Outward VC, a London-headquartered early-stage venture capital fund, has announced the first closing of its Fund II with £51 million. With this new fund, Outward VC will continue its mission to help Founders breakthrough during the early stages of their businesses. The fund will commence investing immediately.
Investment details
The fund received a cornerstone investment of £30 million from the British Business Bank, which is deploying capital through its Enterprise Capital Funds programme, which has a strong track record in backing emerging, UK-based Venture Capital fund managers. A wide range of private investors also participated in the fund.
“The British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme is key in helping to develop and maintain effective venture capital provision in the UK, lowering the barriers to entry for emerging fund managers. The programme has backed 46 funds, representing more than £2bn of finance. Our commitment to Outward VC builds on that success and will help early-stage Founders across the UK to build their businesses,” said Ken Cooper, Managing Director, Venture Solutions, British Business Bank.
“It is great to see Outward VC launch this new fund. Start-ups are essential to economic growth and offer an attractive opportunity for investors. Their funding is essential to ensure we continue to foster innovation of early-stage companies in such pivotal areas as climate, healthcare, education, and AI,” said Lord Mayor of London, Michael Mainelli.
“FinTech has been a significant success story for the UK over the last 10 years, creating over 75,000 jobs, filling the gaps in SME lending, and driving financial inclusion and growth across the country. We welcome the launch of Outward VC’s fund providing needed capital to early-stage Founders and contributing to the growth of the sector,” added Janine Hirt, CEO, Innovate Finance.
Focus areas
It helps early-stage founders who are building companies at the intersection of financial services and the world’s most pressing social and economic challenges such as data privacy, healthcare, pensions, education, and AI. It focuses on early-stage founders as this will solve the most important problems at the intersection of financial services and society.
How much will Outward invest?
Similar to its first fund, Outward VC’s second fund will also lead the pre-Series A funding rounds of up to £5 million, with a significant portion of the fund allocated for follow-on investments. The VC believes that this is the toughest stage for founders and wants to help founders breakthrough. Being the lead investor, it will invest at least 50% of the round.
Portfolio of investments
Founded in 2019 with a mission to help Founders breakthrough. As per the VC, breakthroughs are about founders and their businesses reaching their fullest potential, whether it is multibillion or multinational success.
It was amongst the earliest investors in Bud (raised an $80m Series B), Curve (raised a £133m Series C), Peppy Health (secured a $45m Series B), and Vauban (exited to Carta).
- Capsa AI: The London-based startup aiming to transform the private equity due diligence process, has raised £1.7 million in a seed funding round.
- Supercede: The reinsurance technology platform from London closed $15 million in Series A funding.
- Oneday: London-based edtech startup scored $6.2 million in a Series A funding round last year.
“Starting out as a Founder is one of the toughest challenges out there, especially at the early stage. Our new fund continues our mission to make the early-stage experience easier for Founders, starting with leading their first institutional funding round. As a testament to our personalised approach, we are often the first call that our Founders make when facing an important challenge,” said Devin Kohli, Outward VC Co-Founder.
“We help early-stage start-ups breakthrough by leading their first institutional funding round. In our first fund, after we deployed £20m into early-stage funding rounds, our portfolio companies went on to secure over £570m of follow-on equity funding within three years,” stated Kevin Chong, Outward VC Co-Founder.
“Outward’s involvement in Curve has been significant and disproportionate to their shareholding in the company, and their network has been invaluable in navigating some of the most challenging periods in Curve’s journey,” stated Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO, Curve.
