Augmentum Fintech raises £28m in oversubscribed placing
Listed venture capital firm Augmentum Fintech hit its £28m fundraising target through an oversubscribed share placing launched this week.
The firm said demand from both existing and new investors exceeded the maximum issue and applications have been scaled back accordingly.
Augmentum Fintech raised £28m through the issue of 23.37m shares at 120 pence each.
The fund will use the proceeds to fund its pipeline and current portfolio firms, which include peer-to-peer lender Zopa and fintech Tide.
Non-executive chairman Neil England said: “Augmentum is unique as a fintech specialist with a closed end structure offering patient capital to companies as they scale-up.”
“It is pleasing to see that demand for our shares from the Placing and Retail offer has exceeded the maximum issue size.”
Tim Levene, chief executive of the portfolio manager, added: “The success of this fundraise reflects the growing shift in the move to a digital economy over recent months and highlights that fintech has been a beneficiary of the accelerated digital adoption in financial services. The on-going disruption caused by Covid should maintain the momentum behind this trend and many of Augmentum’s portfolio companies should continue to benefit from this growth.”
“We look forward to supporting our current portfolio and capitalising on our qualified pipeline of new investment opportunities.”
Earlier this month Augmentum was boosted on news that crowdfunding platforms Seedrs and Crowdcube announced plans to merge.
As of 31 March 2020, Seedrs represented approximately 1.2 per cent of the fund’s company portfolio.