Sure Valley Ventures, the founder-led Venture Capital (VC) firm that invests in high growth software companies in sectors such as the Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cybersecurity, is pleased to announce a new $130m fund focused on the Metaverse and related sectors. The new fund includes a cornerstone £50m ($67m) investment from the British Business Bank through its Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme, which aims to increase the supply of equity capital to high-potential, early-stage UK companies.
Sure Valley is a seed capital investor in software companies that are focused on bringing a disruptive innovation to market. The team plans to invest into 25 software companies in the metaverse and related sectors through this new fund. Currently based in London, Dublin, and Cambridge, the Sure Valley team will also be opening an office in Manchester to help access deals in the significant and exciting innovation clusters that have developed around creative technologies in the North of England.
Sure Valley Ventures Managing Partner and Co-Founder, Barry Downes, said, "We have been investing in the metaverse sector since 2017 and have invested in and supported multiple category leading start-ups in the space such as Admix, VividQ, War Ducks, Volograms, Engage XR and Virtex. We are now delighted to partner with the British Business Bank and existing and new investors on this new $130 million metaverse technology Fund. As entrepreneurs and founders ourselves, we have been on the other end of the table and therefore understand the challenges that start-ups face for funding, particularly in new and emerging sectors such as the metaverse. This new fund will enable us to build on our success to date to find and invest in the next generation of leaders in the metaverse."
Ken Cooper, Managing Director, Venture Solutions, British Business Bank said: "The British Business Bank's Enterprise Capital Funds programme plays a significant role in developing and maintaining effective venture capital provision in the UK, lowering the barriers to entry for emerging fund managers and for those targeting under-served areas of the market. Our cornerstone commitment to Sure Valley will support investment into high potential, early stage software companies that are leading change in the disruptive tech sector, across the UK."
The sectors that Sure Valley Ventures invest in have significant growth potential over the next few years, for example Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are predicting that the Metaverse could be an $8 trillion opportunity1. Sure Valley has established a strong track record in these sectors, having invested in them since the firm's inception in 2017 through investee companies Engage XR, War Ducks, Admix, Volograms, VividQ and Virtex in the Metaverse sector, including Getvisibility, Smarttech, Nova Leah and Precog Systems in the security space, Cameramatics, Artomatix and Ambisense in the AI sector.
Alongside the equity invested, Sure Valley supports entrepreneurs via its value-adding Platform, which draws on the team's knowledge and experience as founders to create a programme which is tailored to each investee company's individual needs. Sure Valley's platform also features a global network of advisors, based in leading innovation hubs across the globe, including San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, LA, Austin and Seattle in the USA as well as leading European hubs such as London, Cambridge, Manchester and Dublin.
Sure Valley has had success helping its investee companies grow and scale from Seed to Series A, and beyond with 93% of its investee companies raising follow-on Series A or B rounds within 24 months of the initial seed investment. This is a notable result, considering that on average 48% of companies fail to raise a follow on investment round at all, according to CBInsights2. In addition, many of Sure Valley's current portfolio have gone on to further successes, including to IPO, e.g. Engage XR a leading corporate metaverse company and Smarttech 247 an AI-based cybersecurity company that plans to IPO in Q2 2022.
ENDS
1 Goldman Sachs Sees the Metaverse as $8 Trillion Opportunity Metaverse Bitcoin News
2 The Venture Capital Funnel (cbinsights.com)
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220302005100/en/
Contacts:
For further information, please contact:
SEC Newgate Isabelle Smurfit and Elisabeth Cowell
shardcapital@secnewgate.co.uk
+44 (0) 20 3757 6882
