Augmentum’s fintech fund exceeds crowdfunding target to raise £695,000
A VENTURE capital firm that has a stake in Zopa has breezed through its crowdfunding target to hit £695,000 before closing to new investments, and now looks set to raise £100m from a London flotation.
Augmentum Fintech, a closed-ended investment company that has £10m backing from the Jacob Rothschild-chaired RIT Capital Partners, saw 298 investors pile into its crowdfunding listing on the Seedrs platform.
The initial £500,000 crowdfunding target was hit within 24 hours.
The company will finance early-stage, though not seed level, private fintech businesses. It was created by Augmentum Capital, which has a 7.4 per cent holding in peer-to-peer lender Zopa worth £18.5m.
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Augmentum Fintech will add the Zopa holding to its portfolio, alongside its parent company’s holdings in Seedr, Interactive Investor, BullionVault and SRL Global, for an initial portfolio of around £33.3m.
The company expects to be admitted onto the London Stock Exchange this month.
“The substantial demand for post-seed venture capital funding in the European fintech market is being underserved and the company will be well positioned to capitalise on the best opportunities available in the market and deliver attractive long term returns for investors,” said Neil England, chairman of Augmentum Fintech.