LocalGlobe: London's Seed-Stage Powerhouse Behind Zoopla, TransferWise and Citymapper

The firm

LocalGlobe is a London-based venture capital firm that has been backing ambitious founders since 1999. Founded by the father-and-son duo Robin Klein and Saul Klein, it is one of Europe’s longest-running seed investors — and it calls itself Europe’s #1 investor for backing $100M+ revenue companies at seed.

Since 2022, LocalGlobe has operated as the early-stage fund of Phoenix Court Group, the umbrella brand the Kleins created for all of their investing activity. At launch, the group reported a $500 million first close across four funds: LocalGlobe (seed to Series A), Latitude (Series B and later), Solar (Series C and beyond, including public markets) and Basecamp (an LP fund backing other emerging VCs, angels and solo GPs). Earlier, in 2019, the firm had closed a $115 million seed fund and a $180 million opportunities fund dubbed Latitude. A single current fund size for the LocalGlobe fund itself is not publicly disclosed.

Thesis and sweet spot

LocalGlobe invests at pre-seed and seed, primarily in the UK with a growing European footprint, and it is deliberately generalist — spanning fintech, AI, health, food, energy, transport and more. Over the years it has funded hundreds of startups at the earliest stages, and its structure lets it keep backing winners all the way to the public markets through Latitude and Solar rather than washing out in later rounds.

The group also stands apart for its philanthropic streak: 10% of Phoenix Court Group’s profits and 2% of carry from all funds go into the Phoenix Court Works foundation, which supports community groups in Somers Town and Camden, near the firm’s King’s Cross base.

Notable portfolio

LocalGlobe’s seed bets include some of Europe’s best-known tech outcomes: Zoopla, TransferWise (now Wise), Citymapper and Improbable. More recent names featured on its site include Mistral AI, CuspAI, Spore.Bio, ModelML, CoMind Health, Olix AI, MicroAGI and Wonder Studios. The firm has turned up 18 unicorns at seed stage, including At-Bay, Hailo, Motorway, TravelPerk and Zego.

People

The firm is led by its founders Robin Klein and Saul Klein, based in King’s Cross, London. Beyond investing, the Kleins co-founded the Newton Venture Program with London Business School — a diversity-oriented programme training the next generation of venture investors, for which Phoenix Court Works underwrote 60 scholarships.