Fundraising Fox
Black Seed
Venture capitalLondon · Pre-Seed–Seed · 6 people tracked
Also known as Black Seed VC
Find your way into Black Seed
Sign up to see every warm intro you have to Black Seed
- Paths you didn't know you had: your email and LinkedIn already hold routes to the Black Seed team. We find them for you
- 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: the friend-of-a-friend routes that take hours to manually find through your inbox or LinkedIn
- Answers now, not in days: momentum is everything in a raise. Skip asking around whether someone knows someone
Days of research, done the moment you sign in, with every route ranked by how warm it is.
Investment thesis
Black Seed addresses the historical underfunding of Black British founders, who have received a tiny fraction of UK venture funding. Acting as both a fund and a community, it invests early-stage capital in British tech and tech-enabled businesses with global aspirations, requiring at least one co-founder to identify as Black. It prioritizes entrepreneurs pioneering innovative solutions to significant contemporary challenges, providing capital, connections, and holistic support that blends technology, culture, empathy and innovation to build a more diverse and inclusive entrepreneurial landscape.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 6 people
from the firm's website & public directories
Karl Lokko is the founder and managing partner of Black Seed, a community-based organization supporting Black founders based in Brixton with global reach. He serves as a trustee at The High Performance Foundation and works as an advocate for inclusive investment. His background includes experience as a public speaker and community organizer focused on connecting diverse populations.
JB is a General Partner at Shift Left Ventures, a pre-seed B2B fund focused on idea-stage startups, and is affiliated with Zemoso Labs, a design, AI, and engineering studio that works with startups, enterprises, and corporate incubators. Over 22 years, JB has worked as an investor, entrepreneur, and chief executive, including a role as Principal at a $120 million private equity fund and as an early engineer at Zoho. JB's ventures include a startup acquired by SAP AG (YASU), a startup that closed (ICUMI), and Zemoso Labs, which has worked with more than 50 startups and several Fortune 500 companies.
Yvonne Nagawa is a Founding Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Black Seed Ventures, a venture capital fund and tech community based in Brixton focused on supporting Black founders and inclusive innovation in the UK. Her work covers fund building, fundraising, strategic partnerships, and operational growth. She also serves as a Non-Executive Director.
Michael is a qualified ACCA member serving as Fund and Financial Controller at Black Seed, with background experience in private equity and venture capital. He volunteers and mentors with organizations including Rise365 and Made Up Collective.
What they invest in
from 1 of 1 portfolio companiesCleantech ×1Energy ×1PropTech ×1
HQs:United Kingdom×1
Investments · 1 tracked
founders shown can be your intro path
Frequently asked questions
- What stage does Black Seed invest at?
- Black Seed invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
- What is Black Seed's typical check size?
- Black Seed typically writes checks of $125K – $500K.
- What sectors does Black Seed focus on?
- Black Seed focuses on Impact & Social Good, Sector Agnostic.
- Where is Black Seed located?
- Black Seed is headquartered in London, GB.
Similar investors
Novella Center for Entrepreneurship is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that runs the Conscious Venture Lab accelerator programs, training diverse, early-stage founders in Stakeholder Theory and Conscious Capitalism to build businesses that serve both societal and financial goals.
Kapor Capital is an Oakland-based impact-focused venture capital firm that invests in startups working to close gaps of access, opportunity, and outcomes for underrepresented communities across sectors such as education, health, finance, workforce, and the environment.
Lightship Capital is an investment firm that backs entrepreneurs and funds using modest resources to generate outsized returns, aiming to develop overlooked talent and stimulate emerging ecosystems.
Newfund Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm operating out of Silicon Valley and Paris, backing entrepreneurs across technology sectors.
Chasing Rainbows is an early-stage venture fund focused on backing LGBTQ+ founded startups, positioning itself as a launchpad for generation-defining companies led by LGBTQ+ founders.