Legal & General: Venture capital investment programme ahead of target; expects to invest in over 200 companies by end of 2018

• Over 100 investments made in UK companies in first full year of operations
• Investee companies now have total Enterprise Value of over £10bn
• Investments managed by seven partner managers
• 80% of investments into UK-based companies; emphasis on technology and healthcare outside London
• Legal & General’s VC Investment programme now over half deployed

Early-stage companies which have benefited from Legal & General’s VC funding now have a combined Enterprise Value of over £10bn. Prime areas of focus have included technology, analytics, life sciences and digital healthcare, with a particular emphasis on investments in companies located outside London.

Legal & General’s VC investment programme is conducted alongside seven partner-managers. These include OSI (Oxford Sciences Innovation), CIC (Cambridge Innovation Capital), ADV (Accelerated Digital Ventures), a joint venture with British Business bank which specialises in investee companies outside the London-Oxford-Cambridge triangle, Atomico, Anthemis, Kindred and Balderton.

In addition, Legal & General provides debt finance to SMEs through its £2bn AUM (and growing) Pemberton investment.

Laura Mason, Director of Direct Investments at Legal & General Capital, commented: "Our £12bn regeneration programme for UK cities showed that, alongside investment in physical infrastructure, we need more patient capital for growth businesses. Our universities are great at research, but less good at commercialising new technology. Our entrepreneurs are great at start-ups but often struggle to scale up. We want more companies listing onto the London Stock Exchange. There is a fantastic opportunity for DB and DC pension schemes to help support this with an allocation to patient capital investments. In return for a relatively modest capital commitment, we have been able to already help over 100 companies that could otherwise get caught in the "funding gap" above the EIS/VCT stage of development. We are about half way through our investment programme and expect to hit the 200 company-mark during 2018."

Legal & General as capital providers for UK industry

Legal & General has a strong track record of providing capital for the UK’s growth businesses.

In the UK small cap market, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) is one of the leading providers of finance for quoted Technology companies under £200m.

In addition to its Venture Capital investments, LGC has a 40% stake in Pemberton, the independent alternative asset manager focussed on direct lending to European mid-market corporates. Following on from raising one of Europe’s largest ever first time manager private debt funds (at €1.2bn) and winning Global Fund Manager of the Year at the 2016 Private Debt Investor awards, Pemberton is now raising multiple new fund offerings including a UK Mid-Market Direct Lending Fund.