London venture capital firm launches angel investment programme

A London venture capital firm has announced a new angel investment programme to create an “angel ecosystem”.

Blossom Capital has announced Cultivate, an angel investment programme that will bring together founders with established unicorn pioneers.

Over the next 12 months, Cultivate aims to invest a total of $5m into 20 startups from across Europe, focused at the seed and pre-seed stage, with each startup getting an equal investment of $250k.

A total of 30 members will form Cultivate’s network, all founders or executives from successful unicorns, either founded in Europe or with European HQ.

Ophelia Brown, founder of Blossom Capital, commented: “Europe’s tech ecosystem continues to thrive and is home to some of the greatest, most ambitious, most courageous founders in the world.”

“We set up Cultivate with the aim of giving these founders as much access to capital and experience in Europe as they need to scale.

“Our ambition is to democratise this access and continue to help tech founders punch well above their weight on a global scale.

“Even in these uncertain times, there are visionaries in Europe doing groundbreaking, fundamental work and this is not the time to be scaling back on innovation.

“Some of the best ideas and opportunities come in times of crisis and dislocation.

“The pioneers who can rise up in the face of adversity and lead others in a common ambitious mission, will be the ones who win long term.

“Now, more than ever, is the time when such founders should be encouraged to take risks and we hope Cultivate makes a strong statement that we’re here to support those ambitious ideas and the founders and teams behind them.”