In 2023, Black Seed raised £5 million and positioned itself as one of the UK's few venture funds built specifically around Black founders. Three years on, we question whether the model is actually changing how Black founders access capital, and if it can survive contact with a venture market that looks very different from the one it launched into.
That question has sharper stakes in 2026 because the UK venture market is expanding again, but unevenly. UK startups raised £14.4 billion in the first half of the year, according to the Financial Times. AI, software, and biotech have driven much of that growth, with overseas investors supplying most of the capital. At the top of the market, money is flowing freely. Access to it, for founders outside established venture networks, remains a separate and unsolved problem.
