The one where London founders met for the eChai Mixer at Temple of Arts, London
Meanwhile, across eChai
Rishi Khosla & Joel Perlman
Founded 2015, an SME-focused digital bank using data analytics for fast, flexible business lending (£1M–£100M turnover clients). INDIAN-ORIGIN FOUNDER: Rishi Khosla, who previously built and sold Copal Amba ...
Vivek Madlani & Mike Curtis
Founded 2016, an AI-powered financial-advice / holistic financial-planning platform for consumers and advisers. INDIAN-ORIGIN FOUNDER: Vivek Madlani (CEO). Backed by Portfolio Ventures and others as it autom...
Jinesh Vohra
Founded 2019, an app that helps homeowners overpay and pay off their mortgage faster (round-ups, cashback, smart payments, live mortgage comparison). INDIAN-ORIGIN FOUNDER: Jinesh Vohra (ex-Goldman Sachs). C...
Sachin Dev Duggal
Founded 2016 by Indian-origin founder Sachin Dev Duggal; London-HQ'd 'AI-assisted' app-development platform. Hit a $1.5B unicorn valuation in 2023 (Microsoft, QIA backing) but collapsed into insolvency in 20...
Charles Delingpole
Founded 2014; RegTech SaaS using AI/AML technology to screen millions of data points daily for financial-crime risk, serving 500+ enterprises. CEO is Vatsa Narasimha (Indian-origin, ex-OANDA). A pillar of Lo...
Vishal Marria
Founded 2016 by London-born, Indian-descent Vishal Marria. Decision-intelligence platform using contextual data + AI/entity resolution to fight financial crime, AML and fraud for banks and government. Raised...
Kristo Käärmann & Taavet Hinrikus
Founded 2011 (as TransferWise), the cross-border payments and multi-currency account leader. Direct-listed on the LSE in 2021; moved its primary listing toward the US in 2025 while remaining London-HQ'd. Mov...
Steven Hunter & Huss El-Sheikh
Founded 2016, an AI-powered analytics platform for debt capital markets (bonds, leveraged loans, distressed debt, CLOs). Became a unicorn in 2026 with a $170M Series C led by Redalpine and Seedcamp at a $1.3...
Richard Davies (CEO)
Founded 2019, a digital bank for established SMEs (lending, business accounts, savings). Raised a ~$155M Series D led by TCV and Ventura Capital in early 2026 at a $1.2B valuation — a newly minted unicorn. A...
London digital-first home-healthcare company using an AI platform to predict deterioration and deliver care in people's homes at scale, easing NHS/hospital strain. Raised $150m (debt+equity) in January 2025 ...
Guillaume Pousaz
Founded 2012, enterprise payments processing for global merchants (bootstrapped until a record $230M Series A in 2019). Processed $300B+ in total volume in 2025 (+64% YoY); ran a Sept 2025 employee buyback a...
Hiroki Takeuchi, Matt Robinson & Tom Blomfield
Founded 2011, global leader in bank-to-bank (direct debit / account-to-account) payments and open-banking-based collections. Grew FY2024 revenue 41% to £132M and targeted full-year profitability by 2026. In ...
Tom Blomfield & co-founders
Founded 2015, one of the UK's leading digital challenger banks with 12M+ personal customers. Valued at $5.9B in an Oct 2024 secondary sale (GIC, StepStone). Reached full-year profitability and crossed 12M cu...
London edtech founded 2016 by Euan Blair and Sophie Adelman, delivering apprenticeship-based training and AI upskilling as an alternative to university. Became the UK's first edtech unicorn (2022) and reache...
London AI-infrastructure and GPU-cloud provider that closed a $1.1bn Series B in September 2025 — reported as the largest Series B in European history — backed by Aker, Microsoft, OpenAI, NVIDIA, Dell, Nokia...
One of Europe's most storied multi-stage VCs, dual-HQ'd in London and San Francisco. Backs everything from seed to growth across fintech, SaaS and consumer. Marquee London bets include Wise, Revolut, Deliveroo, Robinhood and Figma.
London's largest homegrown early-stage (primarily Series A) fund, backing European technology founders. Portfolio spans Revolut, GoCardless, Depop, Citymapper and Aircall. Runs a dedicated growth fund alongside its early-stage vehicle.
European arm of the Silicon Valley firm, investing early and growth across the region from its London base. Backed Deliveroo, UiPath, Monzo, Spotify and Soldo. General Partner Sonali De Rycker — Mumbai-born, one of the most influential I...
Growth-focused VC founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, backing European tech scale-ups from Series A onward. Notable bets include Klarna, Graphcore, Supercell, Lilium and Pipedrive. Publishes the influential annual 'State of Eur...
Nordic-rooted, multi-stage VC with a strong London presence investing from seed to growth across fintech, marketplaces and media. Early backer of Spotify, Klarna, Trustpilot and Personio. Strong consumer and fintech thesis across Europe.
Founded by Saul and Robin Klein, LocalGlobe is London's premier seed fund; sister fund Latitude follows on at growth stage. Seed-to-scale portfolio includes Wise, Improbable, Zego, Motorway and Tide. A cornerstone of the King's Cross/Som...
A mission-led company builder running nine-month Venture Builder cohorts of ~70 people who form teams and found impact-focused startups tackling a defined societal 'mission'. Founders receive a stipend during the build phase plus initial...
'The venture builder for the climate emergency', founded 2020 and operating across Cambridge, London and Berlin. Its five-month programme gathers ~80 scientists, engineers and business builders who form teams and launch climate-tech star...
A London venture creator founded in 2016 by Dominic Falcão (formerly of Imperial's science startup programme), pairing founder-type scientists with a 'solution-pull' method to build deeptech companies in climate, therapeutics and food. H...
A 'talent investor' that backs individuals before they have a company or a co-founder, running an intensive residency in London where would-be founders form teams and build from scratch. Since 2011 EF has helped create 600+ companies wor...
Europe's pre-eminent seed-stage fund, founded in London in 2007 by Reshma Sohoni and Carlos Espinal, writing first cheques at pre-seed and seed. Its 550+ company portfolio includes several unicorns and two IPOs. Notable backings: Revolut...
A venture studio and accelerator based at 180 Studios on the Strand, building and scaling startups in fintech, climate, health and deeptech. Runs corporate-sponsored accelerators with partners including Aviva and HSBC, embedding portfoli...
Launched by Canary Wharf Group in 2013, Level39 is a three-floor, 80,000 sq ft tech community atop One Canada Square, home to 180+ startups and scaleups. Focuses on fintech, cyber, data/AI, sustainability and life sciences, connecting me...
A design-led coworking operator with five London spaces (Soho, Shoreditch, White City, Westminster and Oxford Street) plus Manchester and Dublin, curating communities around tech, web3 and creative founders. Offers hot desks, dedicated d...
A coworking and office provider tailored to scaling tech companies, with multiple Shoreditch locations (Luke Street, Scrutton Street, Worship Street) offering self-contained team floors for 8–100 people. Around 90% of its ~2,000-member c...
A design-forward, plant-filled coworking space at 68 Hanbury Street in Spitalfields, open 24/7 to freelancers, startups and creative businesses. The company entered administration and was rescued via a management-led buyout, closing seve...
Elvie (femtech)
Founded Elvie in London in 2013, building the market-leading smart pelvic-floor trainer and later a silent, wearable breast pump. Elvie's 2021 Series C (~£58m) was among the largest first-round raises for a ...
Starling Bank (fintech)
Founded Starling Bank in 2014 as the first woman to found a British bank, building it into a profitable ~£4bn digital challenger bank. Stepped down as CEO in 2023 to move to the board and now focuses on AI (...
Beauty Pie (DTC beauty)
Serial founder (Bliss, Soap & Glory, FitFlop) who launched London-based Beauty Pie in 2015 as a membership 'buyers-club' model selling luxury-grade beauty at near-cost. Canadian-born, London-based; opened Be...
women's-health unicorn [HQ London; founders male]
London-headquartered period- and fertility-tracking app that in July 2024 raised $200m+ (Series C, General Atlantic) to become the first purely digital consumer women's-health app to reach unicorn status, wi...
London letterbox-flowers pioneer and one of Europe's largest online flower/gifting platforms, founded 2013. FLAG: commonly grouped with women-led consumer brands but co-founded and led by Aron Gelbard (male)...
Bloom Money (fintech, Indian-origin)
Indian- and Taiwanese-heritage founder (ex-Mastercard, Starling, Klarna; LSE) who launched Bloom Money in London in 2021 to digitise ROSCA-style community savings circles ('Bloom Circles') for immigrant and ...
The original 'Silicon Roundabout' cluster in east London: startup density, accelerators and coworking around Old Street.
27 companies 4 investors 5 coworking
Strong in Fintech, SaaS
Google DeepMind's home and the Knowledge Quarter: AI, TechBio and research-heavy startups next to the Crick and the universities.
6 companies 1 coworking
Strong in AI, Healthtech
The financial core: fintech, insurtech and regtech close to the banks, regulators and the capital markets they build for.
16 companies 3 coworking
Strong in Fintech, Legaltech
Answers about the London startup scene
What does the startup ecosystem in London look like?
It is Europe's largest startup ecosystem, with the deepest fintech cluster outside SF (Revolut, Monzo, Wise, Checkout.com), a DeepMind-rooted AI scene, and strong benches in legaltech, proptech, insurtech and regtech, climate and carbon removal, health and TechBio, consumer, gaming and more. The vertical pages and Founder Circuit above map who is building what.
Where do founders network in London?
At meetups, dinners and demo days more than at conferences. eChai runs free, open founder meetups in London with an India-to-UK flavour. Beyond eChai there is a thick layer of communities, from TiE London to London Tech Week and SXSW London each June, listed in the communities section below. The simplest first step is to show up to an upcoming event.
Which are the top fintech startups in London?
London is Europe's fintech capital: Revolut, Monzo, Starling, Wise, Checkout.com and Thought Machine anchor the cluster, alongside a deep bench in payments, banking infrastructure, insurtech and regtech. See the Fintech and Insurtech vertical pages above for the full, filterable list.
Which are the top AI startups in London?
Google DeepMind and its spin-out Isomorphic Labs anchor the scene, with ElevenLabs, Synthesia, Wayve, Nscale and PhysicsX around them, much of it clustered near King's Cross. See the AI, Generative AI and AI agents vertical pages above for the full list.
Who are the Indian founders in London?
Indian-origin founders run some of London's standout companies, from Rishi Khosla's OakNorth to Vishal Marria's Quantexa, plus names like Bloom Money and CENTURY. The Diaspora tab above maps that cluster company by company, and lists the India-linked networks eChai connects into.
Who are the active VCs and angel investors in London?
London hosts Europe's deepest venture row: Index, Balderton, Atomico, Accel's London office, LocalGlobe and Seedcamp, alongside a bench of seed funds and the cross-border UK-India funds Pontaq, Unicorn India Ventures UK and IAN UK. The investors section above lists firms by type, including the corridor ones.
Which accelerators and incubators are in London?
Entrepreneur First and Seedcamp are the anchors (Seedcamp backed Revolut and Wise early), alongside Founders Factory, Antler, Plexal and the Level39 fintech hub at Canary Wharf. The incubators and coworking section above lists them by type.
How do I find a co-founder in London?
Go where founders already gather. Entrepreneur First runs formal co-founder matching, but most pairings start informally at meetups, hackathons and dinners. Come to a few eChai London events, meet people building adjacent things, and the conversations tend to find their own way to co-founder fit.
How do I join the startup community in London as an Indian founder?
eChai is free and open, and the London chapter is built around the India-to-UK corridor. Pick an upcoming event above, RSVP and walk in, no application or fee. It is one of the most natural on-ramps for an Indian founder landing in London to meet both diaspora founders and the wider ecosystem.
What are the best startup events in London this week?
The upcoming events block above is live: RSVP to the next eChai London meetup. Beyond eChai, London runs London Tech Week and SXSW London in June, the Sifted Summit, and a steady stream of TiE London and community events, listed in the communities section.
Is London a good place to start a company?
For founders in fintech, AI, legaltech and the finance-adjacent verticals, London offers Europe's deepest talent, capital and customer base, plus a live India-to-UK corridor. The maps above show the companies, investors and communities so you can judge the fit for your idea, and RSVP to an eChai event to meet people building here.
New to the London startup scene? Start here.
eChai runs free, open founder meetups in London, and connects the India-to-UK founder corridor. No membership, no fee, just show up. RSVP to the next one and meet the people building here.
See upcoming London events
