Most Active UK Investors (February 2026 Edition): Angels and VCs Writing Cheques
A monthly ranking based on Startupmag’s tracking of active UK angel and venture capital investment.
February 2026’s most active investors ranking reflects where UK capital was actually deployed in January 2026, spanning pre-seed, seed and growth rounds.
The analysis is based on Startupmag’s investor database, tracking investment activity across thousands of UK angel investors, venture capital firms and corporate investment arms.
Across angels, venture capital and corporate sleeves the month shows a clear thematic concentration. AI and cyber headline early activity, healthtech and biotech command capital‑intensive later rounds, and fintech and ecommerce subscription plays are drawing significant growth capital.
-
Angels are concentrating on pre‑seed and seed tickets in the £200k to £4m band and bring operator expertise.
-
VC firms provided a ladder from pre‑seed through mid rounds of £3m to £15m up to £20m‑plus growth tickets.
-
Corporate venture arms and bank investors typically underwrite mid‑stage platform scale‑ups and strategic fintech or industrial deals.
These patterns reflect distinct sector dynamics in which AI and cyber dominate signalling and product‑led early rounds, biotech and greentech secure the largest institutional and corporate commitments, and fintech and ecommerce attract distribution‑led corporate capital. The mood is constructive and tiered, with widespread early experimentation increasingly converting into commercialisation pathways and strategic corporate cheques poised to scale emerging winners.
Angel investors: early signal across £0.8m–£4m seed rounds
Charlie Songhurst, Matt Clifford, Tom Singh, Leonard Picardo and Simon Franks emerge as the most visible individual angels in January 2026. Activity clusters around AI and cyber security, with pockets of biotech and consumer and foodtech. The dataset shows a clear bias towards AI‑first businesses and adjacent deeptech, while healthtech and foodtech continue to attract seasoned consumer operators. Several angels stand out for their public and operator profiles. Tom Singh is a serial founder. Matt Clifford is a high‑profile AI adviser and co‑founder of Entrepreneurs First. Leonard Picardo’s early Deliveroo pedigree signals that operator angels remain active. Collectively these patterns suggest UK angel activity is being driven by experienced, sector‑focused individuals and cross‑border tech capital, concentrating signal on AI, cyber and specialist deeptech.
Distinctive patterns appear at the individual level. Charlie Songhurst is strongly AI and cyber oriented, appearing on rounds such as Asymmetric Security at $4.2m, a pre‑seed round announced on 22 Jan 2026, and on earlier AI deals in the $3m–$4m band. Matt Clifford shows a similar tendency to join mid‑size seed rounds, including Asymmetric Security at $4.2m and SaaS plays such as Stackfix at $3.0m. Tom Singh and Leonard Picardo skew towards consumer, health and foodtech. Singh appears on HomeCooks at £1.4m, announced on 30 Jan 2026, and previously on Coopah at £1.5m, while Picardo backed Tangent Technology at £884k and HomeCooks, signalling interest in sub‑£1m to about £1.4m seed rounds. Simon Franks is the clearest deeptech and biotech specialist, backing SOLVE Chemistry in a £4.0m seed. All amounts referenced are the total round sizes, not the individual angels’ cheques.
Comparing behaviour across this cohort shows prominent public figures and well‑known operators acting as signal investors, typically joining seed rounds in the £1m–£4m band to add credibility. Thematic AI angels and serial tech investors participate across a wider range of round sizes and sometimes in larger, capital‑intensive pre‑seed and seed rounds. Operator angels such as Picardo and Franks bring domain expertise that complements institutional VC by helping to de‑risk product development and go‑to‑market execution. Thematic AI backers like Songhurst concentrate capital and attention on technical differentiation. Sector clustering is clear: AI and cyber attract the most momentum, biotech commands larger specialist rounds, and consumer and foodtech show focused, lower‑band seed activity. For founders this month, the most receptive smart capital sits at the intersection of strong technical or category expertise and seed rounds in the £0.8m–£4m range. Targeting angels whose track record aligns with your sector will increase the chance of securing both money and strategic support.
Venture capital: AI and healthtech dominate £3m–£20m VC deployment
| Venture Capital Firms | January Investments | Investment Sector | Location | Funding Round | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Octopus Ventures(more info 🔒) This venture capital firm focuses on investing in sectors such as B2B Softw... | Kraken (£1,000,000,000, Energy) AgileRL (£5,500,000, SaaS) Cyb3r Operations (£4,000,000, Cyber security) Infinitopes ($35,000,000, Biotech) Automata ($4,500,000, AI) |  London | |||
 Ventures Together(more info 🔒) Ventures Together is a UK-based venture capital firm known for its unusuall... | WholeSum (£730,000, Data) Biographica (£7,000,000, Agtech) LaunchLemonade (£357,000, AI) Emergent (£50,000,000, AI) | London | |||
 Fuel Ventures(more info 🔒) Fuel Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on backing ambitious t... | Karavel (£1,000,000, AI) Allocation Strategy (£1,600,000, Fintech) Levellr (£1,800,000, SaaS) WealthAi ($1,000,000, Fintech) | London | |||
 SFC Capital(more info 🔒) SFC Capital is a venture capital firm that focuses on investing in early-st... | WholeSum (£730,000, Data) iMaintain (£250,000, SaaS) Shoutt.ai (£525,000, HRtech) LUX (£280,000, Energy) | London | |||
 LocalGlobe(more info 🔒) LocalGlobe is a venture capital firm that partners with founders from pre-s... | Anzen Industries (£1,700,000, Biotech) Stream (£67,000,000, HRtech) Equitable Earth (€12,600,000, Greentech) | London |
January’s most active venture capital investors were led by Octopus Ventures and accompanied by a cluster of active seed and early‑stage backers, notably Fuel Ventures, Ventures Together, SFC Capital and LocalGlobe. Investment patterns across the month were dominated by AI and healthtech, with significant flows into biotech, greentech, SaaS and cyber or regtech. The data also highlights non‑traditional and specialist models shaping activity, from corporate spinouts such as Kraken emerging from Octopus Energy Group to regionally focused angel and mission‑led vehicles. Taken together, these flows point to a richly tiered market, with deeptech and climate bets attracting large rounds while a steady stream of smaller seed deals keeps the innovation pipeline full.
Each major investor showed a distinctive pattern that often reflects strategic motives common to corporate and strategic investors, including industry adjacency, R&D alignment, regulatory or clinical focus and commitments to infrastructure‑scale deployment. Octopus Ventures sits across the mid‑ and growth‑stage spectrum. It participates in £20m‑plus rounds such as Infinitopes at £35m and Kraken at £1,000,000,000, while also backing £3m–£15m growth deals like AgileRL at £5.5m and Cyb3r Operations at £4m. Ventures Together is eclectic, spanning micro pre‑seed to sizeable scale rounds. Its activity ranges from LaunchLemonade at £357k and WholeSum at £730k in the £200k–£800k band to Emergent’s £50m Series B and Biographica at £7m in the £3m–£15m bracket. Fuel Ventures and SFC Capital concentrate on early‑stage volume in the £200k–£2m band, illustrated by Karavel at £1m, Allocation Strategy at £1.6m, SFC‑backed WholeSum at £730k, iMaintain at £250k and Shoutt.ai at £525k. LocalGlobe mixes seed stakes with larger growth cheques such as Stream at £67m and Equitable Earth at €12.6m.
The practical effect of these approaches is a functioning ladder from discovery to scale. Early‑stage players such as SFC and Fuel underwrite broad experimentation and product‑market testing, generating deal flow that mid‑stage investors like Octopus and Ventures Together pick up and commercialise through £3m–£15m rounds. Growth capital and larger institutional cheques, including those from LocalGlobe, then fund international expansion and capital‑intensive deployment, especially in biotech and energy. Regional and mission‑led funds de‑risk local innovation and social‑purpose ventures, while corporate spinouts and venture studios accelerate category formation. The result is a complementary ecosystem where early innovation feeds mid‑market commercialisation and ultimately attracts large‑scale growth capital.
Corporate venture capital: mid-stage biotech and fintech attract strategic capital
| Corporate Venture Capital Firms | January Investments | Investment Sector | Location | Funding Round | Contact Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MyARC (£1,500,000, Healthtech) | NY, US | ||||
Raylo (£30,000,000, Ecommerce) | NYC, US | ||||
bit.bio (£40,000,000, Biotech) | London | ||||
myHappymind (£, Healthtech) | |||||
WholeSum (£730,000, Data) | Data Analytics | London |
January’s corporate investment tape was led by a mix of asset‑manager CVCs and big banking groups, with M&G Investments, Morgan Stanley, Citibank and Lloyds Banking Group all recording activity. Deal flow clustered into two clear groups: biotech and healthtech on one hand, and fintech together with ecommerce subscription infrastructure on the other. Banks emerged as the most visible non‑traditional corporate investors this month, rather than insurer‑linked funds or venture studios. That split underscores familiar corporate strategies: R&D protection for science‑heavy assets and industrial adjacency plays that plug into existing customer or distribution channels.
The transactions map neatly onto a tiered narrative of corporate participation. M&G’s investment in bit.bio’s £40m Series C typifies CVC appetite for the mid‑stage bracket, where cell‑tech platforms need meaningful capital to scale laboratory processes into products. Morgan Stanley’s role in MyARC’s £1.5m seed shows that banks will take early, consumer‑facing healthtech bets at the seed and early‑stage tier. Citibank’s involvement in Raylo’s £30m growth round points to bank interest in subscription and retail fintech at the growth and mid‑market level, while Lloyds, via LDC, has taken a supportive minority position in myHappymind with an undisclosed stake. These examples underline how corporate capital is deployed differently from pure VC.
Viewed together, these investors demonstrate how different corporate sleeves perform complementary functions across the ecosystem. CVCs and asset managers tend to shoulder the scientific, capital‑intensive middle rounds that de‑risk clinical or platform scale‑up. Banks and lender arms provide growth capital and distributional partnerships for commerce and fintech, while strategic minority deals by retail banking groups channel customer‑facing innovations into incumbent networks. That choreography, alongside other corporate levers such as structured finance, mobility and energy infrastructure investment and venture studio formation, continues to shape how UK and European corporate capital translates lab inventiveness into scalable, market‑facing businesses.
Across the three tapes a clear, tiered market emerges. AI, cyber and specialist deeptech concentrate momentum while biotech, healthtech and fintech maintain steady demand. Investor behaviour maps cleanly onto that structure, with angels signalling at seed and bringing thematic expertise, VCs supplying a ladder from pre‑seed experimentation through mid‑market commercialisation to larger growth cheques, and corporate sleeves stepping in where capital intensity, regulation or distribution partnerships are decisive. The chequebook logic and strategic rationale change accordingly, with individual backers favouring hands‑on, sector‑matched seed stakes, institutional VCs underwriting portfolio progression, and CVCs or asset managers absorbing mid‑stage scale risk or offering routes into incumbent channels. The practical takeaway for founders is simple: choose backers for the role they play. Secure operator angels to de‑risk and signal early traction, partner with VCs to build and scale, and bring in corporate capital when deep pockets or distribution are required to convert lab or product momentum into market traction.
Click here for a full list of 7,526+ startup investors in the UK