Zopa investor set to enter £94m fintech fund onto London Stock Exchange
A NEW investment trust dedicated to backing fintech start-ups is set to list on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
Augmentum Fintech has raised £94m through an initial public offering (IPO) alongside a Seedrs crowdfunding round that raised £695,000.
The company’s investment objective is to generate capital growth over the long term through investment in a focused portfolio of fast-growing and/or high potential private financial services technology businesses based predominantly in the UK and wider Europe.
Augmentum Fintech was launched by Augmentum Capital, which has a 7.4 per cent holding in peer-to-peer lender Zopa worth £18.5m. This holding, as well as others, have now been moved into the investment trust.
“We are pleased with the response which Augmentum Fintech has received on its IPO, with strong support from a broad range of investors,” Neil England, chairman of Augmentum Fintech, said.
“The combination of an established, successful and hands-on management team with access to an attractive seed portfolio as well as an identified and growing pipeline of investments in the fintech space, makes this a compelling investment. We welcome our new shareholders and look forward to working with them and successfully delivering on our investment strategy.”
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Tim Levene, co-founder and principal of Augmentum Capital, said the investment trust is well positioned to capitalise on the substantial demand for post-seed venture funding in the UK and wider Europe fintech market.
“We will continue carefully to curate a portfolio of high quality, compelling fintech investments and actively drive value creation at each business to deliver attractive risk adjusted returns over the long term for our new investors,” he said.
Read more: Zopa investor seeks public listing for new fintech fund