How do I raise a VC fund in Europe or the UK?

The United Kingdom and the European Union, side by side

Each line gives the dimension, then the United Kingdom position, then the European Union one, from the sources named at the foot of this page.

• The permission. In the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority describes full-scope United Kingdom managers applying for permission to market to retail or professional investors, or both, and describes a national private placement regime allowing some managers to market certain funds following the United Kingdom manager regulations. In the European Union, marketing is defined by the directive and is notified in each Member State where it occurs.
• Who notifies. The Financial Conduct Authority names four categories under its regime: full-scope United Kingdom managers and full-scope Gibraltar managers under regulation 57, small third country managers under regulation 58, and above-threshold third country managers under regulation 59.
• The cost of notifying. The Authority states that a notification fee is payable every time a new notification is made, so a multi-country plan carries a per-country cost as well as a per-country process.
• Pre-marketing. Directive 2019/1160 defines it as providing information or communication on investment strategies or investment ideas to test investor interest in a fund, in a way that does not amount to an offer or placement. The United Kingdom regime is not the same regime and should not be assumed to mirror it.
• What pre-marketing may not include. The directive requires that the information not be sufficient to allow investors to commit and that it not include subscription forms or similar documents.
• The notification that follows. A manager must send an informal letter to the competent authorities of its home Member State within two weeks of having begun pre-marketing, naming the Member States involved and describing the strategies presented.
• The eighteen-month rule. Any subscription by professional investors within eighteen months of the manager having begun pre-marketing, to a fund referred to in that information, is treated as the result of marketing and becomes subject to the applicable notification procedures. Pre-marketing is a sequencing rule, not an exemption.
• Third parties. Pre-marketing may be conducted by a third party only where that party holds one of the specified authorisations or acts as a tied agent.

What has to be checked country by country

The directive harmonises the concepts and not the process. These are the questions with a different answer in each country you intend to approach.

• Whether notification is required before any contact, and what form it takes.
• What the local competent authority charges and how long it takes.
• Which investor categories you may approach, and whether any local classification is narrower than the directive's professional investor.
• Whether local rules attach additional disclosure or reporting to marketing in that country.
• Whether an intermediary may act for you there, and on what basis.
• Whether the country applies additional requirements to a manager established outside the European Union.
• What language obligations attach to documents provided to investors there.

Domicile, presence, and what actually drives them

Domicile in Europe is usually driven by which investors you want and where you intend to market, rather than by tax alone. Blueprint's page on where to domicile a fund covers the considerations and names the jurisdictions verified sources describe as used for European institutional capital.

Local presence is a separate question from domicile. A manager established outside the European Union approaching European investors is in a different regulatory position from one established inside it, and the difference shows up in what notifications apply and what an institutional investor's own compliance function will ask for. Neither question is answered by choosing a jurisdiction and neither is answered on a page.

Who the investors are, from what each association publishes

Two industry bodies publish their own market data, and each is cited here for its own figures rather than for any claim about your fund.

• Invest Europe describes itself as the voice of private equity and venture capital in Europe and publishes activity and capital data. Its July 2026 release states that European capital under management reached a record 1.37 trillion euros in 2025, with portfolio at cost and dry powder at new highs.
• UK Private Capital, formerly the BVCA, describes itself as the industry body and public policy advocate for the private equity, venture capital, and private credit ecosystem in the United Kingdom, representing 600 firms. Its published 2025 figures include 25.0 billion pounds invested into United Kingdom companies, 58.7 billion pounds raised by United Kingdom-managed funds, and 1,434 United Kingdom companies receiving investment.
• Neither figure says anything about what a first-time manager can raise. They describe the size of the pools those managers are competing inside, which is a different and more useful thing to know.
• Public and development capital participates in European venture through institutions Blueprint profiles individually, and the page on development finance and public capital covers how those routes actually work.

What limited partners are testing

European institutional diligence puts unusual weight on whether the manager understood the regime before starting.

• Does the manager know which countries they have marketed into, and when?
• Were the required notifications made, and can that be evidenced?
• Is the domicile consistent with the investors being approached?
• Does the manager distinguish pre-marketing from marketing, or use the words interchangeably?
• Is there local counsel in each country where investors sit?

What this page does not settle

It does not tell you which countries to approach or what notification applies to you, because that depends on your establishment, your structure, your investors, and the country. It also does not enumerate the pre-investment disclosure requirements that apply to investors in the European Union: the Handbook and directive pages that carry that list did not render their text when this page was researched, and rather than paraphrase a list of legal requirements from memory, this page states the gap.

This page is educational and general. It is not legal, tax, or securities advice. Marketing and pre-marketing permissions should be settled with counsel in each jurisdiction before any approach is made.