Wealth Club
UK HNW investment service; industry source for VCT fundraising data and EIS/SEIS coverage.
Last refreshed: 22 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why does Wealth Club VCT record figure signal a coming collapse in seed funding?
Timeline for Wealth Club
Published VCT fundraising figures projecting 65% decline for 2026/27
UK Startups and Innovation: VCTs hit £917.7m record, brace for 65% fall- How much did VCTs raise in 2025/26 and will it fall in 2026/27?
- Wealth Club reported GBP 917.7m raised in 2025/26, the third-highest year on record. Historical precedent from the 2006/07 tax-relief cut suggests a 65% fall in 2026/27, taking the figure to around GBP 320m.Source: Wealth Club
- What is Wealth Club and why is it cited in UK venture capital data?
- Wealth Club is a Bristol-based UK investment service for high-net-worth investors covering EIS, VCTs, SEIS, and AIM portfolios. Its annual VCT fundraising tracker is the industry de facto data source, cited by media and policy analysts.
- How does the VCT tax relief cut from 30% to 20% affect seed-stage startups?
- The cut, effective 6 April 2026, is projected to reduce VCT fundraising by up to 65%, eliminating roughly GBP 600m of early-stage investment annually. The GBP 250,000 to GBP 2m ticket range that VCTs historically filled has no replacement in current government schemes.Source: Focaldata / Wealth Club
- What are the biggest VCTs by fundraising in 2025/26?
- Albion VCTs raised GBP 90m, British Smaller Companies VCTs GBP 85m, and Octopus Apollo VCT GBP 82.7m in 2025/26, according to Wealth Club data.Source: Wealth Club
Background
Wealth Club published the definitive data point for the UK venture capital trust market in April 2026: VCT fundraising reached GBP 917.7m in 2025/26, the third-highest year on record, including dividend reinvestment. The figure was released on 14 April 2026 and immediately framed as a farewell rather than a trend: retail investors had rushed in ahead of the 6 April 2026 deadline after which income-tax relief on VCTs fell from 30% to 20%, a change announced in the November 2025 Budget.
Wealth Club is a UK investment service for high-net-worth and sophisticated investors, covering EIS, VCTs, SEIS, investment trusts, and AIM portfolios. Founded in 2016 by Alex Davies, it operates primarily online and is headquartered in Bristol. Its annual VCT fundraising tracker has become the industry de facto league table, cited by financial media and policy analysts to measure retail appetite for early-stage UK investing.
Wealth Club data gave the sharpest lens on the structural risk facing UK seed-stage capital in 2026/27: if the historical precedent from the 2006/07 relief cut holds, annual VCT fundraising could fall by 65%, erasing roughly GBP 600m of early-stage investment. A Focaldata survey cited by Wealth Club found 43.5% of current VCT investors plan to invest less and 41.6% plan to stop entirely, a consequence directly traceable to the change in relief.