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British Business bank backs £50m Concept Ventures pre-seed fund

Concept Ventures (Concept), formerly known as RLC Ventures, has launched an oversubscribed £50 million pre-seed fund (the Fund) – including a £30m cornerstone commitment from the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme.

Since launching in 2018, Concept has backed over 100 founders at the pre-seed stage, with investees seeing a 71% graduation rate from pre-seed onward (twice as high as the industry average). With two exits within the last two years (including Cliff.ai which was acquired by Gtmhub in June), prior funds are displaying strong returns. 

Concept Ventures will invest in pre-seed stage founders reshaping how we “work, play, and learn”, writing cheques from £100K up to £600K and offering founders the flexibility to shape or join their rounds. The 60+ start-ups to be backed over the next four years will join existing portfolio companies including corporate gifting platform Reachdesk, live-streaming video pioneers Condense, and female financial education platform, Your Juno. 

The fund’s LP base consists of 80% ethnic minorities and 18% women, and over 70% of the Fund’s LP’s are current or exited founders, collectively responsible for a combined £2 billion in enterprise value. These include Ahluwalia Family Office, Y-Combinator backed founders such as Henry De Zoete, and senior global technology executives. 

Established in 2006, the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme aims to increase the supply of equity capital to high-potential, early-stage UK companies by supporting new and emerging VC fund managers who target the early stage equity gap.

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