Melanie Hayes

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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Cambridge Future Tech builds DeepTech ventures and last week we hit another milestone; we're co-founding our 15th venture 🤘 It's awesome building new ventures from the ground up. It's why we started CFT in the first place. It always feels great to be at the start of the build phase, helping founders articulate a new venture’s tech and potential, building a strong narrative. We’re collaborating closely with founders to transform groundbreaking ideas into companies. 🚀🚀🚀 More to come on this. I'm hyped to share what we're building 🤘 #venturebuilder #deeptech #startups #cambridge

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We had the pleasure of speaking to the inimitable Gordon Sanghera, co-founder and CEO of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, valued at around $6.8bn in 2021. Gordon somewhat accidentally ended up as an entrepreneur, breaking the conventional VC wisdom around 'born founders'. The technology is wild - democratising access to genomic sequencing giving us a new understanding of living organisms. In the episode of Riding Unicorns, we cover: 00:00 Defining Entrepreneurship 00:55 Understanding Oxford Nanopore's Technology 06:10 Gordon's Journey to Founding Oxford Nanopore 12:09 Commercialization Challenges and Strategies 16:27 Building a Strong Founding Team 20:55 Navigating the Ups and Downs of Deep Tech 25:54 Innovative Applications of Nanopore Technology 28:57 Company Culture and Operational Insights 35:05 Attracting Talent in a Competitive Market 37:22 The IPO Experience and Future Outlook https://lnkd.in/eQZVSGeK

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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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📣 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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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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A few weeks ago, Openseed VC, in partnership with Dentons and PKF Littlejohn, hosted a webinar on Launching a First-Time Fund for first time managers - if you missed it 👇🏾 The recording is now available: See link in comments 🔗 I often get lots of messages from people looking to set up their first fund, and there’s been interest not only from first-time fund managers but also principals from potential corporates and family offices. With this in mind, I’ve decided to create a small, intimate community of up to ten people to support in their journey to launching a #FirstFund in 2025. Together, we’ll work out how I can best support your process to a first fund in a way that’s valuable to you—while respecting my bandwidth. If this sounds interesting, share more about yourself - link in comments 👇🏾: You should hear back in the new year. Let’s see where this takes us 🌍 #VentureCapital #FirstTimeFund #Entrepreneurship #FundManagers #Innovation #VC

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"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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Top 10 Most Active UK Angel Networks The UK’s startup ecosystem is flourishing, thanks to the tireless efforts of angel networks who back the next generation of innovators. Beauhurst recently highlighted the top players in this space, and I’m thrilled to share some of the standout names driving change and growth. 1. Susie Fisher - Kelvin Capital 2. Lynne Cadenhead - TRICAPITAL Angels Limited 3. Alex Davies - Wealth Club 4. Paul Tselentis - 24Haymarket 5. Oliver Woolley - Envestors 6. Jock Millican - Equity Gap 7. Niki McKenzie - Archangel Investors Limited 8. Alexis Toft - Minerva Business Angels 9. Emmi Nicholl - Cambridge Angels 10. Eileen Modral FRSA - Oxford Innovation Finance These networks have consistently provided invaluable support to early-stage ventures, catalysing the growth of some of the most promising startups in the country. 🎯 What angel network are you part of?

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Incredible to see Mosaic in the Financial Times this morning in this excellent piece by Sujeet Indap on tech innovation in private equity. Sujeet's research into the historical evolution of Wall Street's analytical horsepower was particularly fascinating. Though I wasn't around for the shift from pen-and-paper to VisiCalc, I can only imagine the step-function productivity increase it unlocked. Anders' assertion that the advent of the spreadsheet in part drove the LBO boom of the late '80s is also intriguing (although I'm sure the <10% min. equity helped, too). Though the spreadsheet was a great advancement in the '80s, it always baffled me that ~30 years later (when I began my PE career) we were still underwriting billion-dollar buyouts using a generic productivity tool and not an industry-focused application. That's precisely why I started Mosaic. With dedicated platforms like Mosaic and Blackstone's Atlas now powering new deal underwriting - could the industry benefit from a similar step-function productivity increase? Also - an open question to anyone who was working as an investment professional in the 1980s/1990s: was the spreadsheet initially met with hesitation / skepticism by a subset of old-school investors who thought there was value in grinding it out until 3am with only pencil and abacus in hand? We're fortunate at Mosaic to work with some of the world's most forward-thinking investors who readily embrace change - but this sentiment does comes up once in a while. What happens to the holdouts? And curious how the innovators - whose shoulders we stand on - navigated it before us. Read the full story here: https://on.ft.com/4dXEvth

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Delighted to share news that Bizumi has just received SEIS Advance Assurance! This is great news for private investors looking to offset the inherent risks when investing in startup companies in search of great returns. In summary, the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) provides: Income tax relief of up to 50%: A £100,000 investment could provide a £50,000 saving on that year’s income tax bill.  Up to 50% capital gains reinvestment relief: You could reduce the CGT on gains made elsewhere by up to 50%.  Loss relief: If things don’t go to plan, you can choose to offset any loss, less the income tax relief received, against your income tax bill.  Now don't get me wrong, I have every confidence that Bizumi is a fantastic opportunity, but de-risking your investment through SEIS is a no-brainer! Get in touch to explore how we can become successful together.

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Maternity in VC in the spotlight. Well done Rachel Drapper, Sophie Winwood & the WVC:E team on getting this important report out there. In VC we’re dealing often with small firms, network & event heavy schedules and FOMO of being left behind if we take time out (I refuse to use the word off as anyone who’s had a child knows that’s the furthest from how it feels). If you’re thinking about having a child or in the throes of the early-stages, navigating how to even try and get some semblance or balance, then hopefully this report can provide some useful tips. Most importantly showcasing that you’re not alone.

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✍️ Yesterday, we launched the revised ESG_VC Measurement Framework for 2025 - so I thought I'd share an insight into what's changed... ✍️ Emily Havers has been leading the charge on this year's updates, so I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to her for starters. We carry out annual updates to the ESG_VC framework, so that we can respond to feedback from users, keep pace with the evolving regulatory landscape, and align wherever we can with other industry standards such as Invest Europe's reporting template and the ESG Data Convergence Initiative metrics. So, what's changed for this year in our framework? ⌛ First off, it's shorter - less time for companies spent reporting and more time spent creating value through ESG is our number one objective. 🔗 We've separated out our supply chain metrics to make it easier for companies to spot questions that are material to them. ✍️ We've begun to ask companies to provide evidence wherever they can - ensuring that policies have substance. 📝 A new policy dropdown will help portfolio companies to quickly identify the policies they have - and the ones that they're missing. 👥 We've made some changes to the diversity data that we capture - our members have asked for more data on founder diversity, while we've reduced the breadth of data points captured to ensure we're only asking for data that is material to early-stage companies. For anyone interested in learning more, I've linked our webinar explaining the updates in the comments. And you can download the framework yourself at www.esgvc.co.uk #ESG_VC #sustainability #data

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Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, has delivered a strong message to #UK leaders, highlighting the urgent need to reform regulations in order to meet the 2030 energy goal. Speaking at the investment summit, Schmidt stressed that regulatory delays and leadership hurdles are stalling progress, with the cost of capital and inefficiencies posing major barriers to growth. This call to action resonates deeply with our mission at Energy Futures Lab, Imperial College London. With clean energy technologies at the forefront of the UK’s transition, Imperial is already part of the conversation. Notably, Schmidt Futures has also selected Imperial for a major £148M initiative to accelerate scientific innovation, reinforcing our role in addressing the global #energy challenge. As the UK grapples with regulatory complexities, we remain committed to advancing clean tech solutions and fostering the innovation required to achieve these crucial goals. Read more on Schmidt Futures' £148M initiative with Imperial https://lnkd.in/eXxd4NCs I-X Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College #CleanEnergy #NetZero #Innovation #EnergyTransition #SustainableFuture

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🌍 Upcoming fund close – SEIS 🌍 Following the launch of our SEIS fund we are now counting down to the first close of the fund on the 9th August. The SEIS fund will invest in early-stage startups across the UK that are accelerating the transition to net zero and a green economy.    The SEIS fund will build on the progress of OnePlanetCapital’s EIS fund which was launched in 2021 and has grown to £10m of assets under management with 31 investments made.  For further information visit our website - https://lnkd.in/eqdcwBMf Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high‑risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Investment in the OnePlanetCapital Climate Change SEIS is restricted to Professional Clients, High Net-Worth Investors and Self-Certified Sophisticated Investors. Always take time when considering your investment decisions. Financial advice is recommended.

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🎉 Exciting time with the incredible team at Isomer Capital 🎉 Super thrilled about the news we shared with the world last week. It has us all buzzing with excitement. At Isomer, we've long been dedicated to providing liquidity in the European VC space. And now, we're taking it to the next level with the launch of our dedicated fund. What is it, you ask? A fund that will invest in secondaries at all levels within the European VC ecosystem—LPs, GPs, companies, founders, angels, and even employees. And because there is limited liquidity solutions to LPs that have invested in European VCs, around 70% of our fund will go towards LP stakes. With the support of our Cornerstone investors, we've reached this significant milestone in our journey. But the work has only just begun, which myself and my incredible team have already started smashing through ... first 2 deals closing in a matter of weeks. Watch this space! 😉 #Isomer #VentureCapital #Secondaries #EuropeanVC #Investing #Liquidity #ImpactInvesting #Teamwork #Milestone

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Continuing to write down ideas I've been having conversations about to get a wider set of perspectives. This is based on the idea that Western companies' disproportionate access to innovation makes it harder for emerging markets to compete. Looking forward to comments

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💡 Looking forward to hosting an insightful VC panel at British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA)'s ESG conference... 💡 I'll be moderating a panel of experienced ESG leads in venture, thinking about the unique challenges and opportunities of integrating sustainability and ESG into venture capital. I'll certainly be looking to learn a lot from our speakers on the panel: Michelle Lamprecht of Cambridge Innovation Capital, Emily Matthews of Oxford Science Enterprises, Sasha Kaletsky of Creator Ventures, and Bhrigu Bali of A/O. Do sign up to join us on the day - link to the event in the comments below... #ESG_VC #sustainability #venturecapital

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🚀 Tech Tour Energy & Decarbonisation 2024 🌍 It’s been an fantastic experience connecting with great founders in the energy tech space, catching up with some of our amazing Vireo Ventures portfolio companies, and engaging with LPs, co-investors, and fellow VC funds. With 80 startups showcasing their innovations to 140 investors and corporates, the event was a testament to the immense potential and innovation driving the energy-tech sector. 🌟 The quality and passion of the founders I met reaffirm that the future of energy is bright—and we’re just getting started! We're excited about the opportunities ahead and can’t wait to collaborate with some of the inspiring companies and investors from the event. Let’s keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in energy and decarbonisation. #EnergyTech #VentureCapital #Decarbonisation #Innovation #Sustainability #TechTour

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