LocalGlobe
London pre-seed and seed venture capital firm; co-led BioOrbit's £9.8m seed round.
Last refreshed: 1 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Which UK founders has LocalGlobe backed from seed to global scale?
Timeline for LocalGlobe
Co-led BioOrbit £9.8m seed round
UK Startups and Innovation: BioOrbit raises £9.8m for orbital pharma- What companies has LocalGlobe invested in?
- LocalGlobe's portfolio includes Wise (formerly TransferWise), Citymapper, Robinhood, Tractable and BioOrbit. It focuses on early-stage European founders with global ambition.Source: LocalGlobe portfolio data
- Who founded LocalGlobe?
- LocalGlobe was founded by Robin Klein and Saul Klein, starting as a family office in 1999 before rebranding as LocalGlobe in 2014.Source: LocalGlobe public record
- What is the difference between LocalGlobe and Latitude?
- LocalGlobe writes the first cheque at seed stage. Latitude is the firm's follow-on growth fund that backs LocalGlobe portfolio companies into their Series A and beyond.Source: LocalGlobe public record
Background
LocalGlobe is one of the UK's most prominent seed-stage venture capital funds. Founded in 1999 as a family office by Robin and Saul Klein, it formalised into the LocalGlobe brand in 2014 with a focus on backing ambitious founders at the earliest stages, typically pre-product or pre-revenue. The fund has backed companies across Europe and beyond, with a portfolio that includes Transferwise (now Wise), Citymapper, Robinhood and Tractable. It operates out of London and is known for writing small but consequential first cheques into founders who go on to raise at scale.
LocalGlobe's investment thesis centres on founders with a mission that matters and markets that can grow globally from a British or European base. Alongside its seed vehicle it runs Latitude, a growth fund that backs portfolio companies into their Series A and beyond, allowing it to maintain meaningful ownership across the company lifecycle without moving to a full multi-stage model. AUM across both vehicles is estimated at over £500m.
In the UK startup ecosystem, LocalGlobe is a reference fund for seed-stage pricing and deal quality. Its co-lead on BioOrbit's £9.8m in-space drug manufacturing seed in April 2026 alongside Breega, the European investor, signals continued appetite for deep-tech and space-pharma bets enabled by GOV.UK regulatory pathways.