Daniel Shellard

"Funding Collapse sends investment in start-ups to six year low" The Times today covering the shocking stats that VenturePath uncovered, with our partner Beauhurst. Great quotes from supporters Michael Moore CEO, BVCA and Julian David CEO, techUK. * UK VC funding at Series A is -44% from last year, and worsening * Q3 24 is down a staggering 57% from Q2, itself down from Q1 * 9 in 10 seed funded startups cannot access Series A VC funding, the next 'rung on the funding ladder' * Just 32 future scaleup companies across the whole of the UK were able to access their first VC funding round in Q3...a 6 year low * Half a billion less capital is going in to UK scaleups at Series A, than just 2 years ago! As the UK scaleup funding gap widens, we are losing ground against other countries, at both startup stage (a position the UK worked hard to achieve, since 2011), and for scaleup support. OECD data: 13th in the world for scaleup support, and that's before Series A funding access dried up. I get that its confusing. Another report (BBB, Nations & Regions) released this week spoke of positive trends in private investment, stating "The data for Q2 2024 shows that investment value has continued to grow". Great, I love to see optimistic data. But under analysis that bundles venture with private equity (later stage), where a few megadeals skew the numbers. Otherwise the exact opposite is true. Our independent research here, for the UK ScaleUp Investment Mission, is laser beam focussed on Series A. The funding round where companies move from the c.1m startups launched each year, through the 2,179 that access seed funding, into the rarefied category of being recognised as future scaleups, attracting Series A funding (£2-10m). The UK venture landscape is currently funding just 248 pa of these companies, and declining. We've been sharing this urgent call for support with the new Government since the day after the election. I've personally met with several Ministers, and spoke to all the relevant Government departments. I will shamelessly repeat loudly what is at stake. UK scaleup funding at Series A has nearly halved in a year, and continues to decline steeply, more than halving in the last quarter. VenturePath developed The UK ScaleUp Investment Mission to convene the scaleup support ecosystem and £7bn of funders to help address this problem, to improve nationwide access to VC investment, and create more venture-backed successes. We have clear support, clear recommendations to reverse this decline in UK scaleup investment, and have made a clear ask of Government for participation in this, to ensure immediate action is taken to create the conditions for success for UK scaleups, ensuring the focus on growth isn't undermined by lack of capital, or equitable access to it. Government decision makers, we'd love your interest, to progress to action. HM Treasury: Rt Hon Rachel Reeves Spencer Livermore James Murray & CC Poppy Gustafsson (welcome to the debate).

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I couldn’t be prouder to be a Venture Partner at Isomer Capital (aka the best European FoF - at least for me) as we just announced the launch of our pioneering £100m secondaries fund. This fund is dedicated to acquiring stakes from LPs in various VC funds, tapping into a massive and largely unexplored market. 🌟 Key Highlights: - Focused Investment: Primarily targeting stakes in VC funds, with selective investments in private companies. - Robust Funding: Already over 20% funded, thanks to strong support from Nordic family offices and a German foundation. - Market Potential: With a growing number of private tech companies and a VC liquidity crunch, Europe's VC secondaries market is poised for rapid growth. - Track Record: This isn’t Isomer’s first foray into the secondaries market. As a firm we’ve done several secondaries deals with portfolio companies and VC firms, including early-stage VC Seedcamp (in 2021) and mobility giant Bolt (in 2023). - Expert Team: Welcoming the amazing Omolade (Rachel) A., formerly of Coller Capital, as a principal to lead this initiative. 💡 Investment Strategy: - 65-75% of the fund will buy "LP interest" stakes in VC funds. - 15-25% will be directed towards stakes in companies. - Up to 15% reserved for flexible investment opportunities. 📈 Looking Ahead: We're targeting returns of 2-3x, with significant distributions expected in the next 4-7 years. As one of the few players in this space, we're not just participating in the market—we're driving it forward. Read all about it here: https://lnkd.in/dc7sbC3G #VentureCapital #SecondariesFund #EuropeanVC

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📣 We’ve got a big ESG_VC event planned for Tuesday next week – featuring the latest updates to our measurement framework, news of our 2025 benchmarking with the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA), and an introduction to our new platform partners… 📣 On the afternoon of Tuesday 26 November, we’ll be gathering 200+ VCs for the latest update on the ESG_VC Measurement Framework – from what it covers to how it informs industry-leading research, and how you can now work with our accredited data collection partners. This will be our first event delivered in partnership with our cohort of platform partners: Apiday, Novata, and PortF. I’m excited to share with our members how these partners can support a big step up in your ESG initiatives. Join us for a jam-packed event that will feature: 🟢 An update from Suzi Gillespie of the BVCA on how you can take part in our 2025 research – we analysed ESG performance in c.600 VC-backed companies in 2024 and we’re looking to deliver an even more ambitious piece of research next year… 🟢 Insights from Emily Havers of Fidelity International Strategic Ventures on the updates that have been made to the framework and what it means for our members, their portfolio companies, and the broader ecosystem. 🟢 Perspectives from Emily Matthews of Oxford Science Enterprises and Nina Foote of Volution on how the ESG_VC Measurement Framework has supported their work on ESG. 🟢 Presentations from our platform partners: Edouard Audi of Apiday, Conor O'Laoire’Laoire of Novata, and Alex Lu of PortF. It’s going to be a good one so do register. Link to sign up in the comments! #ESG_VC #sustainability #venturecapital

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Taavet Hinrikus and I made the Financial Times Due Diligence email. https://lnkd.in/ez2AuGQx One 'unintended consequence' is that if there is a 45% tax on carry and CGT (raising £40m per year, remember) it for all intents and purposes closes the door on new VCs in the UK. Especially started by teams from non-traditional backgrounds. To meet the GP commit, you need to be already part of the 'wealthy' as you cannot rely on the value you create - nearly half of it will disappear - to fund it. We have both had extremely successful startups which are few and far between. The smaller number of new VCs will therefore more likely increasingly be for people who have inherited the capital or can draw it from their already rich family. Probably not want they have in mind with this policy.

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💼 Top 10 UK Venture Capital Firms by Deal Count - Plus the Power of NEDs 💼 The UK's venture capital firms are leading the charge in backing high-growth companies, but think abut this..... if each deal also added a non-executive director (and they invariably do) to bring experienced governance and strategy into play, let’s look at the numbers: Let's start with the top 10 most active VCs in the UK in 2024, and the potential impact: 1. SFC Capital - 99 deals   2. Access EIS - 65 deals   3. Octopus Ventures - 54 deals   4. BGF Growth Capital - 47 deals   5. Ascension - 34 deals   6. Fuel Ventures 🚀 Ventures - 31 deals   7. Seedcamp - 28 deals   8. LocalGlobe - 26 deals   9. Par Equity - 25 deals   10. Amadeus Capital Partners - 24 deals If each deal added a NED, and each fund paid an average recruitment fee of £25,000 per hire, the total cost across these deals would be: 😳 SFC Capital: £2.475m   😳 Access EIS: £1.625m   😳 Octopus Ventures: £1.35m   😳 BGF Growth Capital: £1.175m   😳 Ascension: £850k   😳 Fuel Ventures: £775k   😳 Seedcamp: £700k   😳 LocalGlobe: £650k   😳 Par Equity: £625k   😳 Amadeus Capital Partners: £600k  👉 Total cost: £10.825 million 💸 Ps. Many recruitment fees are in excess of double the "average" fee of £25k. At Virtualnonexecs.com, we work with VCs to flatten the cost of recruitment across their portfolios. The VNXD Operator Network is available on a flat annual subscription - for less than the cost of a single hire. You get access to 22,000 non-executive directors, supported by internal headhunters and there's no "per hire" fee. This means ongoing access to the best talent with no extra costs for every deal. If you are interested in accessing this level of support, let’s discuss. You can book a demo with me here: https://lnkd.in/d3na7CEC or simply drop me a DM. 👉 #VentureCapital #Startups #NEDs #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #Investment #UKTech

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#Funding #OtherStuff Daring Capital invests €1.2 million in purpose-led founders in its first year of operation: Daring Capital, a UK impact investor network, has invested €1.2 million in purpose-driven startups during its first year. Launched in August 2023 by Jem Stein, the company has prioritised support for female founders, who received 95% of the capital, and 76% to Black and Racially minoritised founders. The investment aims to back overlooked entrepreneurs building […] The post Daring Capital invests €1.2 million in purpose-led founders in its first year of operation appeared first on EU-Startups.

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There are many untold success stories where PE has transformed undervalued and underperforming companies, generating substantial returns. In the UK, PE supported nearly 1,500 businesses in 2023, empowering management teams with long-term strategies and access to new markets. Unlike traditional public companies burdened by short-term profit pressures and regulatory demands, PE-backed firms focus on growth and operational improvements. This approach allows for streamlined decision-making and reinvestment in core strategies, fostering a culture of purpose and entrepreneurial innovation. PE's success lies in strategic clarity, operational focus, and a supportive partnership with management, contrasting with the constraints often faced by publicly traded companies. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/eEnYudDj The Times Richard Harpin Branded Hospitality Ventures #hospitality #restaurants #technology #finance Noah Stern Matthew Lerner Kim Karmitz Derrek Ross Tarek M.

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As a Partner at Antler, one of the most active early-stage investors in the world, I’m thrilled to announce our latest round of investments—£840k across seven exciting new British startups! The eleventh UK residency brought together over 2,400 applicants from across the globe, with 78 founders making the cut. This group reflects incredible diversity, representing 24 nationalities and 18% female founders. After a rigorous selection process that included over 200 hours of due diligence per company, we’re backing just under 1% of applicants, confident in the impact they’ll have. Here are the seven ventures joining the Antler family: 🔎 Vente AI: Changing the recruitment game by automating how agencies discover roles and optimize their candidate pipelines. 💡Distillery: Unlocking rapid insights for businesses, providing crucial product and marketing data 25x faster than traditional methods. (Vasil Yakov, Edward Louth) 🏦 Banqora: Uses AI to automate document processing and streamline post-trade operations, saving financial institutions significant time and money. 🏠 AskVinny: Simplifying property management with AI, making tenant-landlord interactions effortless and improving service delivery. 🪲 Omma: Supporting sustainable farming with AI-driven insect incubation, reducing the need for pesticides in large-scale horticulture. 🧑‍🏭️ Tradestack: Helping trades businesses quote quicker and win more jobs with an AI-backed productivity tool. 🏨 Inntelo AI: Transforming hotel operations with AI that automates guest services, making every stay smoother and more personalized. With some of them already speaking to follow-on investors and closing investment rounds, I’m personally excited about what lies ahead for them all. If you’d like to connect with any of the founders or learn more, drop me a message! 🚀 🦄 #VentureCapital #Investments #Founders #TechStartups

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The British Business Bank produced a great report last week on the performance of UK VC funds (link in comments) over the last 20+ years. As with all reports like this, it's really important to dig into the detail and not just rely on the headlines. In particular, I was keen to compare the performance of the best UK funds to those in the US. While accepting the limitations of the data (all performance data on VC is based on a very low sample size), it's still interesting to see how the UK funds in the BBB report compare to the Cambridge Associates US VC benchmarks. As you can see from the chart below, the top quartile benchmark for UK funds exceeded the US funds for the period 2002-2007. But the sample size for UK funds in this period is particularly low (eg just five funds for the 2004/05 period). Since 2008, the top quartile UK funds have underperformed the US benchmark, and since 2010 are much closer to the US median return than the upper quartile. There are some outstanding founders and companies in the UK and some strong-performing VC funds. But the reality of VC is that performance is driven by a small number of outlier investments. Without these, it's almost impossible to deliver 3x net returns to LPs. For the UK to really become competitive with the US, we need to see more UK-based companies able to scale and exit at valuations in excess of $5bn. Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions to achieving this. We consistently hear from our VC managers that there is no shortage of capital for the best UK companies. Where there is a shortage is in the number of world-class founders looking to build in the UK. Get this right and the capital (and returns) will follow.

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techUK recently asked me to share views on #scaleup #investment challenges, which are condensed into a 3 minute blog post below. Hopefully an interesting read for UK tech entrepreneurs, VCs and policy makers... The opportunity to improve the landscape is clear. 🇬🇧

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We are super excited about our latest investment; one that has had us excited from the first meeting... The First Thirty has participated in a £3.5m Seed round into Cerve. At TFT, we are grounded in data and intelligence being an unlock for systems change in food systems and ultimately in human health. But data in a silo will not be sufficient in changing how ALL stakeholders in the supply chain operate or how end users consume data. The data needs to move, to be exchanged efficiently and to be meaningful in today's context with the opportunity to drive future contexts. We have for a long time been looking for a company building the digital infrastructure that could solve for this data efficiency and transport problem in the food system. While we have met some great companies, there has always been a mismatch on scope, approach, domain knowledge, ambition, vision or impact. Then we met Dan Mazig🎗️. There was a sharpness rare to see and a lazer focus on a problem he understood well. But with that was also a calm thoughtfulness around the opportunity Cerve had in front it. Today Cerve tackles an unstructured data inefficiency problem that is a major contributor to food waste. Tomorrow, a structured data exchange can expose new meaningful data to make food systems more sustainable, efficient, healthy and productive. We knew immediately this was what we were looking for. Dan and commercial leader David Walker were the right team, with the right backgrounds, the right approach in today's supply chain context and with ambitious vision about the potential for transformation. TFT and Cerve share a vision that through their platform technology the supply chain can be more efficient today and decommodified tomorrow. Cerve is a platform that has the potential to reshape our relationships and decision-making processes throughout the food system. We are keen to continue to work with an incredible group of investors from the lead SuperSeed to our fellow participants Zenith Ventures and Ponderosa Ventures. Special thanks to Stephanie Mathern and Eric Walters for playing your parts. Congrats Dan Mazig, David Walker, and the Cerve team! Let's Go! #sustainability #foodsystems #humanhealth https://lnkd.in/e7gmEHpt

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Interesting article: UK trades at a discount to US Election result has given certainty There is very low anti-monopoly concern Activity seems to be for relatively small companies being sold to foreign buyers My thoughts: Headline pitches this as good news - it’s not. We trade at a discount because growth potential is seen as limited. Companies are being bought by foreign interests before they have the opportunity to grow domestically. Deals are being done now because there is a “Labour discount” - everyone sees that Labour will not get another term so they buy now cheap and then trade out at a premium after the next election. LSE in underperforming - this is worrying.

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Interesting to see how the Corporate VC world of Saleforce Ventures has ended up feeding acquisitions through to the main Salesforce. The notable exception in this chart is Slack, where SV did not invest in Slack (but probably wished they did), but adopted a partnership over a period of 5 years. #corporatevc #MandA #strategy

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Mountside - 400+ VC firms with fresh capital and UK focus https://lnkd.in/eERd3pHS Mountside Ventures keeps track of VC forms that recently raised a fund - they are most likely to be actively investing. The focus is mostly, but not exclusively, UK. ----- ♻️Like, Comment, Share Follow Startup Vencha for more, Stop Thinking & Start Doing.

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Do you lack financing to sufficiently scale? The Scale Up Institute notes that 50% of scale ups do not believe they have sufficient capital to meet their current growth trajectory. Even in these leaner times there are a few options for consideration, learn more in our blog. https://lnkd.in/ebsdwx_u #scaleups #investment #capital

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A few reflections on last week's Budget, from me, and a bunch of our fabulous FieldHouse Associates' clients. https://lnkd.in/exrefrpt #tech #innovation #investment #venturecapital #startups #scaleups #regulation #government #PR #publicaffairs #consultancy

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Great insights from Adam Agius on what to consider when raising debt for a search fund buyout. Most relevant to the UK market, but a worthwhile read for all searchers. There's more debt capital keen to support search acquisitions than ever before, but approaching it naively can be very costly...

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Misalignment on exit expectations can lead to value-destroying friction between CEOs, boards, and investors. Regular exit talks - at least once a year -help to: •  clarify strategic objectives and align exit timing •  assess the business’s real value and define a compromise timeline •  review investment agreements and explore alternative exit strategies Regular and proactive exit talks foster trust, prevent wrong decisions, and maximize value for all stakeholders. Practical considerations for such exit talks are included in this article.  #ExitStrategy #ExitReadiness #BoardLeadership #CorporateGovernance https://lnkd.in/e-jsaJA7

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🚀 180 off-market deals in the first quarter! 🚀 As the leading non-executive and chair community in the UK, our members offer strategic advice to some of the most active businesses across various sectors that are approaching funding rounds or M&A transactions. Some of the deals they have brought to us: 🚀 £75m revenue £15m EBITDA insurance syndicate (See below the live listing) 🚀 £40m revenue £4m EBITDA manufacturing business 🚀 £30m revenue £4.2m EBITDA services business 🚀 £20m revenue £3m EBITDA specialist travel business 🚀 £18m revenue £8m EBITDA energy/eco business 🚀 £13m revenue £6m EBITDA specialist online leasing business 🚀 £10m revenue £1m EBITDA recruitment business 🚀 £7m revenue £2.8m EBITDA specialist procurement consultancy 🚀 £6.4m revenue £1m EBITDA SaaS business And there's been over 100 funding requests! Average raise amount is £1.4m. Want to hear how you can access this deal pipeline? DM me. #offmarket #virtualnonexecs #dealflow

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