Tangible raises £3m seed to standardise reporting, unlock asset-backed lending for hardtech
This article covers Tangible, a fintech startup, which has raised £3m in a seed funding round led by Pale Blue Dot to build financing infrastructure that helps capital‑intensive hardtech startups access and manage debt facilities more efficiently. The funding will be used to expand the team and deepen automation across diligence, collaboration and reporting workflows to reduce transaction costs and shorten time‑to‑close for asset‑backed and structured finance for hardtech startups and lenders.
Tangible, a fintech startup, has raised £3 million in a seed funding round led by Pale Blue Dot to build financing infrastructure that helps capital-intensive hardtech companies access and manage debt facilities more efficiently. The funding will be used to expand the team and deepen automation across diligence, collaboration and reporting workflows.
Why it matters
Hardtech businesses — from electric vehicles to data centres and robotics — typically need large amounts of capital early on but struggle to attract scalable debt financing until they reach institutional maturity. That often forces founders to fund capital expenditure with equity, increasing dilution and slowing deployment.
Tangible aims to change that by creating standardised processes and tooling that make asset-backed and structured finance easier for both lenders and founders. If successful, that could lower transaction costs, shorten time-to-close and broaden the financing mix available to capital-intensive startups.
Inside the product
Tangible combines a software platform with finance specialists to standardise the data, documentation and ongoing reporting lenders expect. Key functions the company highlights include:
- Standardising and centralising borrower data and documentation to reduce bespoke paperwork.
- Streamlining ongoing reporting so lenders can monitor asset-backed facilities without bespoke manual processes.
- Automating parts of collaboration and diligence to reduce underwriting time and cost.
The product is positioned as an alternative to founders building in-house structured finance teams, instead offering a vendor-led approach to run structured facilities alongside equity.
Who are the investors?
The £3 million seed round was led by Pale Blue Dot and included MMC, Future Positive Capital, Unruly, SDAC, Prototype Capital and Aperture.
In the announcement, Hampus Jakobson, Partner at Pale Blue Dot, said:
Tangible’s solution opens up financing options for hard tech businesses, and we believe strongly in Will, Seb, and Ash’s vision to accelerate growth by bridging this financing gap.
The investor line-up mixes venture and specialist investors that typically back capital-intensive or infrastructure-focused companies. Their participation signals interest in tools that lower the friction for institutional credit and asset-backed lending to younger hardtech businesses.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of fintech venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of fintech angel investors in the UK
Founder perspective
In the announcement, William Godfrey, Co-founder & CEO, said:
Reindustrialisation, energy security, and the race for technological sovereignty in compute are driving unprecedented demand for physical assets. As hardtech companies scale at speed, investors need modern infrastructure to deploy capital just as fast. And legacy processes that are reliant on bespoke documentation and manual coordination no longer cut it. This is the exact problem we’re trying to solve with Tangible - we provide the financial infrastructure that makes hardtech easy to diligence for institutional credit to allow companies to raise asset-backed financing faster, and with less friction.
The company says the new funding will be applied to hiring and building deeper automation across collaboration, diligence and reporting workflows to reduce transaction costs and accelerate time-to-close for both founders and lenders.
The bigger picture
Tangible’s raise arrives as renewed policy and commercial attention in the UK and Europe focuses on industrial capacity, energy security and onshoring critical infrastructure. For hardtech companies, widening the choice of financing instruments beyond equity is pivotal to scaling capital-intensive projects without excessive dilution.
The deal is an example of fintech founders targeting niche infrastructure problems in the venture ecosystem: bridging operational gaps between startups and institutional capital providers. If Tangible delivers on its promise, it could become a routinised part of how UK and European investors underwrite and monitor asset-backed financings for physical-asset innovation.
They've invested in Tangible
Get to know these fintech investors
| Investor | Sector | Stage | Activity | Team | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pale Blue Dot | 3 investments investments | more info | |||
 MMC Ventures (MMC) | 29 investments investments | 1 contact contact | |||
 Future Positive Capital | 3 investments investments | more info | |||
 Unruly | 4 investments investments | more info | |||
 SDAC | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Prototype Capital | 2 investments investments | more info | |||
 Aperture | 4 investments investments | more info |
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