“If You Can Afford Detty December, You Can Afford to Invest in a Startup.”

I moved to London two and a half years ago from Dublin, and I thought the funding challenges I’d seen Black founders face in Ireland would not exist in the UK. Oh boy, how wrong I was.

I understand why Black and Brown founders struggle to raise money, especially at the very early stages. There is a tiny Black and Brown population in Ireland, and if you want to build for that market, it’s not big enough. Also, capital doesn’t really exist within the community. Considering that Irish early-stage founders already struggle to raise funding, as a Black founder, you are completely toast. If you are building for a global or international market, then you may be fortunate. We were. In 2019, Touchtech Payments, a company founded by an Irish and a Nigerian, was sold to Stripe for eight figures. I was the CFO.

I thought the UK would be very different. The Black and Brown population here is estimated to be around five million, roughly equivalent to the entire population of Ireland. Unlike Ireland, you can build for this market alone and be successful. If you build for the whole UK, your potential market size is massive from a population perspective.

Despite this, Black and Brown founders still struggle to raise capital compared to their peers. The report “Diverse Founders in Advanced Digital Technology (2023)” notes that in 2022, companies with a Black founder in technology areas secured £44.8 million, which represents only about 1.83% of total equity investment in those areas. In some categories, it was less than 0.1%.

When Black and Brown people are not raising capital, there will continue to be a gap in adequate goods and services for this demographic, which is never a good thing in the long run. The right way to grow an economy is through entrepreneurship and job creation, but the lack of funding means that there are very few entrepreneurs and not enough jobs being created.

Many early-stage companies are initially funded by friends and family, but this assumes that those friends and family have the financial means to invest. According to research by the Resolution Foundation, people of Black African ethnicity in the UK have a median family wealth per adult of around £24,000, compared with about £197,000 for White British adults. The friends and family cohort for Black and Brown founders often lacks sufficient funds to invest, which complicates matters.

But there is some good news. It’s estimated that around 40,000 Black people in the UK earn above £80,000 a year, with the highest concentration in London. This group of high earners can play an important role in funding startups and small businesses in the UK. They can help fund the next generation of companies and increase capital flow for Black and Brown founders.

Many of these high earners are already investing in ISA products and maxing out their annual allowance. If you can do that, then you also have a role to play in helping fund UK companies. The incentives are very attractive. Everyone will say startups are risky, but the UK government has literally de-risked it for you. SEIS and EIS are available.

SEIS is incredibly generous for angel investors in the UK, and I’m surprised more people don’t take advantage of it. In short, your real exposure when investing in an SEIS company is 27.5%. This means your actual exposure for every £1,000 you invest is just £275.

Here is how it works:

1. 50% income tax relief – Investors can claim back half of what they invest (up to £100,000 per year) against their income tax bill.

2. Loss relief – If the startup fails, investors can offset part of their loss against their income or capital gains tax. Net, this adds an additional 22.5% relief for investors, bringing the total relief to 72.5%.

3. Capital gains tax (CGT) reliefs – If you sell SEIS shares after three years and the company succeeds, any profit is tax-free. You can also get 50% CGT reinvestment relief if you use gains from other assets to invest in SEIS.

4. Inheritance tax exemption – SEIS shares typically qualify for Business Property Relief after two years, allowing them to be passed on free of inheritance tax.

You might think your money won’t go far, but that’s far from true. If all 40,000 Black professionals invested £1,250 a year, that would amount to £50 million invested annually. That’s 500 companies receiving £100,000 each year.

That’s a significant amount of money to help many companies get off the ground and build substantial traction. I think Black professionals investing in Black founders across the UK at a 77.5% discount is a risk worth taking. As someone who has personally invested in over 35 companies (many of which are UK-based), I’ve made money and learned a great deal. I do this for the long game, and I think many others should too. Angel investing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Beyond the financial returns, I’ve learned a great deal. One of the companies we backed five years ago is Audiomob, which is doing really well. I now have a deeper understanding of audio ads and AI due to my investment in this company, and I encourage others to invest for the sake of education, to learn about new industries and sectors that excite them.

If you can afford to go to Lagos or Accra for Detty December, you can also invest in a startup.
If you can attend Afronation or DLT, you can afford to back companies building products and technology tailored to you.

I believe the real gap lies in education. Many people lack the knowledge to invest in what is presumably a high-risk asset class. But when the future of your community is at risk, are you willing to take the risk?

If you are a professional in the UK and keen to invest just £1,000 a year in SEIS companies in 2026, please fill out the simple form below. I plan to build a list of investors we can train (for free) so they can start investing in Black and Brown companies across the UK. In the future, we will also work with early-stage companies to navigate the topic of SEIS, enabling them to raise capital from Black and Brown Professionals across the UK.

This is one of many posts I will write on this topic, and I hope we can help fund lots of companies in 2026.

Link to form

Thanks for reading

Hi 👋 

My name is Joe Kinvi, and I’m the founder of Borderless, which builds technology for diaspora investors. We are currently building investment syndication technology to facilitate easy co-investing across multiple asset classes for groups. You can learn more about my work by clicking this link here.