The UK impact tech ecosystem is growing, but the funding available to impact tech founders remains limited and often misaligned. While mainstream capital is flowing into technology, very little is designed to serve ventures whose priority is solving social and environmental challenges. Early-stage founders face a stark funding gap, where rigid investment models, short-term expectations, and low tolerance for risk hinder innovation with purpose.

Through our work at Social Tech Trust, where we’ve been at the heart of the UK’s impact tech movement since 2008, we’ve seen the transformative potential of purpose-driven startups. Again and again, we’ve identified exceptional ventures through our accelerators and networks that are ready to scale but undercapitalised.

To address this, we have seeded a new, independent fund: Social Tech Ventures (STV). Designed to back the UK’s most promising impact tech startups, STV offers flexible, founder-first investment built around the needs of ventures pursuing scalable social and environmental change.

Social Tech Ventures is a seed-stage investment fund, targeting tech startups tackling systemic challenges in society. It offers flexibility and optionality, tailored to founders who are building for impact and need options beyond traditional VC models.

STV focuses on impact tech ventures that are:

• Seeking to raise further equity in the next 1–2 years

• Interested in flexible equity structures, including revenue-based growth or hybrid models

• Committed to achieving measurable, scalable impact

By centring the fund around the lived realities of purpose-led founders, STV aims to unlock capital that is aligned, adaptable, and impactful.

STV prioritises ventures in high-impact sectors where innovation can accelerate meaningful change:

• Health and social care – Preventative care, mental health and wellbeing, healthy ageing

• Financial resilience – Inclusive fintech, future of work, education and training

• Climate and environment – Renewable energy, climate resilience, circular economy solution