Albion Capital, the leading independent investment manager, closed its 2019/2020 VCT top up offers earlier than scheduled 

Funds advised by YFM Equity Partners have backed a £5.6m investment into Unbiased EC1 Limited to support the continued growth of the team and its financial advice marketplace. YFM’s investment comes from its two advised VCTs, British Smaller Companies VCT plc and British Smaller Companies VCT2 plc, alongside YFM Equity Partners Growth II LP.

Unbiased is the leading online platform for connecting millions of people to the trusted financial specialists across Financial Adviser, Mortgage Broker and Accountancy markets.

Foresight Group has invested £3.9 million investment into disruptive subsea surveying company Rovco Ltd.  The investment comprises £2.0 million from the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund and £1.9 million from Foresight VCTs. The investment was part of a larger round totalling £5 million which included funds from existing shareholders.

Funds advised by YFM Equity Partners have banked a healthy return multiple of 2.25x within two years of their initial investment in EIKON Group, with YFM retaining a minority investment.

In March 2018, YFM initially provided £6m funding to EIKON, a London-based leading provider of digital mastering and localisation services to the international entertainment industry. This funding, from YFM’s British Smaller Companies VCT funds and Growth LP funds, was mostly used to expand the company’s execution capabilities through development of a major new facility in Los Angeles.

Calculus Capital has sold their investment in London-based marketing agency Once Upon a Time (OUAT) in a deal that netted investors an expected total return of 1.8x, excluding the tax benefits associated with investing through EIS.

YFM Equity Partners has made a £3.75m investment into ARRACO Global Markets, the award-winning and disruptive interdealer broker for global commodities, from its managed VCTs, British Smaller Companies and British Smaller Companies 2. The investment will allow ARRACO to drive the next stage of the company’s growth as it expands its product offering and global footprint.

Blackfinch Group has launched the Blackfinch Spring VCT, an investment portfolio of technology and technology-enabled companies, which have already raised funding, gained traction and are seeking to accelerate the scale-up process. The Spring VCT will also be a natural follow-on funder for the Blackfinch Ventures EIS Portfolios, which invests in technology-focused companies on the cusp of their growth journey.

Octopus Investments, part of Octopus Group, has led a £3.6 million funding round, alongside Calculus Capital, into FISCAL Technologies, a world leading provider of forensic solutions and services headquartered in Reading.  FISCAL Technologies’ solutions empower purchase-to-pay teams across the globe to protect their organisational spend. Its NXG Forensics® enterprise solution provides continuous protection through transactional risk analysis, supplier risk profiling, anti-fraud controls and ongoing reporting.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £600,000 investment in military grade security and intelligence platform, Intelligence Fusion Limited. The funding has been provided by the Finance Durham Fund, established by Durham County Council and existing investors. The follow-on investment will support the business as it enters its next phase of development to further invest in an in-house technology team to make significant enhancements to its platform. The investment will also strengthen the sales and marketing and intelligence team to enhance the quantity and quality of reported incidents and add artificial intelligence tools to the collection of security information. The funding will create a total of 10 new jobs.

Mercia Asset Management has announced its intention to acquire the management of the three Northern Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs); Northern Venture Trust PLC, Northern 2 VCT PLC and Northern 3 VCT PLC, from NVM Private Equity LLP.

Gresham House Renewable Energy VCT 1 plc and Gresham House Renewable Energy VCT 2 plc have made a new investment of £1.2 million into bio-bean, the world’s largest recycler of waste coffee grounds.

This investment represents 30% of the £4 million funding round announced by bio-bean in April 2019. The Gresham House VCTs’ investment forms the final part of that round, and values bio-bean at £7.6 million.

MJ Hudson Allenbridge has publishd the inaugural edition of its VCT Spotlight Report.  The report features information on all the VCTs fundraising in the 2019/20 tax year and provide a viewpoint of the current landscape (and performance).