APRIL 2026 – GC Angels, the venture capital investment arm of the Growth Company, has led four investments in March 2026 supporting funding totalling £1.87m.
Two of the deals originate from GC Angels’ first Venture Forward accelerator programme, which ran at the end of last year, with a further two investments into existing portfolio companies, demonstrating the continued strength of the programme as a pipeline for high-quality opportunities.
The Venture Forward programme, funded by Innovate UK, is designed to support underrepresented founders across the North as they prepare for their first institutional investment round.
From the first cohort, GC Angels has made a six-figure investment into Breezemove as part of their £750,000 seed round. The business is building a UK PropTech platform designed to streamline and simplify the home-buying process.
GC Angels also led a £345,000 investment into MissionC, a premium wellness brand offering effective, FSA-regulated, and lab-tested CBD, Functional Mushroom, and Shilajit products; stocked by leading retailers such as Selfridges and Holland & Barrett. Both investments provide the businesses with the capital to move beyond early-stage hurdles and accelerate their next phase of growth.
This follows the successful delivery of the first Venture Forward cohort which ran from October to December 2025 in Manchester and has resulted in a total of 9 companies successfully raising investment worth over £2.5m.
Alongside the Venture Forward cohort investments, GC Angels completed two further investments into its existing portfolio. These include a £270k investment into OurPetsLife, a leading premium pet product retailer founded by Elliot Roxby, alongside angel investor and exited founder of Music for Pets, Amman Ahmed. The second follow-on investment was into Gaia Learning, an ed-tech platform for SEND children, which raised £400k alongside NESTA and a syndicate of angel investors.
In early April GC Angels completed delivery of the second Venture Forward cohort in Leeds. In the second cohort, 55% of founders were from an ethnic minority background and 55% were female founders, reflecting the programme’s continued focus on widening access to investment and equipping underrepresented entrepreneurs with the skills, networks and confidence to secure funding.
Marc Shirman, Head of Equity Investment at GC Angels, said: “Through the Venture Forward programme, GC Angels is demonstrating its value as a route to identifying and supporting exceptional underrepresented founders across the North. These investments highlight the strength of the pipeline we are building and the quality of businesses emerging from the programme, alongside the continued progress of our wider portfolio.
“It’s been great to see founders move from early-stage participation in the programme through to investment readiness in a short space of time, and we look forward to driving further investments through the second cohort over the coming months.”