MyVoucherCodes Young Gun Mark Pearson launches e-commerce VC fund

2011 Young Gun Mark Pearson, founder of the parent company behind discount site MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, has announced his latest business – a technology venture capital fund targeted at European start-ups.

Focused on super-early seed, seed and Series A investments, Fuel.Ventures will specialise in the e-commerce sector and will invest in companies which demonstrate potential for fast-growth or have already proven “exceptional growth”.

The fund will look to capitalise on the booming e-commerce and mobile commerce market which is set to grow from €17.3bn in 2013 to €113.3bn in 2018.

Alongside the fund, Pearson will be launching a London-based start-up incubator with the overall goal to “create, build and grow the next wave of disruptive and globally scalable UK tech businesses”.

The news comes less than a year after e-commerce entrepreneur Pearson sold his company Markco Media in a £55m deal to AIM-listed mobile firm Monitise and we had previously anticipated that Pearson was a hot favourite to become the next Dragon.

To date, Pearson has invested in 10 e-commerce companies, such as e-commerce software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider Ve Interactive, and claims to have achieved an average 70 times return on his initial investments.

He will be looking for the fund to build on his current portfolio and will be working in partnership with co-founder Paul Rous; a corporate financier and business owner who has previously worked in roles at Goldman Sachs and UBS.

Pearson commented: “Fuel.Ventures will be investing in the most ambitious and scalable opportunities. Increased e-commerce user adoption, the proliferation of mobile handsets and tablets and the opportunities opened up by 4G have created huge potential for investors with the right investment approach and exclusive access to the highest quality deals.

“Our mission is to create, invest and grow companies; we will build products people want and need, we will invest in some of Europe’s most exciting early stage companies, and we will help grow and build companies with great potential and take them to the next level.”