Octopus Investments has announced a new £80 million fundraise for Octopus Titan VCT as well as an expansion of its team by nine investment professionals “to take advantage of the growing number of exciting investment opportunities in the UK”.
The Octopus portfolio team now numbers 28, including 25 investment professionals and a talent team which helps companies in the VCT’s portfolio hire the best talent to help them realise their growth potential.
Paul Latham, managing director of Octopus Investments (pictured), said: “VCTs have consistently proven to be vital a source of patient capital for early stage companies and will be incredibly important in the next year to help drive forward our post-Covid economic recovery by creating jobs in new and innovative areas of the economy.”
Octopus said total revenues across the portfolio had increased “significantly in the year to 2019, growing by 43%, which has helped to create an additional 1,300 new jobs”.
Jo Oliver, fund manager of Octopus Titan VCT, flags Cazoo as one of the standout performers, an online disrupter in the way people buy used cars in the UK.
She said: “It is an incredibly exciting time to be investing in early stage technology companies. We’ve seen a massive acceleration in the adoption of technology as a result of Covid-19, which means the long-term outlook for our portfolio and the types of businesses we invest in is extremely positive. Some really interesting businesses are coming to market at a time of significant change, and we expect this to continue with plenty of new investment opportunities emerging.
“Covid-19 has inevitably presented some short-term challenges too, but entrepreneurs are uniquely able to adapt, and in many cases have taken advantage of new opportunities.
“Cazoo is a great example of a business that has benefited from the shift to online spending. The used car market is enormous but has, until now, been left almost untouched by the digital revolution, making it ripe for disruption.”
In the 12 months to 30 June 2020, Octopus Titan VCT invested £95 million into 33 companies, including follow-on investments into some of the existing portfolio companies.
Octopus offers an ISA wrapper on the VCT. This enables investors to transfer any existing ISA funds (from previous tax years 2019/20 or prior) to a new Titan VCT ISA, while maintaining the benefits of VCT investing.
The share offer is open until 20 October 2021 but may close earlier if fully subscribed. The minimum investment is £3,000 while the maximum investment qualifying for tax relief is £200,000.
