# Top 50 Music Startup Investors in United Kingdom in May 2026

## Northstar Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 9
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Internet

Northstar Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in innovative solutions to help solve the most pressing societal issues we have today.  Our ticket sizes range from £100k to £500k into early stage tech companies. We provide added value in leveraging our network of university partners, funders, non-executive directors and talent to supporteach investment.

## Hotspur Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Relevant deals: 6
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Software, Location Based Services, Mobile

Hotspur Capital is a financial organization.

## Ascension
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 5
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Internet, FinTech

Ascension is an early-stage VC built by exited entrepreneurs to back the next generation of tech and impact founders

## Playfair Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 4
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, E-Commerce

Playfair Capital is an early-stage fund that commits to companies early and with conviction. Based in London, Playfair combines the best aspects of angel investing with a focused fund, to invest in truly ambitious founders, wherever they are in the world. Playfair takes a sector-agnostic approach and investments span deep tech, SaaS, marketplacesand B2B companies. We’ve backed the founders of more than 60 companies including Mapillary (acq. Facebook), CryptoFacilities (acq. Kraken), Omnipresent, Orca AI, Ravelin, sprout.ai, Thought Machine, Trouva and Vinehealth.

## Peter Gabriel
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Music, TV, Supply Chain Management

Peter is clearly way more than a global music legend. He divides his time and energy between his music, humanitarian projects, business investments and his family.He became an investor and advisor to The Filter in 2006 and brings with him a clear vision of a need for smart filters to help us make sense of a world with too many choices. Workingwith Peter is inspiring – his passion and creativity help drive and motivate the team.

## Cambridge Innovation Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Series B, Series A, Seed
- Focus: Biotechnology, Health Care, Therapeutics

Cambridge Innovation Capital backs life sciences and technology companies with an affiliation to Cambridge, Europe’s capital for innovation. As a preferred investor for the University of Cambridge, they have unparalleled access to investment opportunities in the ecosystem.Since our inception in 2013, they have raised £275 million to invest indisruptive, deep-tech businesses in sectors including, but not limited to, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, quantum technologies, autonomous systems, therapeutics, medtech/diagnostics, digital health, and genomics/proteomics.

## Universal Music Group
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Santa Monica, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Music, Mobile, Media and Entertainment

Universal Music Group offers music recording, publishing, and merchandising services worldwide. It discovers and develops songwriters, and owns and administers copyrights to musical compositions for use in recordings, public performances, and related uses such as films and advertisements; and sells artist and music branded products through multiplesales points including online, fashion retail, and live performances worldwide.

## Armilar Venture Partners
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Manufacturing

Armilar Venture Partners is Portugal's leading venture capitalist. An independent VC with a 20-year-old history, a high-performance track record and an international footprint, Armilar is a deep-tech investor in ICT, HealthTech and CleanTech.

## Index Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Series A, Series B, Seed
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Internet

Index Ventures is an international venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security.

## Octopus Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: Software, Health Care, FinTech

We provide venture capital investment for the people, ideas and industries that will change the world. Learn about what we do and the kind of founders we back.

## SFC Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence

SFC Capital, the UK's most active seed investor (PitchBook, 2020), provides capital and support to British startups. By combining its Angel Network and Seed Funds, SFC has created a unique model that allows investors to get exposure to SEIS- and EIS-qualifying businesses, either directly or through a diversified portfolio curated and managedby SFC’s expert team. In 2020, SFC received a £10m allocation from Business Investments as part of the Regional Angels Programme in support of SFC's mission to back promising early-stage companies from every corner of the UK.SFC Capital is an Appointed Representative of SFC Capital Partners Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 736184).

## FirstMark
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Series B, Seed
- Focus: Software, SaaS, E-Commerce

FirstMark is an early-stage venture capital firm in New York City. We back and accelerate founders of iconic and industry-defining companies.

## Warner Music Group
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: Music, Media and Entertainment, Digital Entertainment

Warner Music Group is a major music company with interests in recorded music, music publishing and artist services

## Yasin Sebastian Qureshi
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed
- Focus: Audio, Music, Digital Media

Yasin Sebastian Qureshi is the Co-Founder of KlickOwn and the Founder and former CEO of Varengold Bank. At the age of 29 he was the youngest person ever in Germany to obtain a license to run an investment bank. He is also the founder and former CEO of The NAGA Group AG www.naga.com as well as the founder of AQUA Digital Rising www.aquarising.com.He is an entrepreneur, investor and film producer born in Germany and based in London. His investments range from finance, to Internet and media.

## John Michaelis
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Audio, Music, Digital Media

John Michaelis

## Colin McInnes
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Audio, Music, Digital Media

Colin McInnes

## Matt Jellicoe
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Audio, Music, Digital Media

Matt Jellicoe

## Peter Bartlett
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Audio, Music, Digital Media

Peter Bartlett

## Ojjeh Family Fund
- Type: VC Fund
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: SaaS, Audio, Music

Ojjeh Family Fund is the family investment fund founded by the Oijeh Family.

## Velocity Capital Advisors
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Media and Entertainment, Information Technology, Mobile

Venture Capital

## Andrew Scott
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology

Andrew J Scott, Founding Partner – based in London & San Francisco. 20 years in technology, founder of 6 startups; investor since 2014.As founder launched the world’s first location based social network (Playtxt 2001; patented), online digital news archive (BritishPathe.com, 2002), trust graph/recommendation engine using machine learning(Rummble, 2007; patented). In-between did strategy consulting for VCs and Corporates including Astra Zeneca, AT&T and Alcatel Lucent.Andrew is also co-founder of ICE, a non-profit global network of tech founders and investors, established in 2009.Specialisms include: D2C, social & market networks, B2B SaaS and quantum computing.

## The FSE Group
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Camberley, Surrey, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Debt Financing, Seed
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Manufacturing

FSE C.I.C. is an independent not-for-profit Community Interest Company (C.I.C.) whose surpluses are reinvested in the business, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners. FSE C.I.C. has a number of subsidiary companies to deliver its funds and services, which are collectively referred to as The FSE Group.All regulated activities are delivered through FSE Fund Managers Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Finance East Limited delivers funding for businesses based in the East of England region.

## TAG
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: SaaS, Audio, Music

TAG Group is an award-winning global, independent event and corporate travel management company


## David Cummings
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Angel, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: Music, Internet, Software

David has worked for IMI Plc, Lazard and KPMG.His early career at IMI Titanium was as a research and development metallurgist developing superconductors and titanium alloys. From 1986-2002, David worked at Lazard, where he became a Partner and the Managing Director running the TMT group in London. While there he gained a wide variety ofexperience in Corporate Finance, M&A, debt restructuring and equity capital markets based on over a decade of transactions in the TMT sectors. From 2004-2011, David was a Senior Director of KPMG Corporate Finance focusing on Business development and relationship building with medium to large corporations in the Telecom and Technology sectors.David is an active investor in early stage private technology companies and is a member of Cambridge Angels. His current portfolio consisting of 14 companies includes: Truphone , We7 , Grapeshot, Trigger (WebMynd), Ionscope, Centrix and Arachnys.

## White Star Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: Financial Services, FinTech, Software

Our presence, perspective and people enable us to partner closely with founders to help them define this future.

## John Taysom
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence

John Taysom started the Reuters Venture Capital Fund in Palo Alto in 1995 making 82 investments in internet and web infrastructure and services including Verisign, UltraDNS, Digimarc, ZeroKnowledge and Intertrust. He was a member of the Board of Digimarc pre and post its Nasdaq IPO, a Board member at Intertrust and a Board member at TIBCO throughits Nasdaq IPO. To date, seventeen of his investments have achieved an IPO.John acquired the Fund in an MBO in 2002. Now London-based with a seed portfolio of thirty US and UK start-ups; one has achieved an IPO and several have been acquired by Experian, Linkedin, Tesco, BMC and others.In 2011 and 2012 John took a Fellowship at Harvard to work on privacy issues and holds EU and US patents on a method of improving privacy online. For 2015 John is a Policy Fellow at the University of Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy and a Visiting Professor, Department of Computer Science, at UCL. He is a member of the Board of the Web Science Trust; chairs Performance Horizon, a fast growing UK startup; is a Governor at Hurstpierpoint College; and runs a small farm in Devon.

## Emerge Education
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: Education, EdTech, E-Learning

Emerge Education is a European seed fund investing in founders solving the $8.5tn skills gap. Emerge provides founders with unrivalled education sector insights, as they're the only fund backed by the world’s foremost education entrepreneurs.

## Lorenz Bogaert
- Type: Angel
- Location: Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel
- Focus: SaaS, Software, Artificial Intelligence

Lorenz Bogaert is the Founder and Director of FixForm.

## ESRG Investments
- Type: VC Fund
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Music, Video, Gaming

ESRG Investments specializes in a vast range of financial services. The group is able to offer independent and integrated cross border financial structuring. It plans and implements concepts for institutional clients and investors that require tailor-made solutions reflecting their specific requirements. ESRG specializes in mutual funds based intax neutral jurisdictions, UK taxation, UK pension administration, film bridge financing, property, land development, sports and leisure, and media.

## Creative England
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Bristol, Bristol, City of, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Mobile, SaaS

We are here for those who dare to imagine: imagine a fairer, more prosperous world, achieved through the power of creativity.

## Global Founders Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Financial Services, Software, FinTech

Over the past two decades, GFC have backed over five hundred entrepreneurs worldwide, e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, and Away Travel.

## Sony Music Entertainment
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Music, Digital Media, Apps

Sony Music is a United States music corporation owned and operated by Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony Corporation. It is a global music company with a roster of current artists that includes both local and international superstars, as well as a vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordingsin history. In 1929, the enterprise was first founded as American Record Corporation (ARC) and, in 1938, was renamed Columbia Recording Corporation, following ARC's acquisition by CBS. In 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records. In 1987, SCA bought the company and, in 1991, renamed it SME. In 2004, SME and Bertelsmann Music Group merged as Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

## Acton Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: München, Bayern, Germany
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Series B
- Focus: E-Commerce, Internet, Software

Since 1999, Acton Capital invests in tech-enabled business models to create value for the long run. We support world-class teams on their way to market leadership.

## Parkwalk Advisors
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Biotechnology, Health Care, Software

Parkwalk is a London-based fund management firm. Parkwalk invests in UK technology companies that have IP backing and freedom to operate, generally spun out of UK universities. Their funds seek to generate capital gains for their investors, enhanced by the attractive tax relief provided by EIS. Parkwalk entered this investment sector in 2009,anticipating a wave of tax-efficient incentives launched by the UK Government to stimulate innovative emerging technology companies and thereby help drive economic growth.Parkwalk utilises academic, technology transfer, venture capital and personal networks developed over many years to gain access to the highest calibre deal-flow. In 2017 Parkwalk joined forces with IP Group plc, a leading intellectual property commercialisation company that is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IPO. As at March 2019 the combined group has net assets of £1.2bn.

## Balderton Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C
- Focus: Software, FinTech, Financial Services

In the two decades since our founding, we have worked with hundreds of extraordinary European founders, and have raised eight funds totalling more than $3bn.

## Windcrest Partners
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: Software, SaaS, Enterprise Software

Windcrest Partners is a venture capital firm that offers private equity investment services to firms in the energy, network, games, healthcare administration, and internet technology industries. It was founded in 1967 and is based in New York.

## WndrCo
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Beverly Hills, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, FinTech

WndrCo is a holding company that acquires, operates, and develops businesses at the intersection of technology and media.

## Andrew Gault
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Augmented Reality

Andrew Gault is tech startup founder with 20 years in technology; investor since 2012Ex-CTO with 14 patents issued & 28 filed. Started life at the European Space Agency, then co-founded GAIKAI in 2008 raising $45m from Benchmark, NEA and Intel; exiting to Sony for $380m. A Scotsman living on the West Coast since 2008, Andrew has an extensiveSilicon Valley network.Specialisms include: AR/VR, robotics, video tech/computer imaging and gaming.

## Metaplanet Holdings
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Software, Machine Learning

an early-stage investment firm making long-term bets on contrarians and leveraging the knowledge and network across sectors. We back mission-driven founders working on positively disruptive deep technologies.

## Pentech Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Edinburgh, Edinburgh, City of, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Analytics

Pentech Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on finding category defining software companies. Their passion is helping founders develop their startup into an internationally successful organisation. They have done this multiple times, partnering with leading VCs, corporations and investment banks along the way. They consider any opportunitycapable of becoming a market leader but are most comfortable being the first venture investor, supporting founders through the early stages of proving product and market fit. Their initial investment is likely to be £500K to £2M, with up to £10M invested over the lifetime of the investment.They invest in founders who are ambitious to build a global company, have the passion and ability to attract the best team and who are focused on the data and understand the key drivers in proving and building their business. They support the founders they invest in to develop and grow with their business.

## IDEO
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Health Care, Cryptocurrency, FinTech

IDEO is a global design and innovation consultancy firm. Some of their clients include Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, Microsoft , Nokia , Intel, Eli Lilly, Samsung , and Steelcase.

## Designer Fund
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Internet

We invest in leaders and empower them to improve the world with design.

## MMC Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

MMC is a venture capital fund investing in early stage, high-growth UK companies. Our mission is to be involved in the creation of the global industry-leading companies of tomorrow.

## LDC
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Private Equity, Secondary Market
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Manufacturing

For over 40 years, LDC has been the trusted investment partner for ambitious management teams. We invest in a diverse range of businesses across every region and sector of the UK economy.

## Anton Solomko
- Type: Angel
- Location: Kiev, Kyyivs'ka Oblast', Ukraine
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Angel
- Focus: Music, Events, Music Streaming

CFO at SHOW4ME.

## Marco Valta
- Type: Angel
- Location: Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Secondary Market
- Focus: E-Commerce, Internet, Marketplace

Marco Valta is an Entrepreneur and Investor with over 12 years experience in the tech/web industry.
As an internet investor, Marco has a portfolio of more than 150 companies including Appnexus, Soldo, Revolut, Prima, Bolt, Flexport, Deliveroo, Space X, Brex, Fabfitfun, Cloudkitchens, Raya, Playco, Public, Coinbase, Pacaso, Relativity, Monthly.

## Neel Sachdev
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Angel
- Focus: Music, Internet, Social Media

Neel Sachdev is a partner in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP. Neel represents financial sponsors and their affiliates on the financing of multi-jurisdictional leveraged buyouts and other complex financing transactions in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Neel advises on a wide range of complex financing transactions includingsponsor led leveraged financings, asset backed lending and securitisations, commercial paper and capital markets deals and derivatives.

## Midven
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Manufacturing, Information Technology

Midven is a specialist venture capital company providing investment to fast growing small and medium sized enterprises ("SMEs"), run by an energetic, experienced and hands-on team of investment managers.

## Jason Epstein
- Type: Angel
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series B
- Focus: Apps, News, Music

Jason Epstein, an affiliate partner at Stonecourt Capital, is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist who has identified and developed profitable business models for a multitude of struggling companies, turning them into high-value firms. He currently sits on the Board of Harmonix Music Systems, EG7 Games, and Cold Iron Studios.Previously, Mr. Epstein was the Managing Partner of a private equity firm which he helped grow to $12.3 billion in assets under management. He also founded eLink Communications in 1998, when he was just 20 years old. As CEO, he helped raise nearly $100 million across a dozen cities. Mr. Epstein is committed to making value-driven investments and works closely with his alma mater Tufts University, Moon Valley Nurseries, and Change Summer. Most recently, he and his wife partnered with Tufts to develop a graduate certificate in Environmental Social Governance (ESG) investing. Mr. Epstein and his wife live in New York City with their three children.

## Mustafa Suleyman
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series C
- Focus: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Software

Mustafa Suleyman is a Co-founder and CEO at Inflection AI and a Venture Partner at Greylock. He was a Co-founder and Partner at Reos Partners.

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