Article
The UK can invent world-class chips. Scaling them is the hard part
UK chip startups are raising record rounds, but most of the capital still isn’t British. UKSC’s CEO on why this is.
Mia Palmén
October 27, 2026
There are 56,800 active angel investors in the UK, up 54% since 2022, according to the UK Business Angels Association. So finding them shouldn't be the hard part. The hard part is finding the ones who'd actually back your business, and working that out for every name on your list takes a lot longer than most founders expect.
This guide walks through how to find angel investors who fit your startup: what to sort before you start, where to look and how to check someone's a good fit. We'll also show you where ThatRound can take most of that legwork off your plate. If you want a refresher on what angels are and when they make sense, our guide to angel investors covers the basics.
Before You Start Looking
1. Make Sure You're Ready to Raise
Angels will want to see a clear story, some early proof that it's working and a sensible plan for the money. If any of that's still fuzzy, it's worth fixing before you start reaching out, because first impressions are hard to undo. Our pre-raise checklist walks you through what to have in place, from your deck to your cap table.
2. Get SEIS or EIS Advance Assurance Sorted
The UK's two tax schemes make early-stage investing a lot less risky for angels. SEIS gives investors 50% income tax relief and EIS gives 30%. Lots of angels will ask about it on the first call, and some won't go any further without it.
If your company qualifies, apply for advance assurance from HMRC before you start reaching out. Our SEIS and EIS guide covers the limits, eligibility and how to apply.
Where to Find Angel Investors
1. Warm Introductions
An introduction from someone the angel already knows is still the strongest way in. In 2025, 70% of deals came through warm intros, compared to 30% from cold outreach. The trick is making it easy for the person introducing you.
Before you ask, check they're comfortable making the intro. Then send them a short email they can forward without editing: a couple of lines on what you do, one or two numbers that show it's working, what you're raising and why this angel in particular would be interested.
2. Founders Who've Raised Recently
Founders who raised a round or two ahead of you are some of the best sources of angel names. They know who actually wrote cheques, who was helpful afterwards and who went quiet. Most are happy to share if you ask for something specific.
You can do some of the homework yourself too. A private company's filings on Companies House usually list its shareholders, so looking up startups similar to yours can show you which angels have backed businesses like yours before.
3. Angel Networks and Syndicates
A lot of UK angels don't invest on their own. They invest through networks and syndicates, where a lead angel or group manager does the screening and early diligence for them. UKBAA's data shows angel groups put in around 15% of the money in the rounds they back, but anchor the other 85%.
Groups tend to be organised by region, by sector or around backing particular founders. Angel Academe, for example, is a network of women angels with a focus on female founders. Our guides to the role of angel investment networks and the difference between angels, networks and syndicates explain how they work.
4. Accelerators, University Programmes and Pitch Events
Accelerators and university programmes often have angels attached, either as mentors or as investors who come to demo days. If you're on a programme, ask who's invested in previous cohorts. If you're a spinout, your university's commercialisation team will usually know which angels are active in your field.
5. LinkedIn and Events
Going direct is slower, but it can work if you're specific. On LinkedIn, look for angels who post about your sector, follow what they share for a while and comment where you've got something useful to add before you ask for anything. At events, pick the ones built around your sector or stage rather than general networking nights, and follow up within a few days while the conversation's still fresh.
6. Directories and Platforms
UKBAA has a member directory that lists angel groups across the UK, which is a good starting point if you'd like to search manually. Platforms like ThatRound go a step further and do the filtering for you, which we'll come back to below.
How to Check an Angel Is a Fit
This is the step that takes the longest, and it's the one founders most often skip. Before you reach out to anyone, it's worth checking each name against what you actually need:
- Which sectors they've backed before
- What stage they usually come in at
- Whether they invest through SEIS and EIS
- Whether they lead rounds or prefer to follow someone else
- Whether they invest on their own or through a group
- What they bring on top of the money
If you can, talk to a founder they've already backed too. Ask how they behave when things get hard, not just when they're going well.
Here's the catch. Doing this properly for one angel might take 15 minutes of digging through LinkedIn, Companies House and portfolio pages. Do it for a shortlist of 40 and that's 10 hours of research before you've sent a single message, and plenty of those names won't fit once you look closely. That's time you're not spending on your product, your customers or the investors who are actually interested.
A Faster Way to Find Angel Investors
Everything above works. It's also a lot of work, and most of it is research rather than conversations. That's the part ThatRound is built to take off your hands.
1. Tell Us About Your Startup Once
Instead of vetting every angel yourself, you tell us what you're building and what you're raising once. We do the legwork from there.
2. See the Investors That Fit
We have over 400 angel groups, syndicates and funds active in the UK on the platform, and we show you the ones that fit your sector, stage and location. The checking you'd otherwise do name by name has already been done.
3. Spend Your Time on the Right Conversations
With the research done up front, you can go straight to the groups that are a fit for your round, rather than spending weeks building and vetting a list. That's time back for the conversations that actually move your round forward.
Get started with ThatRound and find your investor fit.
Brad's Take: Start With the Groups
Brad Jones is co-founder of ThatRound and an angel investor.
"Most of the advice out there tells founders to build a list of individual angels and start messaging them. I think that gets it the wrong way round. The active angels I know see far more decks than they could ever read, so the experienced ones hand the reading over to a group or syndicate. Their lead does the screening, the first calls and the early diligence.
So if you're pinging single angels on LinkedIn, you're asking them to do work they've already chosen to give to someone else. The person you actually want to reach is the group lead. They've got a room full of angels with capital to deploy, and one warm intro from them does more than a pile of cold DMs.
That's why we built ThatRound the way we did. We don't host individual angels on the platform. The people on it, and the people you reach, are the decision makers: syndicate leads, angel group managers, heads of funds and fund managers."
Brad goes into more detail in why founders should look for angel groups, not individual angels.
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