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Foresight Group
Finance and Risk Capital
Impact for scaleups
£12.2bn
total assets under management
£1.4bn
VCT assets under management
250+
companies backed
21
VCTs and regional funds
Key sectors
Foresight is a sustainability-led alternative assets and SME investment manager with £12.2bn worth of assets under its management (as of March 2023). Catering to 200 institutional and approximately 29,000 private investors, it has three core investment divisions: Foresight Private Equity (FPE), Foresight Capital Management and Foresight Infrastructure.
FPE has £1.4bn worth of assets under management (AUM) across more than 250 companies, using 21 different VCTs and regional funds. It provides investments of £1m to £5m and has nine offices across the UK. Annual revenues at portfolio companies are typically in the £2m to £20m range, although venture and seed investments are made into high-tech pre-revenue companies including university spin-outs.
Its VCTs include Foresight VCT, which in June 2023 had made 52 investments in fast growing unquoted companies, and Foresight Enterprise VCT which had made 44 investments.
Scaleups it has supported include sports technology company ClubSpark, recruitment software Firefish, business intelligence Red Flag Alert, wealth manager Five Wealth and the street food restaurant chain Mowgli.
Sector-agnostic, Foresight connects its investee businesses with its expert network for guidance and industrial knowledge. It also provides access to potential NEDs. Foresight holds regular events and briefings as well as hosting a library of insights and research on its website.
Through its regionally focused funds, Foresight collaborates closely with other ecosystem support providers such as devolved governments, Combined Authorities and Growth Hubs. For example, its two Foresight Regional Investment Funds have raised £120m since 2016 to invest in growth companies across North West England, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and North Wales. Its £100m Foresight East of England Fund is an evergreen fund cornerstoned by Cambridgeshire Pension Fund, supporting growth companies with investments of up to £10m in the East of England and beyond. Other funds focus on regions and areas such as Scotland, Northern Ireland, West Yorkshire, the North East, Nottingham, and the East & South East Midlands.“The UK undoubtedly remains an exceptional place to start, fund and grow a small business, and the Manager remains committed to supporting the best UK entrepreneurs on their journey,” says the Foresight Enterprise VCT Manager.
