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SFC's 2025: The Year in Review

Joseph Zipfel, Chief Investment Officer With a background in investment banking and a Master's from ESCP Europe, Joseph manages SFC Capital's investments, investor relations, and portfolio company fundraising strategies since 2014.

30 Dec 2025

Investors

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It’s that time of year when you pause and look back at what’s been achieved over the past 12 months, and 2025 has been full of incredible milestones.

We began the year celebrating our 500th investment, an achievement that was 11 years in the making. We’ve now got our sights on reaching 1,000 investments by 2030.

It was also our first year deploying over £25m across our SEIS, EIS and British Business Bank funds, a 25%+ growth vs 2024.

These numbers show the scale of our growth since starting as a small angel group just a decade ago.

We’re deeply grateful to our 2,000+ individual investors and to the British Business Bank for your continued backing, year after year.

In 2025, we invested in 106 companies across B2B Software, Life Sciences, Deep Tech, Fintech and Consumer. 65% of those investments were made outside of London, reinforcing our commitment to backing talent across the UK.

AI was of course the main trend to watch. Rather than a category of its own, it’s fast becoming the foundation layer of every business being built. We’re focused on backing founders who truly understand these tools and are building AI-first companies from day one.

Our work also received some fantastic recognition this year:

Beauhurst named SFC the UK’s most active Deep Tech VC of the past decade and highlighted us as one of the most active investors in university spinouts in the UK
TechCrunch ranked SFC the 10th most active AI investor globally
We won a few Awards:
- SEIS Fund of the Year 2025 TWICE at the EIS Association Awards and the Growth Investor Awards
- Most Active Investor in the Regions at the UK Business Angels Association Awards

But most importantly, this year was full of highlights from our portfolio companies. There are way too many to mention, but a few standouts include:

Exits

ScreenCloud generated a full investor exit, following a strategic investment from Tenzing in May. The SFC Angel Syndicate led the company’s first SEIS round back in 2015. This marks our third >50x exit following Onfido and Cognism.
One time might be luck, twice can be a coincidence - but three times suggests we’re doing something right…
Ryft delivered a 6.2x secondary exit for SEIS investors as part of their Series A round. That was the 19th exit from our SEIS/EIS funds, with the 20th being announced very soon…

Awards & Recognition

Winefi was named Startup of the Year at the Seedlegals Awards, while Varun Bhanot of Magic AI was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Not bad to be backing the best startup AND the best entrepreneur of 2025.
Hunter & Gather, Magic AI, Furbnow, Veremark, and Strolll were amongst those featured in prestigious startup rankings such as the Sunday Times 100 as well as the Sifted 250, and Future 50 lists.

Major Company Milestones

Transcend Packaging launched a world first compostable and recyclable version of the iconic Starbucks white coffee cup, across Europe
Blue Skies Space successfully launched its Mauve satellite in partnership with SpaceX, the world’s first private space-science satellite dedicated to studying stellar flares.
Carbon Neutral Fuels was awarded £6 million by the UK Department for Transport to accelerate the development of its commercial-scale facility producing sustainable aviation fuel using captured CO₂ and low-carbon electricity
Our consumer stars Fussy, Free Soul, Magic AI, and Hunter & Gather continue to rank among the fastest-growing brands in the UK

These achievements reflect the diversity, resilience and technical brilliance across our portfolio. There are major milestones to be announced in the coming months and we can’t wait to celebrate them in 2026.

All of this gives us real optimism going into 2026. The recent reinforcement of EIS in the Budget shows a rare cross-party consensus around the importance of early-stage investment, and we’re pleased to welcome ever more new investors and advisors into our SEIS and EIS fund community.

The team at SFC is always available to answer any queries you may have. We aim to be platform offering the best experience to investors looking to access SEIS and EIS benefits, and we work continuously to improve our level of service to our clients.

Here’s to 2026 - and to supporting another 100+ UK innovators next year.

Capital at risk. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Tax advantages dependent on individual circumstances.

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DISCLAIMER:

SFC Capital Ltd (SFC) is an appointed representative of SFC Capital Partners Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) in the United Kingdom (FRN 736284). This website is intended for professional investors, high net worth investor or certified sophisticated investors only for the purposes of the FCA's Conduct of Business Sourcebook.; any reproduction of this information, in whole, or part, is prohibited. The content is for information purposes only and should not be used or considered as an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities.

Investment in early-stage companies involves risks such as illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution. Investment in SEIS/EIS eligible companies should be considered as part of a diversified portfolio. The availability of tax relief depends on individual circumstances and may change in the future. The availability of tax relief depends on the company invested in maintaining its SEIS/EIS qualifying status. There is no assurance that the investment objectives of any investment opportunity will be achieved or that the strategies and methods described herein will be successful. The investment products cited herein may place capital at risk and therefore investors may not get back the full amount invested. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance and the value of an investment may go down as well as up. Investors may not get back the full amount invested. Companies’ pitches for investment are not offers to the public and investments can only be made by members of SFC Capital. SFC Capital takes no responsibility for this information or for any recommendations or opinions made by the companies. Neither SFC Capital nor any of its employees provide any financial or tax advice in relation to the investments and investors are recommended to seek independent financial and tax advice before committing. This website is not directed at or intended for publication or distribution to any person (natural or legal) in any jurisdiction where doing so would result in contravention of any applicable laws or regulations. No warranties or representations of any kind are expressed or implied herein. This material is confidential and is the property of SFC Capital.