Love Ventures

Female founders could add £250bn to the UK economy if given equal access to capital. Following International Women’s Day this weekend, we’re celebrating the achievements of women entrepreneurs while recognising the work still needed to unlock more venture funding for female-led businesses in the UK. And there’s a lot of work to do; industry data isn’t pretty: 🔹 Currently, women-led businesses contribute £85bn annually to the UK economy. However, they receive just 2% of UK VC funding.  🔹 All-female teams secured just £138m of the £8.5bn invested in UK startups in 2023. 🔹 Only 10% of pitches to VCs come from all-female teams. 🔹 75% of female founders struggle to raise capital, compared to 61% of male founders. 🔹 UK female founders typically raise 15% less in their seed rounds compared to male founders. The VC landscape and investment processes have a lot to answer for in contributing to this disparity. And yet, the pace of change in venture to address the founder gender gap remains slow, despite clear economic opportunity: 💡 Women-led businesses deliver twice the revenue per dollar invested than male-led startups, despite raising less capital. 💡 Companies with 30%+ women on their executive teams are 25% more likely to outperform on profitability. 💡 Mixed-gender founding teams deliver 25% higher valuation increases between funding rounds. For a nation focused on solving its productivity puzzle, closing the gender funding gap in the U.K. isn’t just a fairness issue - it’s an economic necessity. Stay tuned for our upcoming post this week for a deeper dive into existing barriers and what VCs, including us at Love Ventures, must do more of to drive quicker change and close the gender funding gap. #IWD2025 #FemaleFounders #VCFunding #UKProductivity #EconomicGrowth

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴? As the tax year-end approaches, investors are reviewing their tax planning strategies. In today’s uncertain market, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) stands out as a compelling option - offering both significant tax benefits and access to high-growth early-stage businesses. 🇬🇧 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 🇬🇧 • Momentum is growing around the UK and Europe’s venture ecosystem, positioning it as a strong challenger to the US. The UK is home to some of the world’s brightest minds, but innovation needs capital to thrive. • With the Mansion House reforms set to inject £50bn into UK private equity by 2050, the landscape for early-stage investing has never been more promising. 🐣 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆-𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 • EIS offers investors a front-row seat to some of the UK’s most exciting startups.  • By investing at Pre-Seed to Series A, you’re gaining exposure to businesses with the potential for outsized returns - though, of course, early-stage investing comes with risks. ⚖️ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁-𝗜𝗻 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗠𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 • Early-stage investing is inherently risky, and some companies in your portfolio will fail. However, EIS provides two key risk-reducing benefits: ✅ 30% income tax relief on the amount invested ✅ Loss relief if an investment doesn’t work out • This combination helps soften the impact of any underperforming investments while maintaining exposure to high-growth opportunities. 🧮 𝗔 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗧𝗮𝘅 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹 • With Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on the rise, EIS is an attractive option for those looking to manage tax liabilities when selling assets. For example, buy-to-let property owners looking to reduce their exposure to real estate can use EIS to defer CGT by reinvesting gains. • EIS allows investors to defer their CGT bill by investing the gain.  • Take a look at the case study below to see this in action. Want to learn more? Book a call with us here - https://lnkd.in/ev_9zGhD Capital at Risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more: https://lnkd.in/ePqWQ3cr.

𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫: 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐄𝐈𝐒 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝 – 27 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 Considering an EIS investment before tax year-end? Join General Partners Adrian Love and Marcus Love on 27 March, when they will provide an overview of our pipeline of investments for the Love Ventures EIS Fund: April 2025 - April 2026, and share insights into the businesses we are backing. This session will help investors understand the sectors we focus on and the potential for growth and innovation within our portfolio. Key Details: 📅 Date: 27 March 2025 ⏰ Time: 17:30 Capital at Risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more: https://lnkd.in/ePqWQ3cr. Register here: https://lnkd.in/d8bmH_i6 or reach out to Olly Norman for more information.

Venture capital isn’t just failing women—it’s failing itself. 💰 Investors are leaving billions on the table by overlooking female founders, despite delivering 2x the revenue per dollar invested than male-led startups on less capital raised. For every £1 invested in men, 1p goes to female founders—and as mentioned in our post earlier this week, it’s costing the UK an estimated £250bn. This isn’t a women’s issue, it’s an economic imperative. Yet, institutional inertia, unconscious bias and rigid decision-making models continue to shape the VC landscape, and not for the better. Barriers are systemic, but they are fixable: 🔍 Women hold 16% of Investment Committee seats, with 61% of UK investment teams have no women at all. 🧐 Unconscious bias in investment decisions means women founders are more likely to be asked “preventative” questions, while men receive “promotional” ones. 👬 Venture networks remain closed, with 92% of VC deals coming through warm introductions. As outlined in our previous post, the firms that break the mould won’t just lead on inclusion; they’ll lead on returns. Here are some key areas that we at Love Ventures are challenging ourselves on internally to help close the gender funding gap: 🤓 Redesigning investment processes: Standardising pitch evaluations removes bias, ensuring women aren’t asked defensive questions while men are asked about growth potential. AI-driven tools can also help reduce human bias in funding decisions. 🤝 Building wider networks: Expanding access to investment opportunities beyond traditional circles. Targeted outreach and structured networking can connect more female founders with investors. 🌱 Providing earlier-stage capital: Gender bias exists across all stages of VC, but the disparities in capital allocation compound over time, leaving women in greater need of early-stage support, where they face a higher barrier in securing pre-seed and seed funding than male peers. 👫 Increasing female representation in decision-making: More diverse leadership leads to better funding decisions and greater capital flow to female founders. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more on how we’re thinking about ways to challenge bias, expand networks and support more female founders—stay tuned. #VentureCapital #DiversityInVC #InvestingInWomen

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for London Live last night! It was a fantastic evening of discussion, insight, and connection with investors, founders, and operators shaping the next wave of UK innovation and productivity growth. We're especially grateful to Husayn Kassai and Dan Cobley, who discussed what it takes to scale and exit in today’s market, and portfolio founders Lizhen Cai (Jove Insurance), Roger Vincent (Bourn), and Eddie Ross (Tembo) who spoke about how their startups are tackling the UK’s productivity challenges. The conversations in the room made it clear that there is huge opportunity ahead for founders and investors who are backing the businesses that will define the next decade of the growth and productivity in the UK. For those who couldn’t make it this time, we will be hosting more events throughout the year and look forward to continuing the conversation. Thanks again for being part of the Love Ventures community!

We love to back startups that are challenging vast, outdated, industries like Banking with technological innovation that has that potential to drive a step-change in output for downstream businesses and consumers. That’s why we’re thrilled to partner with Bourn as they set out to redefine how businesses access working capital. Traditional overdrafts and invoice financing haven’t kept up with the digital age, leaving SMEs with limited, inefficient options. Bourn is stepping in to fill this gap with a smarter, real-time solution. Check out Why We Invested via the link in the comments. 👇

🚨 Final Spots Remaining for London Live 🚨 Tomorrow evening, we’re bringing together investors and Love Ventures' portfolio founders for London Live, where we’ll be discussing what it takes to scale, exit, and propel UK productivity in 2025. The event will feature: 💡 Marcus Love hosting a panel with Lizhen Cai of Jove Insurance, Eddie Ross of Tembo, and Roger Vincent of Bourn diving into how startups are driving productivity growth in FinTech, PropTech, and InsurTech. 💡 Dan Cobley (ClearScore, Salary Finance, Google) in conversation with Husayn Kassai (Onfido, Quench.ai ) on scaling, AI, and the changing landscape for founders. With the UK looking to regain ground in the global economy, these discussions will highlight the opportunities ahead for investors and the startups shaping the next wave of growth. A handful of spots remain. If you'd like to join us, sign up here: https://lu.ma/mqf4r34z

🚀 Backing Bourn: Reinventing the Business Overdraft We're thrilled to announce our investment in Bourn's £1.5M pre-Seed round, supporting their mission to make SME finance smarter, faster, and more accessible. Traditional overdrafts aren't working effectively for SMEs, leaving businesses with rigid, outdated funding solutions. Bourn's Flexible Trade Account (FTA) is designed for the digital economy - offering real-time, dynamic credit, automated cash flow management, and seamless embedded finance for banks, SaaS providers, and accounting platforms. At Love Ventures, we invest across sectors into solutions tackling Britain's productivity crisis, and Bourn is building a transformational approach to working capital. We're so pleased to be able to support the team as they begin their ambitious mission to unlock access to working capital for UK SMEs. Watch some clips from our recent interview with Bourn ahead of the full video going live on the Love Ventures website: 🎥 Bill Corfield, Principal at Love Ventures, on why we invested. 🎥 Nick Tracey (CEO) & Roger Vincent (CGO) at Bourn, on their vision, team, and what sets them apart from the rest of the FinTech pack. 📺 Watch now and see why we’re so excited to be on this journey with Bourn.

On 6 March General Partner Marcus Love will be joining speakers on a panel of emerging manager funds including ILIAN ILIEV of EMV Capital plc, Mark Beaumont from Eos, Marc d'Abbadie & David Walters from River Capital and James Faulkner of Vala, hosted by Hardman & Co. The theme is 'New Approaches in EIS' and the event will start with an introduction to EIS/SEIS and an update on current topics including the recent pick-up in exits, followed by the funds presenting their investment case with a live Q&A. Register now to secure your spot using the link below. 👇 ⚠️ Important: Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more: https://lnkd.in/ePqWQ3cr. This webinar does not constitute tax advice. https://lnkd.in/eazs2cys

🚨 One Week to Go - Register for London Live! 🚨 The UK startup landscape is shifting. AI, productivity growth, and market conditions are redefining what it takes to scale and exit in 2025. So, what does it take to build a high-growth company and achieve a multi-million-pound exit in 2025? At London Live next Tuesday, 4 March, we’re bringing together top investors and founders for exclusive discussions on what’s next: 🔥 Fireside Chat: Husayn Kassai (Onfido, $650M exit) & Dan Cobley (ClearScore, Salary Finance, Google) on scaling and exiting in today’s market. 🔥 Panel: Propelling UK Productivity - Marcus Love hosts Lizhen Cai (Jove Insurance), Roger Vincent (Bourn), and Eddie Ross (Tembo) to discuss the biggest opportunities in AI, FinTech, and the Future of Work for the Love Ventures portfolio. 📍 Oxford Street, London - final spaces available. Register here: https://lu.ma/mqf4r34z. This is an exclusive event for investors looking to stay ahead. We can't wait to see you there.