Praetura Ventures is raising capital of £15m for its first Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund, purportedly as part of a mission to bridge the estimated £300m venture capital funding gap for scaling businesses in the North West of England.
Praetura Ventures, formerly Praetura Capital, has invested over £100m in UK SMEs since 2011. Its existing portfolio is made up of North West based businesses including Peak AI and Sorted. Due to close mid-May, the EIS fund will invest in high-growth early-stage tech or IP enabled businesses, with funding to be focuse on eight to 10 early-stage companies in the North West region.
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With 10% of the UK’s high-growth firms, but only 3% of venture capital, Praetura said the North West scale-up business community is significantly underserved and a lack of venture capital funding in the region presents an additional barrier for entrepreneurs as they look to scale their businesses.
In the statement Praetura Ventures also announced a number of senior hires. Formerly chief commercial officer at Phones4U, Scott Hooton has joined the business as operations director. In addition, Praetura Ventures has brought on board Jonathan Prescott, previously regional sales director at Octopus Investments to head up business development and fundraising activities. Mark Lyons and Guy Weaver have also joined to co-lead the investment team after holding leadership roles at Aston Ventures and KPMG respectively.
Praetura Ventures is part of the Praetura group, alongside debt-focused businesses Praetura Asset Finance and Praetura Commercial Finance. Earlier this month debt solutions provider RM Funds has structured and made an initial investment in a five year, £10m loan note programme for Praetura Commercial Finance.
David Foreman, managing director of Praetura Ventures, said: “The launch of our first EIS fund is an exciting milestone for Praetura Ventures, as we look to bridge the funding gap in the North West. The fund will allow us to back exceptional management teams and entrepreneurs and will open up opportunities for investors to benefit from the entrepreneurial talent in the region.
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By GlobalData“The fund is the first step in our journey to become a leading venture capital firm in the region. We’re now eager to hear from ambitious entrepreneurs and management teams as well as investors who are keen to invest in exciting opportunities in the North West.”
