Sure Valley Ventures is a founder led venture capital firm with an established track record in high growth software companies in sectors such as metaverse, artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, all of which have significant growth potential over the next few years. The firm has an impressive portfolio having had success helping its investee companies grow and scale from Seed to Series A, and beyond with 93% of its investee companies raising follow-on Series A or B rounds within 24 months of the initial seed investment.
The lead investor in this funding round was British Business Bank, the UK government’s economic development bank, who invested £50 million through its Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme which aims to increase the supply of equity capital to high-potential, early-stage UK companies. Its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses.
This fund launch will enable Sure Valley to invest into 25 software companies from across the UK, as well as to open an office in Manchester to help access deals in the significant innovation clusters that have developed around creative technologies in the North of England, as well as the metaverse and AI opportunities in the region. The first investment from the fund will be into a Belfast-based company, and the new Manchester office is expected to allow better access for Sure Valley’s team to proactively reach out to the creative and innovation clusters in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Mills & Reeve has worked closely with Sure Valley for the past six months advising on the initial structuring and fund entity set up. The firm called on extensive experience of advising on ECFs with the British Business Bank and worked as an extension of Sure Valley’s internal team in addressing investor queries and solving strategic issues to achieve completion.
Dona Ardeman, partner at Mills & Reeve said: “The AI and immersive tech sectors are major British success stories which require funding to help them compete at the forefront of global innovation. The British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme plays a significant role in developing and maintaining effective venture capital provision in the UK. We are proud to have supported Sure Valley Ventures to continue its journey in investing into high potential, early stage software companies that are leading change in the disruptive tech sector, across the UK.”
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