SCOTTISH Equity Partners, the venture capital firm that has backed high-tech successes including Edinburgh-based flight search engine company Skyscanner, has raised £260 million for a new fund.
The Glasgow-based venture capitalist highlighted the fact that the new SEP V fund is one of the biggest of its kind raised in Europe this year.
SEP, which has 45 partners and employees across its London, Glasgow and Edinburgh offices, noted its total funds under management now exceeded £1 billion.
The venture capitalist, headed by Calum Paterson, said the new fund had been oversubscribed and had closed above target.
It added that investors in previous SEP funds accounted for nearly 90 per cent of commitments to the new fund, which the venture capitalist is taking as an endorsement of its “strong investment track record and reputation”.
SEP noted UK investors accounted for about 40 per cent of the new fund. The remaining 60 per cent has been put up by investors based in other European countries and the US.
The new fund will be invested in high-growth technology and “technology-enabled” companies, based mainly in the UK and Ireland. SEP said investments in companies in other European countries would also be considered.
The fund will make investments of up to £20m in companies.
SEP noted its current portfolio companies employ more than 5,500 people. They also include London fashion business Matchesfashion, and Manchester-based online car finance specialist Zuto. Non-UK companies in the portfolio include online eyewear firm Mr Spex and language learning specialist Babbel, both based in Berlin.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here