ThatRound pre-seed to replace cold outreach and match founders using language models
This article covers ThatRound, a fintech startup, which has closed a pre-seed funding round from founder Bradley Jones and 20 angel investors via Aligned Syndicate; the EIS-qualified round completed in two weeks. Launched in March 2025, the platform aims to broaden access to early-stage capital by matching founders with investors through a preference-driven engine and to reduce reliance on cold outreach and personal networks in UK startup fundraising.
ThatRound, a fintech startup, has closed a pre-seed funding round from founder Bradley Jones and 20 angel investors from Aligned Syndicate; the round closed in two weeks and carries EIS qualification. Launched in March 2025, the platform aims to replace cold outreach and network dependence in early-stage fundraising by matching founders with investors through a preference-driven engine — a solution that matters as UK deal dynamics shift and investors increasingly concentrate capital into fewer, larger rounds.
Why it matters
Early-stage fundraising in the UK has long depended on personal networks and cold emailing, creating opacity for many founders. ThatRound positions itself as a tool to broaden access by mapping investor preferences and surfacing relevant opportunities rather than relying on simple sector or stage filters. The timing is notable: UK deal volumes fell 7.9% in 2025 to 5,887 transactions while total equity investment rose to £24.0bn and average deal size climbed to £4.22m, indicating capital concentration that can disadvantage lesser-known founders.
Inside the product
ThatRound launched in March 2025 and says more than 500 founders have signed up. The platform routes structured applications through a matching workflow — more than 1,500 such applications have been submitted — and currently lists 320 funding partners, with 70 actively using the service to source deal flow.
Rather than filtering solely by sector or stage, ThatRound maps investor preferences, thesis fit and team type before presenting matched deals. Founders whose applications do not proceed receive feedback on fit. The company cites early traction: one founder used the platform to help close £500,000 in six weeks, and ThatRound reports that 62% of deals it surfaces to investment partners result in an intro request.
Funding from the pre-seed round will be used to expand the matching capabilities, develop a learning engine and hire an Account Executive, Marketing Executive and AI Lead — taking ThatRound from a one-person operation to a team of nine in under a year.
Who are the investors?
ThatRound’s backers on this round are founder Bradley Jones together with 20 angel investors coordinated through Aligned Syndicate. The round is EIS qualified and was completed in two weeks.
Jones is a repeat entrepreneur who previously exited a software business, co-runs Aligned Syndicate — an angel syndicate active in UK pre-seed and seed-stage deals — and co-founded non-alcoholic spirits brand CROSSIP. The investor group is composed of angel participants rather than institutional VCs; the deal reflects continued interest from fintech investors in platforms that try to reduce frictions in early-stage fundraising.
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, Matt Thomas, Co-founder at ThatRound, said:
More than 1,500 structured funding applications have gone through ThatRound's matching workflow. Of the deals our AI engine surfaces to investors, two in three result in an intro request. And every single founder whose application doesn't progress receives specific feedback on why - on fit, not a standard rejection. That second part shouldn't feel remarkable, but in early-stage fundraising, it does. The fact that founders find that level of transparency unusual tells you everything about how the market has been working until now.
In the announcement, Bradley Jones, Co-founder & CEO at ThatRound, said:
Early-stage fundraising has relied on cold outreach, fragmented networks, and personal connections for decades - not because nobody tried to fix it, but because the technology to fix it didn't exist. Matching startups with investors is qualitative, preference-driven, and constantly changing. Database filters and tick-boxes were never going to crack that. What's changed is that large language models can now understand and match on the kind of nuanced, interdependent preferences that early-stage investing actually runs on.
The bigger picture
ThatRound is pitching a product at the intersection of fintech and marketplace matching, using newer language models to capture nuanced investor preferences. If the platform can sustain meaningful engagement from investors beyond initial trials — ThatRound currently counts 70 active partners out of 320 listed — it could help diversify access to capital for founders who are outside traditional networks.
The story also reflects broader trends in the UK and Europe: deal counts may ebb while aggregate capital and average round sizes rise, favouring tools that help founders cut through investor concentration. EIS qualification will be important for many early-stage investors and founders considering tax incentives remain a factor in UK angel activity.
This funding round and ThatRound’s early metrics are another data point in the evolving UK startup ecosystem, where transparency and smarter matching are increasingly seen as part of the solution to persistent access gaps.
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