New venture capital fund Sure Ventures is listing in London for £3.3m, to focus on fintech, internet of things, augmented reality and virtual reality
London’s public market has welcomed a new venture capital fund to its ranks this morning, as Sure Ventures listed for £3.3m.
Sure is set to focus on companies which develop augmented reality, virtual reality, fintech and internet of things (IoT) products.
Managed by Shard Capital, which also runs funds under the names of Rubrics Asset Management, Shard Credit Partners, Shard Capital New Science Funds and Suir Valley Ventures, the listed fund will allow investors access to the venture capital market – which has traditionally only been accessible to business angels and institutions.
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“The markets we are targeting in the technology sector are fast approaching what we believe are growth inflexion points. In the case of VR, as the number of headset units sold increases, so too does demand for quality content and applications from a growing ecosystem of software, support and content providers,” said Sure director Gareth Burchell.
“FinTech is already an established market but is set to grow further thanks to secular drivers such as financial regulation, cyber security and changing payment methods, while IoT – which enables devices to communicate with each other – is playing an ever-increasing role in both corporate and domestic life.
Spotting tomorrow’s technology winners early offers tremendous upside potential.
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The first £5m raised, through today’s initial public offering and future issues, will be invested in Suir Valley Ventures Fund, which is supported by Enterprise Ireland and has already made four investments.
Listed venture capital firms are none too common. Draper Esprit, an early backer of Graze snacks, floated in 2016 and has seen its share price rise by almost 39 per cent.
Draper Esprit’s reasoning behind listing was that it could hold on to its portfolio companies longer, potentially winning better returns as they grow. Traditional firms feel pressure to sell assets after a certain time to hand back returns to investors, but investors in a listed fund can buy or sell their shares at any point.
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