A Welsh Government flagship equity fund to support the growth of life sciences firms is being wound up after £27m of its investments were written off, with its performance being labelled a “national embarrassment” by the Tories.
The £50m Wales Life Sciences Investment Fund (SWLSIF), championed by Port Talbot-born life sciences investor and serial entrepreneur Sir Chris Evans and then Economy Minister Edwina Hart, went live in 2013 .
In a procurement process overseen by Finance Wales (now the Development Bank of Wales), the contract to manage the fund was awarded to a company called Arthurian Life Sciences which was chaired Sir Chris. Although there was no requirement for the fund manager to match fund the £50m, the 11 investments into nine firms made by the WSLIF leveraged a further £200m of private sector investment which help to bring a number of life sciences firms to Wales, including ReNeuron.
