YFM's Bristol venture team spins out

Amy King
27 May 2014

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The Bristol team at YFM Equity Partners has spun out to form a new venture capital fund manager – Technology Venture Partners.

Technology Venture will take over management of the South West Ventures Fund, which is fully invested. Portfolio companies include mobile phone messaging app developer Dynmark and breast cancer screening company Micrima.

The vehicle will continue to be managed by Peter Davies, Nick Simmonds and Julian Dennard – the three founding partners of the new venture firm – who have worked together since 2007.

"The area is active in terms of the tech sector; we've developed a strong portfolio that combines university spinout companies and other technology businesses across software, electronics, medical technologies and so on. This is a strong area for tech," says Peter Davies.

Launched in 2002, South West Ventures Fund is a £25m vehicle that counts British Business Bank, European Investment Fund, Somerset and Gloucester pension funds and RBS among its LP base.

Technology Venture will focus on "early-stage UK technology companies in the M4 corridor", Davies told unquote". Cities outside London including Bristol, Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge and south Birmingham will be targeted alongside south Wales.

The team is based in the Bristol Science Park. "The next stage is to go out and talk to the market and work out the shape and size of the fund," says Davies.