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Octopus Titan VCT [Annual Review 2020]
Finance and Risk Capital
Impact for scaleups
80
High growth potential companies
£900m
Funds under management
25%
Of new deals have a female director
Key sectors
Octopus Titan is the UK’s largest Venture Capital Trust (VCT) with approximately £900m of funds under management. In 2017, the ScaleUp Institute identified it as an exemplar of how the wider VCT industry has the potential and capacity to provide assistance to all stages of scaleup growth. The VCT is managed by Octopus Ventures.
Titan VCT typically invests £1m-£5m in a first round investment and has the capability to follow on its investments up to £20m. The investment team is based in London and invests throughout Europe “with a bias to the UK.”
As of 30 June 2020, Titan had un-invested cash totalling over £237m, and the firm stated its confidence in its ability to support its existing portfolio of more than 80 high-growth businesses in the short to medium term as well as make new investments. “Measures to extend their cash runways, combined with additional funding where appropriate, have meant that we are now in a position where our portfolio is arguably as well capitalised as it has ever been,” the firm stated.
Notable scaleups that the VCT supports include Depop, Bought By Many, and Elvie. Since Titan launched, the Octopus Ventures team has grown from five to more than 40 people including its Venture Partners, a group of entrepreneurs and business experts who offer best-in-class expertise in areas such as leadership, sales and international expansion. In 2020, Octopus increased its resource commitment to manage Titan by expanding the investment team as well as adding further portfolio and operational support. It has also refined its focus towards technology and tech-enabled businesses in the three key areas of industry, money and health. One-quarter of the investment teams backed in the past year by Octopus Ventures have had a female founder.
Octopus has set up a New York office and collaborates with key partners in Singapore and Shanghai to help companies scope, test and enter new markets. Approximately 70% of its portfolio companies generate revenues outside Europe, while 65% have international offices.
