Manchester Angels reaches 22 investments with pre-seed startup backing

Manchester Angels has completed investments in London startup Doris Labs and Manchester-based cyber security firm Ghost Shift, bringing the investor network's total portfolio to 22 technology companies. The group announced the two pre-seed funding deals on Oct. 10, 2026.

Doris Labs raised $600,000, or £450,000, in a pre-seed round led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Manchester Angels and private software industry investors. Co-founded by Hayden Munt, formerly of Vertice, and Frazer Kearl, formerly of Patsnap, the company organizes sales interactions from calls, emails, documents, and CRM systems into structured business memory graphs. It is also launching automated deal partners called Sidekicks.

Doris Labs stated that early customer trials saved sales representatives six hours of administrative work per week and increased deal velocity by 72 percent. Customer firm Patently reported a 165 percent increase in deals closing within predicted timelines after adopting the platform. Co-founder Hayden Munt said, "We’ve seen it so many times that each deal is treated as if it is siloed from the rest of the GTM – this doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be the case."

David Levine, principal at Manchester Angels, said each investor in the network could point to a moment at their own company where the technology would have made a difference, calling the decision to invest straightforward.

The second deal saw Ghost Shift raise £250,000 in pre-seed equity funding. The investment was led for Manchester Angels by network chairman Richard Fallon, alongside Cambridge Angels, Ante-Bellum Angels, and Halceon. Fallon leads the group's cyber investment division, having previously sold Manchester data company Naimuri to QinetiQ in 2020.

Ghost Shift also received £215,000 in matched grant funding from public agency UK Research and Innovation, taking total capital raised to £465,000. Co-founded by chief executive Tom Sefton-Collins, the startup builds protection tools for operational information environments.

"This investment allows us to accelerate on two fronts," Sefton-Collins said in a statement. "We’re building the operational capability and team required to scale what we already know works, while investing in the R&D that will underpin what comes next."

Manchester Angels operates as a member-led network composed of 45 active investors who are former technology founders and executives. The network has an average ticket size of £220,000 across its deals in northern technology startups.