N4 Ventures has launched its maiden venture capital fund, after recently gaining regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.
With a targeted fund size of £3m to £5m, the Scottish-headquartered firm aims to invest between £100,000 and £750,000 in up to 20 Enterprise Investment Scheme-qualifying companies emerging throughout the UK, with a focus on utilising the firm’s network across Scotland.
Already holding established arrangements with organisations including universities and accelerators across the UK, the N4 Ventures team will combine its existing access to regular deal flow, while using Capital Pilot’s Investability Rating System to assess the investment case for each potential investee company, in comparison to the traditional method of manually scrutinising each deal.
The firm hopes to not only mitigate risk, but build a diverse portfolio in what is a traditionally high-risk asset class.
The sector agnostic fund will be looking for stand-out businesses with a focus on supporting under- represented female entrepreneurs and those which operate within sectors associated with net zero technologies, software-as-a-service, healthtech, life sciences, cyber security, spacetech and fintech.
Supported by the wider N4 Partners group, the ventures arm is headed by the former managing director of entrepreneurship for the Royal Bank of Scotland, Gordon Merrylees.
“We are thrilled to officially launch N4 Ventures and can’t wait to begin speaking to the investment community about this fantastic opportunity,“ he explained.
“Scotland has a terrific record of supporting ambitious startups, from leading university spin-outs to the existing support ecosystem for early-stage businesses, and we’re looking forward to playing our part in backing some of the UK’s most extraordinary entrepreneurs who are busy solving a myriad of complex issues businesses are faced with in today’s society.”
Established in 2020, N4 is a Glasgow-based investment and advisory firm which aims to partner with entrepreneurs and businesses operating across a range of sectors throughout the UK.
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