DSW Ventures
Venture capitalManchester · Pre-Seed–Series A · 16 people tracked
Find your way into DSW Ventures
5,419 people in our graph share verified history with the DSW Ventures team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Investment thesis
DSW Ventures targets early-stage UK regional startups, typically investing from £100,000 to over £1 million into SEIS/EIS-qualifying companies and participating in larger rounds. It focuses on software, university/corporate spin-outs and consumer businesses that have talented founders, a defensible competitive position and evidence of product-market fit. The firm invests on behalf of British Business Investments, family offices and angel investors seeking SEIS and EIS tax benefits. Its team, which has led over 100 UK investments, takes a hands-on approach, guiding and supporting portfolio companies through the investment process and toward exit.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 16 people
from the firm's website & curated
What they invest in
from 17 of 25 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×7Biotech ×7SaaS ×7Deep Tech ×6Consumer ×4Enterprise Software ×4Medical Devices ×4Healthtech ×3
HQs:United Kingdom×5United States×1
Who they back
founder profiles across 8 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×32 founders×44+ founders×1
Investments · 25 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2026 · 22024 · 13 dated
Dia Beta Labs is a drug discovery and development company focused on diabetes and obesity research.
BiotechDigital HealthHealthtechLongevityMedical DevicesBelfast, GB
Dr. Ryan Lafferty(Founder, CEO)Prof. Peter Simpson(Executive Chair, Co-Founder)Prof. Nigel Irwin(Academic Director, Co-Founder)Prof. Peter Flatt(Scientific Committee, Co-Founder)Prof. Finbarr O'Harte(Scientific Committee, Co-Founder)Prof. Victor Gault(Scientific Committee, Co-Founder)
Co-investorsQUBISClarendon Fund Managers Ltd.Innovation Ulster
Birmingham/Warwick spin-out developing 4Degra, a resorbable biomaterial for 3D-printed implants and surgical devices.
Women's outdoorwear business known for innovative outdoor skinny trousers combining function, comfort and feminine design.
Açaí Outdoorwear designs outdoor apparel for women, focusing on style, performance, and fit for everyday wear.
ConsumerDirect to ConsumerE-commerce
Aston Particle Technologies develops the iDPC (dry particle coater) technology for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to support drug formulation and development.
BiotechDeep TechNew Materials
Prof Afzal Mohammed(Founder and Chief Technical Officer)Dr Ian Smith(Founder and Chairman)
Software that reduces the size of user web-data cache for sysadmins, cutting the web-data footprint and lowering cloud infrastructure data costs.
Fireflai provides data cleansing and enrichment tools that create standardized "Golden Data Sets" from large volumes of product data, helping companies automate manual data management processes.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise Software
Thomas Gardner(Founder)in
Glenclova Scientific develops a virus-like particle (VLP) platform that displays therapeutic proteins and peptides to enhance the efficacy and reduce the dosage requirements of biologic drugs.
AI & Machine LearningBiotechDeep TechHealthtech
Dr John Foerster(Scientific Founder)Jamie Hodgson(Chief Executive Officer)in
Hike is an AI-powered SEO platform designed for small businesses, offering automated SEO tools and optimization capabilities as an alternative to expensive agency services.
AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechSaaS
Co-investorsJenson Ventures
Mesenbio develops extracellular vesicle (EV) therapeutics derived from mesenchymal stem cells, using its FT-01 platform to enable scalable, GMP-ready EV manufacturing for regenerative medicine.
BiotechHealthtechLongevity
Dr. David Kuntin(Chief Executive Officer)Prof. Paul Genever(Chief Scientific Officer)inAnita Adams(Finance Director)in
BoardDr. David Simpson(Chair)Jason Goldstein(Director)
Co-investorsInnovate UK
Northern Light Microscopy develops advanced imaging technology for life-science laboratories and companies to support bioscience discovery and research.
BiotechDeep TechHardwareMedical Devices
One Utility Bill consolidates utility bills for renters and residential customers into a single monthly payment.
ConsumerEnergyEnterprise SoftwareFintechMarketplacesSaaSNewcastle, GB
Chris(CEO & Co-Founder)Dale(CTO & Co-Founder)
Co-investorsMiddleton EnterprisesNorthstar Ventures
Events marketplace connecting consumers and corporates with a UK network of event and party suppliers.
Propello offers a white-label gamified loyalty platform that enables enterprises to design and launch customer loyalty programs combining points, tiered rewards, challenges, and referral mechanics.
AI & Machine LearningConsumerEnterprise SoftwareMarketing TechMarketplacesSaaS
Symphony Commerce designs and implements B2B ecommerce systems, including its Tempus platform, that integrate with clients' existing infrastructure to handle catalogue management, pricing, approval workflows, order handling, and multi-region data sync.
B2B MarketplacesE-commerceSaaS
Co-investorsMercia Ventures
.UK.COM is a domain registry offering an unrestricted, globally accessible .UK.COM domain extension for businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors seeking a British online identity without local ccTLD restrictions.
Enterprise SoftwareSaaSLas Vegas, US
Co-investorsElderstreet InvestmentsFuture Planet CapitalRockpool InvestmentsZouk Capital
StimOxyGen develops advanced nanoparticle-based therapies using sonodynamic and oxygen-generating technology for oncology and wound healing.
BiotechDeep TechMedical DevicesBelfast, GB
Sian(Chief Executive Officer, Co-founder)Anthony(Chief Scientific Officer, Founder)
Co-investorsClarendon Fund Managers Ltd.
Manchester-based subscription market research and insights platform focused on the kids, parents and under-30s market.
No-code social commerce mobile app builder for e-commerce brands.
Voxshell develops meshing software for computer-aided engineering (CAE) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), using a new algorithm to speed up 3D data pre-processing.
Advanced ManufacturingDeep TechDeveloper ToolsSaaS
Co-investorsInnovate UK
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companies
Roxfit · fitgearsource.com · Mar 5, 2026
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has DSW Ventures made?
- DSW Ventures has 25 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited via acquisition or IPO, including 2 dated in the last 24 months.
- What stage does DSW Ventures invest at?
- DSW Ventures invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stages.
- What is DSW Ventures's typical check size?
- DSW Ventures typically writes checks of $130K – $1.3M.
- What sectors does DSW Ventures focus on?
- DSW Ventures focuses on Consumer, Deep Tech, SaaS, Sector Agnostic.
- Where is DSW Ventures located?
- DSW Ventures is headquartered in Manchester, GB.
- Does DSW Ventures lead rounds?
- Yes, DSW Ventures leads investment rounds.
- Who does DSW Ventures co-invest with?
- DSW Ventures most often shares deals with Clarendon Fund Managers Ltd., Elderstreet Investments, Future Planet Capital, among 8 tracked co-investors.
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