Mo, a london based SaaS company, has secured £3 million investment led by Calculus Capital, alonside continued support from the Northern VCTs managed by Mercia Fund Management, which first invested in  in 2018.

The London based company provides a SaaS (software as a service) platform to help organisations improve their culture, connect their people and improve employee engagement. Mo’s core product, ‘Moments’, captures moments of appreciation, recognition, inspiration, success, connection and more. The platform provides the means to distribute monetary and non-monetary rewards, nominate employees for awards and collect and vote on ideas to improve the company.

In his latest podcast (transcribed below), Seneca Investment Director, John Davies, discusses the outlook for VCTs in the current climate.

Seneca Growth Capital VCT plc, which is managed by experienced growth capital investors Seneca Partners, has launched a new offer for subscription for its B shares, to raise £10 million, with an over-allotment facility to raise up to a further £10 million. 

28 September marks 25 years since the launch of the first VCT. From humble beginnings in 1995 the sector has grown to back winners from Zoopla to Secret Escapes and cutting-edge UK businesses such as Femtech provider Elvie, video games developer Frontier Developmentsand internet-of-things business Simulity.

To celebrate the 25^th anniversary of VCTs the Association of Investment Companies (AIC)has spoken to VCT managers about their best-performing investments, the many companies they’ve backed and the future of the sector.

Pembroke VCT plc, the venture capital trust focused on building the consumer brands of tomorrow, has launched a new share offer to raise up to £40 million (an initial £20 million, with an over-allotment facility for a further £20 million). The additional cash will allow the company to grow its existing portfolio and take advantage of a healthy pipeline of prospective investment opportunities.

Premium crafting company, Stitch & Story, has received an additional £1 million investment from Pembroke VCT less than a year after its first institutional fund raise in November 2019. The company successfully ‘unlocked the artisan’ in thousands of new customers during lockdown, as people sought creative and meaningful ways to fill their time at home – achieving record sales, including an 800% increase year on year during March, followed by a 1,100% increase in April. 

Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s most active private equity houses, has led an investment through its managed VCTs, alongside the Scottish Investment Bank, in Quorum Cyber Security Limited, an award-winning cyber security firm, providing professional and managed security services to companies across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. The funding will be used to further scale the business, investing in sales and marketing resource, as well as product innovation, to ensure Quorum’s clients can confidently operate within an increasingly hostile cybersecurity environment.

Maven Capital Partners has led a further investment in Bright Network, a media technology recruitment platform which connects leading employers with the high quality graduate workforce of tomorrow. The transaction also includes investment from private equity firm Seneca Partners.

Maven originally invested in Bright Network in July 2018, alongside existing and angel investors, to support the launch of its new Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, and the company has since generated 50% Year on Year revenue growth.

Unicorn AIM VCT has closed its latest offer having raised the full £25m of available capacity including an overallotment facility of £10m.  Unicorn has been one of the leading institutional investors in the AIM market since its inception in 2000. The VCT, managed by Chris Hutchinson, is the largest AIM-focused VCT in the market with net assets of £229.10 million (as at 12 June 2020).

Edge Investments, the leading growth investor in the UK creative economy, has appointed an Advisor Panel to provide specialist industry expertise and advice to assist Edge in helping UK’s creative economy to innovate, prosper, and grow.

A Newcastle tech company whose software allows businesses to create their own mobile apps has raised £1.2m to further develop its product and expand its team.  Nutshell Software has secured investment from two funds managed by Mercia - the Northern Venture Capital Trust (VCT) Funds and the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

Maven Capital Partners has completed a £1 million investment in Boiler Plan (UK) Ltd, a market disruptive online platform that sells, installs and services boilers across the UK.

The transaction includes a £600,000 investment from the Maven VCTs and a further £400,000 investment from the North East Development Capital Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Maven.