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British Business Bank and Haatch to invest £32 million in UK’s most promising and diverse angel syndicates

Press release 26 February 2026

The British Business Bank has committed an additional £25 million to invest in the UK’s most promising and diverse angel syndicates. The platform is managed by Haatch, an existing partner of the Bank and follows an initial investment of £7 million into a cohort of five emerging syndicates last year.

The total of £32 million is being invested via a platform managed by Haatch, an early-stage venture capital firm and existing partner of the British Business Bank. The partnership enables the Bank to invest alongside recently established, high-performing angel syndicates.

More syndicates are to be onboarded in the coming months. The following are already backed through the British Business Bank and Haatch’s partnership:

  • HERmesa: a diverse community of over 270 women operators and entrepreneurs turned angel investors backing women-led, tech-enabled startups at pre/seed
  • CircleRock Capital: a sector-agnostic platform offering access to leading early-stage investments alongside top global venture capital firms, with a focus on Seed, Series A, and Series B rounds
  • The Games Angels: a collective of seasoned gaming industry professionals dedicated to investing in and supporting startups and companies shaping the future of gaming
  • Sie Ventures: early-stage investor backing diverse founding teams across the UK and Europe
  • 2050 Capital: a deep tech and science investment firm investing in transformative and defensible innovation that impacts large fundamental sectors.

Since May 2025, 13 companies have received investment through this scheme, covering regions across the UK – from Cornwall to Cambridge, Bristol to Bingley, Cardiff to London – and a wide range of sectors, including:

  • Healthcare: Ensilicated Technologies (EnsiliTech, developing patented technology to eliminate the need for cold-chain storage of vaccines and biologics), Motics Technologies (AI-powered healthcare automation platform for clinics), Peripear (FemTech startup developing a wearable medical device to prevent perineal tears during childbirth), and KareHero (AgeTech startup providing digital and human-led support for employees managing elderly care).
  • Sustainability: JECO (automated optimisation toolkit for games developers that reduces production costs, timelines, and carbon emissions) and Mimicrete's (advanced materials science startup developing self-healing, bio-inspired concrete to enhance infrastructure durability and reduce carbon emissions).
  • Deep tech and AI: Turing Intelligence Technology (TurinTech.ai, UCL spinout specialising in AI-powered code optimisation) and CheMastery Group (chemistry automation startup aiming to speed up R&D for small-to-medium scale chemical projects).

As well as a broad spread of industries, the investment is also backing a diverse mix of founders, including a Savile Row-trained designer, a practising midwife, a Women in Innovation award-winner, and Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni.

Fred Soneya, Co-founder and General Partner at Haatch, said:

For the UK’s startup ecosystem to properly thrive, collaboration between investors is absolutely vital. Funding must reach the best and most innovative businesses, and this partnership between the British Business Bank, Haatch and some brilliant angel syndicates is a really strong example of how we can deliver that. An exciting, diverse range of startups have already been backed, and by working with more syndicates from across the UK, we’re going to direct early-stage funding to the best and brightest startups in the country.

Mark Barry, Senior Investment Director at British Business Bank, added: 

Since its launch last May, this platform has already made more than a dozen investments into a diverse range of businesses to drive growth across a number of sectors. We are now looking to scale this platform by investing alongside more great syndicates across the country.

Further Information

If you are a journalist and have a media enquiry, please contact mediaenquiries@british-business-bank.co.uk.

Notes to editors

About the British Business Bank 

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government. 

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support £23bn 1  of finance to almost 64,000 2  smaller businesses.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. With the exception of BBB Investment Services Limited they are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority. BBB Investment Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.  

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party of Haatch or its products or services.

About Haatch

Haatch is an award-winning early-stage venture capital firm founded by Scott Weavers-Wright OBE and Fred Soneya in 2013. Backing B2B SaaS businesses at pre-seed and seed stage, Haatch has invested in over 150 companies, with a combined portfolio valuation exceeding £1 billion. Run by exited entrepreneurs and operators with over $200 million in exit value, Haatch launched its EIS fund in 2018 and SEIS fund in 2021, attracting over 2,500 investors, including business leaders and C-suite executives. Haatch is proud to partner with the British Business Bank, which, following the recent syndicate programme announcement, has committed £52 million through its Regional Angels Programme, and also manages an £8 million co-investment fund with ESAIF, backing high-growth SaaS ventures in the East Midlands.

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