Since they were launched in 1994, individual investors have ploughed an incredible £8.48 billion into VCTs, which have backed numerous companies that are now household names, including Zoopla, Secret Escapes, Monica Vinader, Everyman Cinemas, and Five Guys to name just a few.

As Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) celebrate the 25^th anniversary of their announcement later this week, Alex Davies, CEO at Wealth Club examines the figures and assesses whether they have proved their worth.

Albion Capital, the leading independent investment manager, has announced the first close of its new asset-backed private equity fund, Albion Real Assets Fund (ARAF). The first close investors are the £9bn Merseyside Pension Fund and several high net worth families.

Calculus Capital has appointed Dominic Harris as Portfolio Management Director. Harris was previously an Investment Director at Valtegra, a private equity firm focused on the investment in and turnaround of mid-market companies facing unique situational challenges.

Funds advised by YFM Equity Partners, the specialist private equity fund manager, have backed a £4.5m investment into SharpCloud Software Limited to support the continued growth and roll out of its enterprise SaaS product. 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.

SharpCloud was founded in 2012 by Sarim Khan and Rusty Johnson, following the successful sale of their previous software business to Oracle Primavera. Having spent some time within the Business Intelligence (‘BI’) and data analytics space, they noted a lack of powerful top-down software tools that could allow large organisations to visualise complex data across siloed lines-of-business and built SharpCloud to solve this.

Foresight Group has made a £749,000 growth capital investment into Promethean Particles Limited, a company specialising in the manufacturing of nanomaterials.  The finance boost will allow the firm to create new jobs, scale its production capabilities and enter untapped global markets.

The investment has been made using finance from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund and is part of a £1.25m funding round led by Foresight and supported by the University of Nottingham, East Midlands Early Growth Fund (managed by the British Business Financial Services), and other existing investors.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £5.3 million funding round in E-Fundamentals, a leading eCommerce insights platform.

London and Edinburgh-based e.fundamentals is a market-leading ecommerce analytics platform that helps many of the world’s largest brand owners rigorously improve the sales and profit performance of their products on retailers’ and wholesalers’ websites. 

YFM Equity Partners has backed a £4.5m investment into SharpCloud Software Limited to support the continued growth and roll out of its enterprise SaaS product. 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.

Triple Point has appointed Jennifer Ockwell as Partner and Head of Institutional Sales.

Maven Capital Partners has led a £4 million investment in language understanding business, Relative Insight Ltd. The transaction comprises a £3 million package from Maven’s VCTs alongside £1 million from NPIF – Maven Equity Finance, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund. The funding will support the company’s growth strategy as it expands into the USA and develops its technology platform to help companies drive business value from language data.

Tutorful, a platform that connects students with tutors across the UK has secured a £3.2 million investment from NVM Private Equity. The investment will be used to grow the rapidly expanding online tutoring business, by building out a suite of tools and curriculum-aligned content that helps tutors deliver exceptional quality lessons. 

With many fund managers already fundraising and more expected to join them, it has never been more important to understand the market. At this year's VCT & EIS Investor Forum delegates including private investors, financial advisers and wealth managers, will have an unirivalled opportunity to hear from some of the UK's most successful VCT and EIS  fund managers on the issues that matter to the industry. 

Triple Point, a leading UK alternative investment manager, has appointed experienced financial services professional Jack Rose as Strategic Sales Director.