5 new partners join London Co-investment Fund to help the capital’s tech scale-ups

The London Co-investment Fund (LCIF), a venture capital fund for “cutting-edge” tech, science and digital start-ups, has joined forces with five new co-investment partners.

Albion Capital, Concentric Team LLP, Mustard Seed Impact Ltd, Startup Funding Club Ltd and Venture Founders are the five co-investors set to team up with the LCIF and its existing partners, taking the total number of firms in the partnership to 14.

Established in 2014 by Funding London and Capital Enterprise, the LCIF was launched by then-mayor Boris Johnson, with an initial investment of £25m from the mayor of London’s Growing Places Fund.

Rather than funding start-ups which are unable to obtain finance, the LCIF aims to maximise the finance available to fast-growth businesses which are already raising, by co-investing in rounds of between £250,000 and £1m which are led by its partners.

For each investment the LCIF makes into a company, partners are expected to make an equal – or larger – investment, meaning that investees raise significantly more than they would otherwise, enabling them to scale much faster.

The fund’s existing co-investment partners include Crowdcube, Seedcamp, Forward Partners and Playfair Capital.

Specialising in London-based companies which are innovating fields such as fintech, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, the LCIF has recently invested in businesses including Pivigo, VChain and Powervault.

Since its official launch, the fund has invested £14m into 88 technology start-ups, which as a result have attracted over £98m in external funding from its co-investment partners.

With the aim of boosting employment in the capital, the LCIF looks to invest tech businesses which also have the potential to create new jobs. To date the fund has facilitated the creation of 600 new jobs, and has safeguarded a further 250.

Despite concerns that Brexit will make it difficult for London’s tech businesses to raise investment, the capital’s tech scene attracted “record levels” of funding in 2016, with analysts expecting this trend to continue.

On the LCIF’s five new partners, London’s deputy mayor for business Rajesh Agrawal commented:

“This is great news in the development of the fund and further evidence that London is open for investment. I am pleased that these new partners are on board and look forward to seeing them play a key role in the growth of London’s tech scene in the years to come.”