Octopus raises £100m for VCTs

The firm stated 67% of its investors were new to the vehicle, which it said reflected a wider increase in appetite for VCT investments across the UK.

Octopus attributed the increase in investor demand to recent changes to UK pension laws, which encourage people to look for complementary options for retirement planning.

The fundraise comes six months after the VC held a £140m final close for its later-stage-focused vehicle, Octopus Zenith Opportunities II, a development that saw Octopus move into the later-stage funding space.

Octopus recently exited SwiftKey – a developer of mobile device typing software – to Microsoft and sold its stake in online contact lens retailer Vision Direct to Essilor.

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