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Octopus Investments
Finance and Risk Capital
Impact for scaleups
£12.8bn
Total funds under management
£1.7bn
VCT assets under management
360
companies in combined portfolio
5
VCTs
Key sectors
Octopus Group is a privately held financial services and energy firm company. Octopus Investments, which started in 2000, has £12.8bn assets under management in the UK (as on 31 December 2022).
Octopus Investment has four VCTs: Future Generations, Titan, Apollo and two AIM VCTs. Octopus Titan is the UK’s largest VCT with approximately £1.3bn of funds under management. Since it was launched in October 2007, it has raised over £1bn of funds from over 20,000 shareholders and has invested in more than 140 pioneering companies. It typically invests £1m-£10m in a first round investment and has the capability to follow on its investments up to £20m with the intention to hold a portfolio of largely unquoted technology companies that are VCT qualifying. It targets a 20% stake in a new company investment, and usually seeks to maintain this stake as the company grows.
Octopus investments’ first investment was in October 2016 with a follow-up investment in April 2021. The company has expanded its operation to Sweden and the US and has scaled multiple times. Current scaleups that it supports include pet insurance Many Pets, femtech company Elvie, and advertising data management software company Permutive.
Apollo VCT has a diversified portfolio of around 45 companies (focusing on business-to-business (B2B) software) with high growth potential. Future Generations VCT invests in purpose-driven businesses.
Each of Octopus Investment areas come with a “People + Talent partner” on board to provide advisory support to the clients on compensation, organisational structure, design, employee well-being, leadership and communication. Particularly, the clients joining at the seed or series A investment stage are assigned a dedicated People + Talent partner for the first 12 months to help plan and implement their recruitment, retention, leadership and culture strategy. Generally, the firm’s website has an open sector specific guide for their clients on topics such as raising capital,maintaining a healthy relationship with funders, and how to develop talent in the organisation.
By 2025, 30% of all new founder pitches to the Octopus Ventures investment team must be businesses led or co-led by a woman and by 2027, this will increase to 50%.
