Apply to pitch to us

You’re a female founder or co-founder who owns at least 20% of founder equity in the business (pre-dilution). You will run the fundraising activity with our investors.

Your startup has an innovative, usually technology-based, solution to an important global problem in areas including fin tech, med tech (digital and devices), ed tech, cyber security, clean tech and enterprise.

You have relevant industry, technical and startup experience in your team and a strong vision for the future of your business.

You have a working product, business model and market traction. B2B businesses are preferred but we will consider B2C opportunities with significant and growing revenue, ideally recurring.

You can articulate clear differentiation from your competition and good barriers to entry for potential new entrants.

You’re addressing a large global market and can show how you will return a minimum 10X to investors within 3-10 years.

You’re a UK business with a £1m - £15m pre-money valuation and eligible for SEIS and/or EIS tax relief.

You’re raising £250,000-£5,000,000 of equity investment in a priced round.

You’re able and willing to work with external advisors and recognise the value of a diverse cap table.

Everyone pitching to Angel Academe investors goes through the same selection process.

Stage 1: Online application

We read all applications received. The questions cover the areas our investors want to know about and will help us quickly gauge their level of interest.

Stage 2: Weekly screening calls

If we think there’ll be good investor interest, you'll be invited to join a screening call to pitch informally to about 10 of our lead angels.

Stage 3: Review, selection and feedback

Based on feedback from screening calls, some opportunities will be invited to pitch formally to the full network. Adding value is important to us, so if you’ve joined a screening call, you’ll be offered individual feedback.

Stage 4: Pre-pitch call

We’ll organise a pre-pitch meeting 1-2 weeks prior to the pitch event to run through details and to introduce you to some of our investors.

Stage 5: Virtual pitch event

You pitch your business to our investor network in one of our monthly virtual pitch event.

We’re running monthly virtual pitch events with 1-2 opportunities pitching at each.

Investor due diligence

Our investors are responsible for their own investment decision, but we encourage them to work as a team and and follow our structured due diligence process. Expect several follow-up calls and detailed questions. This is your opportunity to get to know them. You’ll be expected to share a data room with information on your:

Business - CVs and contracts for team members, advisors, key suppliers and customers; trading history and financial forecasts; IP; marketing strategy; competitor analysis; product roadmap etc.

Current and previous funding rounds - term sheet and shareholder agreement, cap table, S/EIS advanced assurance; outstanding loans etc.

FAQs - a record of questions asked and answers given.

Investment

We aim to close investments as quickly as possible once your full round is in place. You can help speed up the process by having all your DD information available in a data room ready for potential investors to review.

Investment amounts vary widely from deal to deal, but successful founders typically attract £70k-£350k.

You’ll need to send share certificates and EIS forms to your investors and keep them informed through regular written updates and periodic shareholder meetings.

We charge a 5% success fee on all investment raised from our introductions. There are no application, pitch or review fees, monitoring fees, fees applied at exit or obligations to buy services from us or our partners.

Our fees ensure we only put forward companies that we’re confident will achieve a good level of investment. We support companies through the investment process and beyond. We regularly make follow-on investments and bring new investors into rounds.

Angel Academe is an investor partner in the Innovate UK Investor Partnerships programme. Startups that go through our selection process to pitch at one of our virtual pitch events can apply for Innovate UK grant funding aligned with their equity funding round.