Tech investor Albion Capital is seeking to raise up to £36m through top up offers for its six venture capital trusts.
Recent Albion Capital VCT investments include technology companies such as Koru Kids, an online marketplace for nannies; Phrasee, a company using AI to generate optimised marketing copy; and Locum’s Nest, an app which is revolutionising the way NHS trusts manage locum doctors.
The Albion VCTs also celebrated the high profile exit of Grapeshot, a provider of contextualised advertising solutions which was sold to Oracle in April 2018 and generated a return of approximately 10x on an investment of £2.9m.
The fundraising targets £6 million for each of the six Albion VCTs: Albion Venture Capital Trust PLC, Albion Development VCT PLC, Albion Enterprise VCT PLC, Albion Technology & General VCT PLC, Crown Place VCT PLC and Kings Arms Yard VCT PLC.
The move reflects Albion’s confidence in an exciting pipeline of investment opportunities in sectors with long-term growth potential, including digital healthcare, automation, digital security and data analytics.
Will Fraser-Allen, deputy managing partner at Albion Capital, said: “VCTs are attracting sustained investor interest buoyed by a supportive climate for patient capital investing.
“The Government has given its considerable backing to UK entrepreneurs driving high growth businesses, from measures announced in the Patient Capital Review to a more recent drive to encourage pension money into scale-up businesses.
“Against this backdrop we see an encouraging number of opportunities for VCTs, in particular in high innovation areas such as B2B software and technology enabled services, including digital health.
“This, combined with a need for real income and capital growth, is likely to herald another healthy year for VCT fundraising in 2019.”