UK government seeds £30m early stage fund

The UK government has awarded an Enterprise Capital Fund (ECF) mandate to Hertfordshire-based firm TTP Ventures. As part of the programme the state has committed £20 million (€24 million; $30 million) to the fund, which will be supplemented by a further £10 million raised from external investors.

The ECF programme was created to address a gap in early stage investment in UK companies, Clennell Collingwood a partner at TTP Ventures told PEO. “Historically managers will go on to raise larger funds, no longer have the appetite for early stage and so retreat from this area of the market,” he said.

The government will provide up to £60 million a year to seed ECFs. Previous recipients of mandates include London-based MMC Ventures, which commenced its investment programme earlier this year, and Cambridge-based IQ Capital Partners.

TTP Ventures is the venture capital arm of the TTP Group, a technology development and licensing company.