Forward Partners’ portfolio value swells in maiden results September 29, 2021 Early stage venture capital firm Forward Partners today reported a jump in its portfolio value in the first half of the year, in the first results since its listing on London’s Aim market in July. Ventures portfolio value increased by £22m to £108m in the six months to 30 June, including £3.5m new investments during [...]
Startup city: Square Mile investors make London the top place after Silicon Valley for tech firms September 22, 2021 London is second only to Silicon Valley for the best place for startups to thrive, according to a definitive ranking of the world’s major tech and business hubs. The capital tied with New York in second place to the Californian area synonymous with billion-dollar valuations and tech bros – and far ahead of the next [...]
Gresham House targets Mobeus’ venture capital arm in £36m deal September 10, 2021 Gresham House has acquired Mobeus Equity Partners’ top-performing venture capital trust (VCT) business in a £36m deal, three months after purchasing Ireland’s Appian Asset Management. As part of its latest deal, the alternative asset manager will take on £369m assets under management that run across Mobeus’ four VCT funds. Expected to complete in the next [...]
Exclusive: City’s venture capital guru on Brexit, ESG fundraising and impact investing August 31, 2021 With Brexit just behind us, and the pandemic gradually being brought under control, it seemed like a good time to measure the temperature of London’s venture capital investment space. Morning Wire sat down with David Hall, for his first major interview as chairman of the Venture Capital Trust Association, since succeeding Stuart Veale in January [...]
Exclusive: Cult Beauty founder Jessica DeLuca on selling to THG and what happens next August 6, 2021 In the thirteen years since launching online cosmetics retailer Cult Beauty, Jessica DeLuca and Alexia Inge grew the business from £72,000 to £275m – the amount it sold to The Hut Group (THG) for this week. Jessica DeLuca, a former IT analyst, worked in the spare bedroom of her basement flat through 2007 building the [...]
SoftBank injects $100m into former partner’s new consumer tech fund August 5, 2021 SoftBank Vision Fund II plans to invest $100m in a new consumer tech fund launched by one of its former managing partners Jeff Housenbold, the latest in a string of tech investments in the past few weeks. SoftBank’s second Vision Fund’s $100m investment will form up to a fifth of the $500m to $600m that [...]
Michael Spencer-backed fund raises $130m for B2B fintech push August 2, 2021 Fintech-focused venture capital firm Element Ventures has announced a $130m (£93.5m) fund to invest in b2b financial enterprise technology businesses. Michael Spencer, City grandee and founder of interdealer broker Icap, was the fund’s cornerstone investor. It comes after Spencer contributed at least £25m to the fund upon launching last year, via his investment vehicle IPGL. [...]
‘Open economy’ backers Fabric Ventures announces $130m fund July 29, 2021 A venture manager that backs ‘open economy’ founders, has today announced a new 2021 fund worth $130m (£93m) – the biggest of its type in Europe. The fund is backed by $30m from the European Investment Fund (EIF) and its partners include Niklas Zennstrom’s venture firm Atomico, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, DCG and the founders [...]
Index Ventures invests $1bn into UK startups and will create 5000 jobs within a year July 23, 2021 Transatlantic venture capital firm Index Ventures has raised $3.1bn in new funds and directly invested $1bn in UK startups to create 5000 British jobs in the next year. Index’s latest cash injection comes just a year after Index raised its last set of $2bn funds. The UK is Index’s single largest destination for investments in Europe, and [...]
Draper Esprit floats to become largest tech VC on London’s main market July 23, 2021 UK venture capital firm Draper Esprit today announced it has made the jump from the AIM to London’s main market, with a market value of £1.4bn – the largest tech-only focused VC on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The move comes exactly a month after the firm announced its intention to make the leap and [...]