The fund’s strategy will focus on smaller unquoted UK companies. The typical deal size of any investment will range from £500k to £2m, with an emphasis on opportunities within key market growth sectors. In order to limit risk, no more than 10% of all proceeds raised will be invested into any one company.
In the 2007/2008 tax year, £219m was raised by VCTs, of this money Octopus accounts for 15% of all inflows. Since its inception in 2000, Octopus Ventures team has invested £17.7 million into 27 early stage unquoted companies and realised an annual rate of return of 61% from 11 liquidity events. Across the entire Octopus Ventures portfolio the unrealised annual rate of return is 29%.