Chief Risk & Compliance Officer and Partner at Revolu... | ||||
 Amar Shah is a Co-founding Advisor and an entrepreneur with interests in softwar... | ||||
 Keith Grose is the Senior Country Director for the UK at Coinbase and an active ... | ||||
| All angel investors | All locations | All investor sectors | All funded startups |
*These angel investors have publicly mentioned their interest in angel investing or are members of angel networks. (Last updated: September 2026)
This November the most visible individual angels in our dataset were Peter Jones, Dan Cobley, Amar Shah, Pierre Decote and Keith Grose. Their activity highlights three dominant themes: fintech and regtech, AI and healthtech, and a smaller strand of Web3 and consumer travel deals. Peter Jones stands out as a public figure, backing Snowball on Dragons’ Den while taking part in a large Web3 round for Gener8. Taken together, the mix shows UK angels balancing publicity-driven consumer stakes with sector specialist bets that reinforce seed and early-stage ecosystems.
| Venture Capital Firms | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Fuel Ventures( ) Fuel Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on backing ambitious tech c... London  | TytenIntelligent CoreSencilloTessaract+44 | |||
 Haatch( ) This award-winning UK-based venture capital firm focuses on pre-seed and seed in... Stamford | ||||
 Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II( ) The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) focuses on providing finance to s... Sheffield | TechnologyIt InfrastructureTech StartupIt Service+11 | OceanSaverFeasiblyUniphyHR GuruFreeklime+6 | ||
 GALLOS Technologies( ) Gallos Technologies is a London-based venture studio and specialist investor foc... London | Generalist | StirlingXAI Score | ||
 AlbionVC( ) AlbionVC focuses on early-stage investments in the UK, specialising in software,... London | Scripta TherapeuticsFit CollectiveSolidatusMondra+22 | |||
 | TechnologyEducationRisk ManagementOnline Security+166 | TMT IDT-TherapeuticsEnhanced GenomicsXampla+37 | ||
| All VC firms | All investor sectors | All funded startups | All funding rounds |
Haatch, Fuel Ventures, AlbionVC, BGF, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II and GALLOS Technologies emerged as the most active backers in November 2025. Activity clustered around AI and healthtech, with robust interest in cyber and regtech, fintech, greentech and a steady stream of SaaS deals. Specialist vehicles are clearly present: regional and mission-led programmes such as NPIF II and British Business Bank co-invest platforms sit alongside non-traditional models like the GALLOS venture studio. Together these flows reveal a layered UK market in which early technical innovation and sector incumbency attract follow-on capital and patient, public-backed investment.
| Corporate Venture Capital Firms | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Novartis Venture Fund( ) Novartis is a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Switzerland, known ... Basel, Switzerland  | ArtiosNRG TherapeuticsLoQus23 Therapeutics+3 | No funding stage information available | ||
 Siemens( ) Siemens is a major industrial technology group operating in automation, energy, ... Munich, Germany  | Tech StartupWearable TechnologyEducation+8 | PhysicsXZenobēSpringpodMission ZeroTended | No funding stage information available | |
 Deutsche Bank( ) Deutsche Bank is one of Europe’s largest financial institutions offering corpora... Frankfurt, Germany | ZilchSynthesizedAboundMYNDUP | No funding stage information available | ||
 Porsche Ventures( ) Porsche is a German automotive manufacturer known for high-performance sports ca... Stuttgart, Germany | LakaBumper | No funding stage information available | ||
 Pfizer Ventures( ) Pfizer is a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on vaccines and treatments... NYC, US  | ArtiosEnara BioCurve Therapeutics | |||
 Sanofi Ventures( ) Sanofi is a multinational healthcare company specialising in pharmaceuticals, va... Paris, France  | T-Therapeutics | No funding stage information available | ||
| All VC firms | All investor sectors | All funded startups | All funding rounds |
November’s corporate activity was driven by a familiar coalition of pharma CVCs and industrial strategics. Novartis Venture Fund, Pfizer Ventures and Sanofi Ventures dominated the biotech and healthtech cluster, while Siemens pushed industrial AI and mobility and energy plays. Financial players moved into fintech and insurtech, with Deutsche Bank arranging structured financing for payments and Porsche Ventures providing venture-debt style support into micromobility insurance. The month’s deals coalesced into three clear clusters: biotech and clinical programmes, industrial AI with mobility and energy infrastructure, and fintech with structured finance. This reveals a corporate playbook that mixes R&D protection, industrial adjacency and direct scale-up support.
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