Praetura Ventures, a Manchester, UK-based investor that backs early-stage businesses in high-value sectors, closed its second EIS fund, at £7m.
The close brings the total raised by the firm to £22m in less than 12 months.
The £7m Praetura EIS 2020 Fund will enable the firm to continue to invest high-quality scale-up businesses across the region and will now be deployed alongside the strategic support and guidance of the 25-strong team at Praetura Ventures.
They will work closely with the management teams backed by the fund to implement growth strategies and drive scale post-investment, and the fund is expected to be deployed by the end of March 2020. It follows the firm’s £15m Praetura EIS 2019 Fund, which closed in May 2019 and was deployed in just seven months following investments in businesses such as SteamaCo, a Manchester-based technology supplier to energy providers in Asia and Africa; FeedStock, an AI-driven SaaS business; and Patchwork, a healthtech start-up on a mission to solve the NHS staffing crisis.
Led by David Foreman, managing director, and Jon Prescott, business development director, and newly added Andy Sumner, portfolio managing director, Praetura invested in AI and machine learning business, Peak, in 2016, and SaaS delivery management platform, Sorted Group. Most recently, the firm participated in Sorted Group’s £15m investment round led by Merian Chrysalis Investment Company (in August 2019).
FinSMEs
13/02/2020