Albion Capital Group has successfully raised £80mln across its six venture capital trusts (VCTs) from new and existing shareholders, marking another bullish sign for the tax-advantaged VCT space.
Albion intends to deploy funds into growth companies in its core expertise fields of technology, software and medtech.
The six funds managed by Abion support approximately 60 businesses employing around 5,000 people, with the 15 largest healthcare and technology companies under the Albion umbrella growing their combined revenue by 63% to a total of over £275mln in the last year.
Abion’s press release follows news of Puma Investments’ personal record of £50mln in funds raised through Puma VCT 13 in the latest VCT season.
Despite a sharp downturn in the capital markets, VCTs have remained a popular investment vehicle, particularly among those nearing retirement, due to their 30% tax reliefs for investments up to £200,000 per tax year, plus tax-free dividends and tax-free capital gains after five years.
Deploying funds to the right early-stage UK businesses can pay a substantial return to VCT stakeholders.
One of Albion’s portfolio companies, Quantexa, achieved unicorn status this week after getting a US$129mln (£104mln) funding boost from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, which valued the analytics company at US$1.8bn.
Will Fraser-Allen, managing partner at Albion Capital, commented: “VCTs play an important role bringing British innovation to life and supporting entrepreneurs on their growth journey.
“This results in positive economic and social benefits for the UK and valuable returns for patient VCT investors. This has been recently demonstrated by one of our companies, Quantexa, completing a funding round at a £1.4bn valuation.