Glasgow venture capital fund for Scottish firms launched

Raising Partners Ventures will “directly address the distinct lack of access to crucial seed and pre-seed capital faced by countless founders in Scotland”.

She said the aim is that the fund will “work collaboratively with the wider ecosystem in Glasgow, Edinburgh and beyond to grow the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem”.

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The team, from investment advisory firm Raising Partners, is raising an inaugural £15 million venture capital fund and will look to make investments of £300,000 into 24 pre-seed and seed stage companies with at least three-quarters of their investments in companies based in Scotland.

It is claimed it will provide an “invaluable source” of institutional capital at an early stage with almost half of the fund reserved for follow-on investments to ensure companies remain sufficiently capitalised in the early stages.

“Just seven per cent of all equity investments in the UK in 2022 went to companies based in Scotland,” Ms Di Biase said. “This is something we desperately need to change if Scotland is to become a world leader in entrepreneurship and technology innovation."

New ecosystem

The managing partner continued: "Launching Raising Partners Ventures is a natural extension of our advisory business and angel syndicate and we’re excited to announce that we’re now in conversation with lead institutional LP [limited partner] investors for our inaugural fund.”

She said the investment ecosystem is “abundant” in areas such as London and the South East with hundreds of investment firms and angel investors deploying capital into the market, adding: “When we then focus on Scotland, whilst there are vital players such as Par Equity, the angel syndicates and Scottish Enterprise, our ecosystem is lacking a venture fund that delivers in the same way funds do in the south when it comes to cash, connections and portfolio support.

“There is a huge opportunity to invest in some of the world’s most cutting-edge businesses here in Scotland, particularly those in climate tech, health tech and sustainability and we’re excited to be able to go some way in addressing the funding imbalance that exists across the UK.”

READ MORE: Scotland 'not doing enough' to nurture new unicorns

Investments will focus on technology in sectors set to generate the greatest impact on society in the next decade including sustainable production and consumption, sustainable cities, climate action, health and wellbeing, social mobility and future of work.

Ms Di Biase, partner and co-founder, heads a team made up of more than 50% women.

The fund will also operate a “no warm introduction required” policy for prospective investee companies, “in order to lower the inherent barriers to finance that prevent so many founders from accessing the investment they need to grow”.

Helena Di Biase, co-founder and managing partner of Raising Partners believes entrepreneurship should be taught in schools (Image: Raising Partners)

More broadly, she said education in entrepreneurship should start at secondary school, and that companies should report on their efforts to ensure equality and diversity. Childcare provision and more ambitious targets on women in decision-making positions are also central.

“There is a couple of really key issues particularly for women. Childcare is one of them, so at least hopefully [there is] some kind of step in the right direction.

“The next one is access to capital and ensuring that women get sufficient access to capital, and I think that comes from both sides of the table. It comes from there being enough female investors writing cheques, so enough women on the investment side."

READ MORE: Scottish companies top the UK crowdfunding list for money raised

Ms Di Biase continued: “It is balanced by the fact that unfortunately most of the people in the decision-making seat of writing an investment cheque, particularly at an early stage, are men.

“There’s not many women in this industry and there’s definitely not many in Scotland. I think I could name six women that work in decision-making, deciding whether or not someone gets a cheque. Maybe ten. And that is absolutely shocking.

“Equally, on getting more female funders access to capital when they are starting out businesses, it comes down to the root cause of education, of people actually understanding what this means when you raise money and how you go about it."

Private-educated white men

She said: “Unfortunately, a lot of investment into private companies at early stage comes down to who you know and the networks that you are part of.”

She said: “If you are someone that grew up in Maryhill like I did, I went to a state school, and no one in my network knew anyone with any money or any access to anything.

“That network doesn’t exist for 90% of the country and that is the real barrier that we need to break is not just promoting women in entrepreneurship, but it is basically not the stereotypical reasonably well-off private-educated white men.”

READ MORE: 'Women face many significant barriers to entrepreneurship'

The co-founder said it is in the hands of the government to bring results from equality programmes.

Ms Di Biase said: “The biggest one [policy change] for investment I think would be a level of mandated reporting on investors from them reporting on how they access their deal flow, so how many deals came to you that were referred to you personally by someone in your network, a mandated reporting on how many female founders you see pitched to you every year, and as a good starting point I do think having quotas in place for women investors and diversity that is what is going to force people into doing something.”

She added that “education certainly at secondary level of entrepreneurship, and a roll-out of things like Young Enterprise Scotland across all secondary schools” would make a significant difference.

“It is a choice for people, to say you can start your own business even if that is as a freelancer or sole trader, where you don’t necessarily have to go down this path there are other options to you and showing people what that looks like from people who look like them, not just here’s the same old faces.”

Raising Partners has supported almost 200 founders and entrepreneurs over the last six years from right across the UK in a variety of areas, including financial models, investor decks, equity crowdfunding, investment strategy and investor introductions, helping to raise in excess of £63m in the process.

Q&A

What countries have you most enjoyed travelling to, for business or leisure, and why?

I love Italy. My husband's family are Italian and whenever we're there it feels like we can fully switch off. Rome is my all-time favourite city - great food, great wine, a magical sense of history and you can walk most places.

When you were a child, what was your ideal job? Why did it appeal?

I wanted to be an author. I loved the idea of having a job where I could use my imagination every day. 

What was your biggest break in business? 

I don't think I've had one! There isn't one moment I would pin everything on that changed the game for me, more years and years of achieving smaller milestones that continue to gain momentum over time.  

What was your worst moment in business? 

When my first business failed and I lost my hair from stress-related alopecia due to not raising enough investment for my company. I ended up with £100,000 of personal debt and a lot of emotional scars. It all worked out in the end though, I've built a whole business out of that failure and experience.

Who do you most admire and why? 

My mum of course, she's a great example of an independent and resilient woman and parent. Professionally, I really admire a lot of my peers working to level the playing field for under-represented founders and investors in venture capital and finance – Deepali Nangia, Check Warner, Alison Rose, June Angelides to name a few.

What book are you reading and what music are you listening to? 

I've just started reading The Blend by Tobi Asare on being a woman who works and has a family. Music-wise, the majority of my playlists are dominated by the preferences of a three-year-old (the soundtrack to Sing 2 is very good), otherwise I'm a fan of 90s classics whilst making dinner.