Don't miss the next seed unicorn from the UK!
At startupmag, we’ve decided that a seed startup is a company that has raised between £1M and £4M in outside funding.
But it’s actually quite difficult to explain what a seed startup really is, without talking about how it compares to a pre-seed startup.
Seed startups and pre-seed startups both refer to early-stage companies. But they are used to denote different phases in the startup funding lifecycle.
These differences can be put into 3 buckets:
- how developed is the seed startup?
- what will the seed funding be used for?
- what types of investors will invest in this seed round?
Here we will focus on seed startups.
Seed startups come after pre-seed and usually have a more developed concept, possibly a minimum viable product (MVP), and some evidence of market potential or user interest.
Seed funding is aimed at helping the startup further develop its product, validate its business model, and achieve key milestones that will make it more attractive to larger investors in subsequent rounds.
And seed investors typically come from angel investors, venture capitalists, or early-stage investment firms.
Let’s have a look at the latest funded seed startups in the UK.
Date | Startup | Funding | Sector | Round | Contact details | Location | Investor1 | Investor2 | Investor3 | Investor4 | Investor5 | Founder 1 | Founder 2 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
18-07-2024 | ![]() | £2,000,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Simon Green | |||||||
17-07-2024 | ![]() | US$1,200,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Dr Katya Putintseva | Harry Rickerby | ||||||
16-07-2024 | ![]() | £2,200,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Victoria Peppiatt | Angela Vinci | ||||||
09-07-2024 | ![]() | US$1,600,000 | Web 3 | Seed | London ![]() | Alexei Zamyatin | Dominik Harz | ||||||
09-07-2024 | ![]() | £3,500,000 | Seed | Chris Brady | |||||||||
02-07-2024 | ![]() | £2,500,000 | Fintech | Seed | London ![]() | none | |||||||
25-06-2024 | ![]() | £1,600,000 | AI | Seed | Ciaran Gillen | Salina Brown | |||||||
24-06-2024 | ![]() | £1,700,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Nizam Bata | Ashley Haveloch-Jones | ||||||
18-06-2024 | ![]() | £1,400,000 | Gaming | Seed | London ![]() | Reedah El-Saie | |||||||
13-06-2024 | ![]() | £1,370,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Scott Fletcher | |||||||
11-06-2024 | ![]() | £2,000,000 | HRtech | Seed | London ![]() | Lord Mark Price | |||||||
06-06-2024 | ![]() | £2,500,000 | SaaS | Seed | London ![]() | Tash Grossman | |||||||
05-06-2024 | ![]() | £1,500,000 | AI | Seed | Manchester ![]() | Paul Williams | |||||||
03-06-2024 | ![]() | £2,800,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | none | |||||||
30-05-2024 | ![]() | £3,400,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Tonia Samsonova | |||||||
30-05-2024 | ![]() | £2,500,000 | Fintech | Seed | Poole ![]() | Luke Davis | |||||||
23-05-2024 | ![]() | £2,400,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Franklyn Martin | |||||||
21-05-2024 | ![]() | £2,100,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Cardiff ![]() | Richard Freeman | |||||||
21-05-2024 | ![]() | US$1,400,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Ronan Harvey-Kelly | Glenn Keller | ||||||
17-05-2024 | ![]() | £2,800,000 | Martech | Seed | Edinburgh ![]() | Craig Letton | |||||||
16-05-2024 | ![]() | £2,000,000 | Greentech | Seed | London ![]() | none | |||||||
14-05-2024 | ![]() | £2,200,000 | Foodtech | Seed | London ![]() | chef Thomas Straker | Toby Hopkinson | ||||||
09-05-2024 | ![]() | £1,300,000 | Marketplace | Seed | Manchester ![]() | ||||||||
08-05-2024 | ![]() | £1,600,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Dr. David Dunne | |||||||
07-05-2024 | ![]() | £1,200,000 | Greentech | Seed | Birmingham ![]() | none | |||||||
02-05-2024 | ![]() | £1,200,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Martin Blinder | Thomas Laurbjerg | ||||||
02-05-2024 | ![]() | £1,500,000 | Ecommerce | Seed | Manchester ![]() | David Mannheim | |||||||
02-05-2024 | ![]() | £1,125,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Brierfield ![]() | Daniel Boyle | Michael Boyle | ||||||
01-05-2024 | ![]() | £1,250,000 | SaaS | Seed | London ![]() | Julian Hucker | |||||||
24-04-2024 | ![]() | £3,250,000 | Cyber security | Seed | Leeds ![]() | Henry Doyle | Dan Bailey | ||||||
24-04-2024 | ![]() | £2,300,000 | Energy | Seed | London ![]() | Tesla | CBRE | ||||||
24-04-2024 | ![]() | £3,250,000 | Insurtech | Seed | Cardiff ![]() | Nigel Lombard | |||||||
23-04-2024 | ![]() | £1,650,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Arthur Goujon | Luis Espinosa | ||||||
21-04-2024 | ![]() | £2,400,000 | Fintech | Seed | London ![]() | Maria Tanjala | Irina Albita | ||||||
17-04-2024 | ![]() | £1,430,000 | HRtech | Seed | London ![]() | Ingmar Klein | Parham Rakhshanfar | ||||||
17-04-2024 | ![]() | £1,130,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | David Joerring | Tudor Cotop | ||||||
16-04-2024 | ![]() | £1,300,000 | Greentech | Seed | London ![]() | Matthew Isaacs | Nathan Bottomley | ||||||
15-04-2024 | ![]() | £3,000,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | George Hughes-Davies | |||||||
11-04-2024 | ![]() | £1,200,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Jean-Michel Chalayer | Nabil Freeman | ||||||
09-04-2024 | ![]() | £2,250,000 | SaaS | Seed | Dundee | Peter Mendham | |||||||
08-04-2024 | ![]() | £2,100,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Exeter ![]() | Professor Terry | Dr Wessel Woldman | ||||||
08-04-2024 | ![]() | £3,000,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Sam Hussain | Adam Hurst | ||||||
08-04-2024 | ![]() | £2,300,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Professor Rosalyn Moran | Director Karl Friston | ||||||
02-04-2024 | ![]() | £1,200,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Jean-Michel Chalayer | Nabil Freeman | ||||||
02-04-2024 | ![]() | US$3,200,000 | Foodtech | Seed | Cambridge ![]() | Dr. Benjamin Droguet | Professor Silvia Vignolini | ||||||
28-03-2024 | ![]() | £1,270,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | none | |||||||
26-03-2024 | ![]() | £3,000,000 | Cyber security | Seed | London ![]() | Tim Ward | Dr. Mike Butler | ||||||
26-03-2024 | ![]() | £1,740,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Adnan Zaheer | |||||||
25-03-2024 | ![]() | £2,950,000 | Greentech | Seed | London ![]() | Avion Gray | Samantha Rosenberg | ||||||
22-03-2024 | ![]() | £3,170,000 | Fintech | Seed | London ![]() | Amer Baroudi | Abdallah AbuHashem | ||||||
20-03-2024 | ![]() | £2,000,000 | Insurtech | Seed | London ![]() | Jon Godfray | |||||||
20-03-2024 | ![]() | £2,600,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Mollie Claypool | |||||||
18-03-2024 | ![]() | US$3,200,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Nottingham ![]() | Paul Cable | |||||||
18-03-2024 | ![]() | £3,700,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Exeter ![]() | Dr Sarah Cole | |||||||
15-03-2024 | ![]() | £2,100,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Fouad Al Noor | |||||||
13-03-2024 | ![]() | £2,000,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | James Sutherland | |||||||
11-03-2024 | ![]() | £3,000,000 | Greentech | Seed | Sheffield ![]() | Stuart McKnight | |||||||
07-03-2024 | ![]() | £3,760,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Ben Peters | Lars Mennen | ||||||
07-03-2024 | ![]() | US$3,600,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Romain Sestier | Guillaume Lebedel | ||||||
05-03-2024 | ![]() | US$2,250,000 | Web 3 | Seed | London ![]() | Serhii Tyshchenko | Oleksandr Proskurin | ||||||
04-03-2024 | ![]() | £3,300,000 | SaaS | Seed | London ![]() | Fabian Le Gay Brereton | |||||||
03-03-2024 | ![]() | US$1,400,000 | ARVR | Seed | London ![]() | Dami Hastrup | Vinh Ly | ||||||
29-02-2024 | ![]() | £3,700,000 | SaaS | Seed | London ![]() | Adam Chapman | Aadil Qureshi | ||||||
29-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,200,000 | Greentech | Seed | Leicester ![]() | Adrian Black | |||||||
28-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,370,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | The founder of Yurtle is not mentioned in the text. | |||||||
27-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,600,000 | Edtech | Seed | Birmingham ![]() | Robert Stanyon | Manjinder Kainth | ||||||
27-02-2024 | ![]() | £2,800,000 | Cyber security | Seed | Manchester ![]() | Louis Holt | |||||||
26-02-2024 | ![]() | £2,820,000 | ARVR | Seed | London ![]() | Manuel Oliveira | |||||||
23-02-2024 | ![]() | £3,100,000 | SaaS | Seed | Aberdeen ![]() | James McCallum | Colin Manson | ||||||
21-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,500,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Ambra Zhang | Sam Pratt | ||||||
19-02-2024 | ![]() | £3,300,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Gordan Lauc | |||||||
16-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,400,000 | AI | Seed | Oxford ![]() | Riham Satti | Vivek Doraiswamy | ||||||
16-02-2024 | ![]() | US$3,250,000 | Cyber security | Seed | London ![]() | Andy Thomas | Melanie Hayes | ||||||
14-02-2024 | ![]() | £2,350,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Newcastle ![]() | Dr. Mike Nicholds | |||||||
14-02-2024 | ![]() | £2,500,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Matthew Kelly | |||||||
13-02-2024 | ![]() | £3,300,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Dr Dom Pimenta | |||||||
08-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,400,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Newcastle ![]() | Sterghios Moschos | |||||||
07-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,300,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Hannah Samano | |||||||
06-02-2024 | ![]() | £2,500,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Dr Timo Kunz | Peadar Coyle | ||||||
06-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,500,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Siddhant Jayakumar | |||||||
05-02-2024 | ![]() | £1,500,000 | Mobility | Seed | Lincoln ![]() | Leo Scott Smith | |||||||
31-01-2024 | ![]() | US$1,500,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Dr. Thuria Wenbar | Dr. Oskar Wendowski | ||||||
29-01-2024 | ![]() | US$3,000,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Dimitris Nikolaou | Youssef Rizk | ||||||
25-01-2024 | ![]() | £3,500,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Eric Topham | |||||||
24-01-2024 | ![]() | £2,600,000 | Healthcare | Seed | London ![]() | Nadia Kadhim | Chris Clinton | ||||||
24-01-2024 | ![]() | £2,000,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Natasha Jones | William Whatley | ||||||
23-01-2024 | ![]() | £2,500,000 | Greentech | Seed | Nottingham ![]() | Dr. Sid Pourfalah | Dr. Michael Wise | ||||||
18-01-2024 | ![]() | £2,250,000 | Greentech | Seed | Cambridge ![]() | John Archer PhD | Noor Azlin Mokhtar PhD | ||||||
15-01-2024 | ![]() | £2,000,000 | Regtech | Seed | London ![]() | Liam Chennells | |||||||
11-01-2024 | ![]() | £2,100,000 | Martech | Seed | London ![]() | Abhishek Sen | |||||||
10-01-2024 | ![]() | US$1,500,000 | Ecommerce | Seed | Port Charlotte ![]() | ||||||||
09-01-2024 | ![]() | £1,400,000 | Healthcare | Seed | York ![]() | Professor Paul Genever | Dr. David Kuntin | ||||||
21-12-2023 | ![]() | £1,050,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Fareham ![]() | Craig Pyser | |||||||
20-12-2023 | ![]() | £3,700,000 | Biotech | Seed | Cambridge ![]() | Dr. David Milroy | Steve Carle | ||||||
19-12-2023 | ![]() | US$3,200,000 | Web 3 | Seed | London ![]() | none | |||||||
15-12-2023 | ![]() | £3,000,000 | Hardware | Seed | Cambridge ![]() | Robert Fryers | |||||||
14-12-2023 | ![]() | £1,500,000 | Hardware | Seed | Sheffield ![]() | Glenn Fletcher | |||||||
14-12-2023 | ![]() | US$1,100,000 | AI | Seed | London ![]() | Nicolai Thomson | Tosin Dairo | ||||||
11-12-2023 | ![]() | £1,300,000 | Healthcare | Seed | Reading ![]() | Dan Daly | |||||||
11-12-2023 | ![]() | £1,500,000 | Proptech | Seed | Manchester ![]() | Harry Panter | Ben Clayton |
So that’s for startups that have already received funding, but what if you are a founder yourself and you are looking for seed investment for your own startup?
Seed startups can secure funding through various channels, and the process often involves convincing investors of the viability and potential success of their business. Here are some common ways that seed startups can raise funds:
Angel investors are individuals who invest their personal funds in startups in exchange for equity. They often provide not only capital but also mentorship and expertise.
Some venture capital firms focus on early-stage investments, including seed funding. Startups can pitch their business ideas to these firms and, if successful, secure funding.
Some venture funds specifically target seed-stage startups. These funds are designed to support companies in their early stages of development.
Platforms like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or equity crowdfunding platforms allow startups to raise funds directly from a large number of people. This can be an effective way to validate the market and attract early adopters.
Some government programs offer grants, subsidies, or competitions that seed startups can apply for. These can provide non-dilutive funding to support specific aspects of the business.
Joining an accelerator or incubator program can provide not only funding but also mentorship, networking opportunities, and access to resources. Many accelerators and incubators also culminate in a demo day where startups pitch to investors.
Some established companies have venture capital arms that invest in startups aligned with their strategic interests. This can provide startups not only with funding but also potential strategic partnerships.
Seed-stage founders often seek initial funding from friends and family who believe in the startup's potential. This can be a source of early capital to get the business off the ground.
Seed startups can use financial instruments like convertible notes or Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) to secure initial funding. These instruments provide a way to raise money with less immediate focus on setting a valuation.
While not a traditional form of external funding, many startups begin by bootstrapping, using personal savings or revenue generated by the business to fund initial development before seeking external investors.
While having revenue can certainly strengthen a seed-stage startup's position, it is not always a strict requirement.
Seed funding is typically sought in the early stages of a startup's development when it is working on building its initial product, validating its business model, and gaining traction in the market.
At this point, many startups may not have significant revenue, and investors understand that.