HOW TO APPLY
We run rolling applications - apply any time, and when we're excited about your company, we'll move quickly.
Quick links What we offer | How we assess opportunities | Eligibility criteria | Apply now
STEP 1. WHAT WE OFFER
At Daring Capital, we connect extraordinary founders with investors who care about both returns and impact. Beyond capital, we provide the hands-on support that early-stage founders actually need.
£50k to £150k in equity investment
advice & mentoring from experienced angels
hEAVILY discounted legal support from Founder Catalyst
In addition our founders get access to:
A pool of interested board members (optional - we don’t require you to have a board or that we sit on it)
Support finding customers and partnerships through our exclusive network
Our trusted suppliers and infrastructure support organisations
Follow-on funding from our network
STEP 2. HOW WE ASSESS OPPORTUNITIES
we take a founder first approach
The fundamental question we ask is:
Do we back this founder to solve this problem?
We don't ask founders to fill in long forms or produce reams of documentation. We prefer to spend time getting to know you, your product, and your vision. Our assessment framework looks at three areas:
1: impact
We want to understand the significance of the problem you're tackling - how serious it is, how persistent, and how marginalised the communities affected by it are.
We look for a credible pathway to meaningful, measurable outcomes, and we place real weight on founder insight: lived experience of the problem, a nuanced understanding of your users, and evidence of genuine, sustained engagement with the communities you serve.
2: TEAM
We assess founder-problem fit - whether you're the right person to solve this.
We look for relevant skills and experience, the ability to move between strategy and execution, and evidence of persistence and resilience. We want to see personal commitment and skin in the game. We also consider the strength of your support network: advisors, team members, and your ability to attract talent and partners.
3: commercial
We look for early evidence that the solution works - usage, retention, customer feedback, and willingness to pay.
We assess the size and accessibility of your market, the strength and progress of competition, your defensibility, and the clarity of your business model. We also review your cap table, prior investment terms, and how realistic your future fundraising path looks.
We share this framework to give you a sense of what we're looking for - not to create a checklist. No company will tick every box, and we apply judgement throughout.
step 3. our ELIGIBILITY criteria
OUR INVESTMENT THESIS
Our mission is to invest in extraordinary, overlooked founders building businesses that make the world a better place.
The businesses we back focus on providing necessary, accessible and affordable products and services for underserved communities, or improving their socio-economic prospects.
We invest in four areas where unequal access continues to limit opportunity and outcomes:
Health Outcomes — improving access, quality and equity in healthcare, and reducing gaps in outcomes across different populations
Labour Market Access and Workplace Inclusion — expanding access to jobs, improving pathways into meaningful employment, and creating more inclusive workplaces
Essential Services — making essential services such as legal advice, childcare and housing more affordable and accessible
Education Outcomes — closing gaps in educational attainment and unlocking access to high-quality learning for all
We focus on founders with lived experience of the problem they are tackling, because solutions are more impactful when designed by those with a deep understanding of the issue.
We focus on underrepresented founders because there is clear evidence that individuals from diverse racial, ethnic, socio-economic and gender backgrounds face systemic barriers in accessing capital. We are specifically looking to support:
Women
Minority ethnic founders
Those from low-income backgrounds
We may occasionally invest in businesses without an underrepresented founder in the founding team, but only where the potential for social impact is exceptionally strong, and provided that underrepresented founders continue to make up more than 80% of our portfolio.
We focus on pre-seed and seed stage businesses, particularly welcoming applications from pre-revenue companies. This is where we believe the funding gap is greatest and where our wraparound support can have the most impact.
To b eligible, you must:
Generate revenue through traded income (not philanthropy)
Be a for-profit company limited by shares
Be eligible for SEIS or EIS (you will need HMRC advance assurance before we can close a round)
Be headquartered in the UK
Commit to paying all staff the Real Living Wage
Who cannot apply:
Businesses whose main beneficiary group lives outside the UK
Businesses whose primary mission is to improve the natural environment or prevent climate change
Businesses whose mission is the advancement of religion
Community interest companies limited by guarantee, companies limited by guarantee, or charities
Applications should include:
A pitch deck (in any format — PowerPoint, PDF, Word, or otherwise)
A financial model
step 4. APPLY
What to include in your deck
Business summary - A short summary of your business
Vision - Your long-term vision for the company
Problem - The problem you're solving, from both an impact and market perspective
Solution - Why your solution is the right one for this problem
Why you - Your background, why you care about this, and why you're the right person to deliver it
The team - Who else is involved and what they bring
Competition - Who else is in this space and what makes you different
Traction - Evidence that this works: metrics, customer feedback, proof points
Fundraising - How much you're raising, what you've raised to date, how you'll use it, and the runway it provides
Financial performance - If you have revenue, your financial performance to date
OUR PROCESS
Once you've applied, here's what to expect:
1. Initial review - Jem reviews all applications on a rolling basis, typically every two weeks.
2. Screening interview - Promising applications are invited to a 30-minute conversation with Jem.
3. Committee review (stage one) - A member of our Investment Committee meets with the founder, reviews the application and Jem's notes, and decides whether to progress. If they do, they'll also flag areas for deeper investigation.
4. Due diligence - Jem and a committee member carry out in-depth due diligence. If it passes, the company is recommended to the full Investment Committee.
5. Committee review (stage two) - The full committee reviews all materials including the due diligence pack and a short proposal from Jem. If they agree it's an investable proposition, key terms are agreed - including valuation, allocation, and minimum raise.
6. Offer - An offer is made to the founder, subject to final verification checks. Once complete, a contract is issued and signed.
7. Investor round - Investors are invited to a call with around two to three weeks' notice. Jem prepares a deal memo, signed off by our regulatory principal Palace Ventures, which is made available on the platform at least five days before the call. The call runs for one hour: ten minutes pitching, 35 minutes of Q&A, and 15 minutes for investors without the founder present. Investors then have two weeks to commit.
8. Close - Once a minimum raise is reached, we move to close the round. A term sheet is issued via Founder Catalyst and the round completes.
What our founders say
OUR FEE STRUCTURE
We believe in being transparent about how we charge. Here's how our fees work for founders:
Transaction fee: 7.5%
We charge a transaction fee of 7.5% on the total amount raised through our syndicate. This fee is invoiced to the company after the round closes.
For example: if your company raises £100,000 from our investor syndicate, we will invoice you £7,500 on completion of the round.
No upfront fees
We do not charge founders anything to apply, go through our process, or be considered for investment. You only pay if we successfully raise capital for you.
Legal costs
Founders using our legal partner Founder Catalyst benefit from heavily discounted rates for investment documentation. These costs are separate from our transaction fee and are agreed directly between you and Founder Catalyst.
VAT
Daring Capital is not currently registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our transaction fee.
