Molten Ventures, the London-listed venture capital firm that backed Revolut and Zopa, has raised £175m for a new fund aimed at closing the gap in scale-up capital for fast-growing UK technology companies.
The fundraising for the Molten Ventures Growth Fund was led by the British Business Bank, the government’s economic development agency, which made a cornerstone investment of £75m.
The fund is aimed at high-growth technology companies across the UK and Europe, in industries including space, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Molten is seeking further investors to expand the fund to £350m, double the amount raised so far.
Molten Ventures, formerly known as Draper Esprit, is a FTSE 250 constituent with offices in London and in Dublin. It manages £2bn across its funds and has invested more than £1bn over the past decade.
The fund is being raised against concerns that a shortage of scale-up capital is driving an exodus among the fastest-growing UK companies. There has long been a dearth of the later-stage funding needed to grow the most promising businesses, and there are concerns that UK markets are not attractive enough to retain the highest-quality British start-ups.
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