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British Business Bank to invest £7 million alongside five emerging Angel Syndicates, facilitated by Haatch

Press release 30 April 2025

The British Business Bank has committed £7 million to a new platform enabling it to invest alongside five of the UK’s promising and emerging angel syndicates. The platform will be managed by Haatch, an existing partner of the Bank.

The initial cohort of five angel syndicates have been selected by British Business Bank, including two female led angel groups, enhancing access to capital for early-stage businesses across diverse sectors primarily outside of London.These angel syndicates are typically recently established, with lean operations and limited regulatory infrastructure, meaning this new innovative structure allows the British Business Bank to invest alongside some of the best emerging angel syndicates across the UK. 

The five angel syndicates are:

  • HERmesa: A diverse community of 270+ women operators and entrepreneurs turned angel investors backing women-led, tech-enabled startups at pre/seed. Led by Marla Shapiro, Emma Blackburn and Wibke Stoffers. 
  • 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 UK and Europe.
  • 2050 Capital: A deep tech and science investment firm investing in transformative and defensible innovation that impacts large fundamental sectors.


Haatch has been selected by the British Business Bank to manage the co-investment process alongside these highly regarded syndicates, driving capital into high-potential startups across the UK.

We’re thrilled to deepen our relationship with the British Business Bank and have the opportunity to co-invest alongside some of the best emerging angel syndicates in the country. This additional commitment allows us to broaden our reach and support an even more diverse range of founders, driving innovation and growth across multiple sectors.

- Fred Soneya Co-founder and General Partner at Haatch

We’re delighted to continue our work with Haatch in creating this innovative new structure, in order to enable co-investment alongside five of the UK’s promising angel syndicates, including two female led angel groups. This further commitment of £7 million, takes our overall commitment to Haatch to £27 million.

- Adam Kelly Managing Director, Funds at British Business Bank

We are very encouraged that this new £7m co-investment from the Regional Angels Programme, delivered through the new Haatch platform, will enable five growing Angel groups to leverage their investment potential into innovating entrepreneurs in key sectors. This development is especially important since, for the first time, the Regional Angels Programme funds will enable two proactive female investor-led Angel groups to significantly increase their capacity to invest in more women powered businesses across the UK. We hope to see this opportunity extended to further emerging Angel groups going forward

- Jenny Tooth OBE Executive Chair, UK Business Angels Association and member of the Invest in Women Task Force

The British Business Bank is a signatory of the Investing in Women Code. The Bank is also expanding access to funding for female entrepreneurs and will aim to invest up to £50m into female-led funds through its existing programmes. This investment will support the aims of the Invest in Women Taskforce, which is an industry led, government backed initiative committed to increasing finance for female entrepreneurs.

For more information about investing with Haatch, visit www.haatch.com or contact them at [email protected].

Further Information

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