Fuel Ventures hopes to be one of the most prolific early stage investors in the UK over the next 12 months after closing its biggest fund to date on £45m.
The firm said it planned to deploy the new fund across more than 60 tech-enabled startups in that time, as well as support innovative pre-seed businesses.
Fuel said it aims to “help stem the decline in first-time investment as the rest of the VC market looks upstream towards the latter stage, big-money rounds”.
The new more than doubles the total Fuel has raised across its three prior funds, bringing its fundraising total since it launched in 2015 to £80m.
Fuel said its portfolio businesses had raised more than £180m over the last 12 months, with high-fliers including ecommerce marketplace OnBuy, which it said has experienced 860% growth in that time.
It also highlighted fellow “rocketship” investments OutFund, Heroes and Moot Group.
Fuel cited a Tech Nation 2021 report which said that although the UK tech scene leads Europe with a $585bn valuation, seed VC is decreasing as a proportion of overall tech VC investment.
Mark Pearson, founder and managing partner of Fuel Ventures, said, “Since we launched our first fund five years ago the country’s tech ecosystem has gone from strength to strength and evolved into an ecosystem that’s the envy of many around the world.
“Now is not the time to take the foot of the pedal and say job done. We have a responsibility to invest in the future of the UK tech landscape and build on the strong work done so far.
“This, for us, means making sure we are providing capital for forward-thinking entrepreneurs and their innovative early stage businesses – even if that means just having an idea or MVP.”
Deals done by the firm in the last few months include backing a £1m seed round for UK proptech Hammock alongside Ascension Ventures, Founders Factory and several angel investors.
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Source: https://www.altassets.net/private-equity-news/by-pe-sector/venturegrowth/fuel-ventures-looks-to-stem-european-first-time-funding-decline-with-biggest-fund-close-yet.html
