Octopus to get tentacles around Hammond-backed fintech fund

One of Britain's leading venture capital investors is close to unveiling a deal to take over a nascent fintech fund which counted Lord Hammond, the former chancellor, among its advisors.

Sky News has learnt that Octopus Ventures has provisionally agreed to absorb the Fintech Growth Fund (FGF), which boasted of financial commitments from Barclays, the London Stock Exchange's parent company, Mastercard and NatWest Group after it was set up three years ago. The FGF has struggled to hit its original fundraising target and has yet to formally disclose any investments.

Sources close to a number of its investors said it was expected to be taken over by Octopus Investments in the coming weeks, with the transaction to be completed by the end of June. Peel Hunt, the investment bank, had been advising on the fundraising for the last two years, and was itself an investor in the fund.

The FGF was originally conceived as a vehicle that would back high-potential UK-based fintechs, largely between their Series B and pre-public listing rounds of funding. Read more from Sky News:DHL suspends some shipments to USCMC chief Lord Cruddas in £40m raid on broker Winterflood According to an announcement made in August 2023, it aimed to make between four and eight investments annually, with cheques of between £10m and £100m.

In addition to Lord Hammond, the FGF's advisory board included Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the former Virgin Money boss; Baroness Morrissey, the former Legal & General Investment Management executive; Lord Grimstone, the former trade minister; and Sir Charles Bowman, former Lord Mayor of London. Octopus Investments, which is now run by Erin Platt, the former boss of Silicon Valley Bank UK, is said to have significant ambitions for the FGF, which has built a lengthy pipeline of potential investments.

A spokesperson for Octopus Investments declined to comment this weekend, while the FGF could not be reached for comment..