{"id":15072,"date":"2024-10-30T10:12:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seedrs.com\/insights\/?p=15072"},"modified":"2024-10-30T10:12:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T10:12:44","slug":"vct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/europe.republic.com\/insights\/blog\/seedrs-news\/announcement\/vct","title":{"rendered":"Republic Europe brings VCTs to a new generation of investors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Republic Europe (formerly Seedrs) brings VCTs to a new generation of investors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ProVen VCTs, managed by Beringea, are back for their second VCT fundraise on the Republic Europe platform<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since their introduction in 1995, Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) have played a vital role in making the UK the hub for entrepreneurship and venture capital that it is today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past three decades, the industry has grown substantially and more than \u00a36bn is now managed by VCTs, providing financial firepower to more than 1,100 start-ups and scale-ups across the country. It has been behind start-up success stories including Depop, Zoopla, Monica Vinader, Graze, and Quantexa – the UK\u2019s latest unicorn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, VCTs are funds that raise money from investors across the UK, who, in turn, benefit from a series of tax reliefs for committing their money to back riskier high-growth companies. Not only do investors receive 30% income tax relief on their investment, providing the shares are held for a minimum of five years, but any dividends paid by VCTs are tax-free and there is no capital gains tax on the disposal of the shares.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, VCTs have catered to an older demographic of investor \u2013 according to research by the Venture Capital Trust Association in 2022, the average age of a VCT investor is 56.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, many more investors could benefit from tapping into VCTs. Although investments in early-stage companies are always risky and may not return the money that investors put in, VCTs – by backing a diversified portfolio of carefully selected high growth businesses at an early stage – have the potential to deliver healthy returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republic Europe, Europe\u2019s leading private investing platform, provides thousands of investors \u2013 including younger and more diverse demographics \u2013 with the opportunity to tap into the success of innovative early-stage businesses, and is now ensuring that a new generation of investors can benefit from the opportunities this asset class offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ProVen VCTs are two of the UK\u2019s largest and longest-standing VCTs. Since the launch of ProVen VCT in 2000 and ProVen Growth and Income VCT in 2001, the funds have been behind many of the UK\u2019s entrepreneurial success stories. From their investment in the Vinader sisters and their eponymous jewellery brand, Monica Vinader, which was sold at a 13.3x return*, through to Chargemaster, one of the country\u2019s leading electric vehicle charging networks that was acquired by BP in 2018, many successful businesses have been fuelled by investment from the ProVen VCTs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As generalist VCTs (meaning that the funds back companies across emerging technologies such as fintech and artificial intelligence as well as established industries such as retail and healthcare) the ProVen funds have grown to more than \u00a3340m under management and a portfolio spanning 50+ start-ups and scale-ups including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n