Cornerstone VC

About Cornerstone VC

Cornerstone VC is one of the UK's few Black-led institutional venture capital funds with approximately £20 million of assets under management as of December 2024 (debut fund with £20 million first close announced August 2022, BGF as lead and cornerstone investor alongside Hg Foundation and others), headquartered in London at 10 Orange Street, Haymarket. The firm was founded in 2021-2022 as a spin-out of Cornerstone Partners, a Black-led angel investor group, with founder Rodney Appiah having left his prior role in December 2020 to build the fund full-time. Cornerstone VC operates as an independent partner-owned LLP, FCA-regulated.

Investment thesis

Cornerstone VC deploys capital through its debut fund, targeting pre-seed to pre-Series A venture capital in UK tech-enabled startups with initial cheques of £250k-£1 million plus follow-on reserves, targeting approximately 40 companies and deliberately backing diverse founding teams. Sector focus spans health tech, climate and carbon tech, supply chain and logistics, proptech and infrastructure, enterprise software, AI and ML, fintech, edtech and marketplaces and networks. Geographic deployment is UK-focused with a deliberate proportion of investments outside London. The diversity-led investment thesis uses team diversity as a core driver of expected outperformance.

Recent activity

Realised exits have not been disclosed as the fund is early in its lifecycle. Recent investments include enterprise and AI Series A (2026), proptech seed (2026) plus seed rounds across health and consumer tech (2025-2026). The platform continues active deployment across the UK diversity-led early-stage mandate. Detailed buyer names and multiple data available on Pro at €49/month.