Praetura has launched a venture capital trust focussing on companies based in the north of England.
Praetura Growth VCT is seeking to raise £10mn to invest, including £1mn already invested by the directors of the fund.
The VCT will focus on growing businesses outside London and the south-west, and although it does not have a sector focus, FTAdviser understands that it will continue Praetura’s track record of investing in tech companies.
The company has also hired the former chief operating officer of Puma Investments, Sam McArthur, as a partner, who will expand the company’s range of alternative retail investment offerings.
McArthur told FTAdviser the fund is receiving around 200 new enquiries a month from founders of early stage businesses looking for investments, despite the wider economic uncertainty in the UK.
“I think you would struggle to find anyone saying it is not a difficult market at the moment,” he said.
McArthur added that the early-stage companies the fund will invest in are often either successful or not depending not just on market conditions, but also due to factors within their control, such as how well they manage their business and how good their products are.
The popularity of VCTs has continued to grow in recent years, with investment into the funds topping £1bn last year for the second year in a row.
Some £1.08bn was invested into VCTs in the 2022/23 tax year, according to the Association of Investment Companies, a 5 per cent drop on the £1.1bn invested a year earlier.
In the 2022 calendar year, VCTs invested £700mn in new and follow-on investments, with £652mn of that in private companies and £48mn in AIM-quoted firms.
The VCT sector underwent a consolidation last year, with the original players “cashing in” and leaving the market.
sally.hickey@ft.com
