Molten Ventures hits £175M first close on growth fund, targets £350M
What's the deal? Molten Ventures has secured a £175 million first close for its new Growth Fund, anchored by a £75 million cornerstone commitment from the British Business Bank. The London-listed firm committed the remaining £100 million itself and is targeting a final fund size of £350 million.
What's the endgame? The fund extends Molten's existing strategy of Series B+ investments in high-growth UK and European technology companies. It will back businesses across sectors including space, AI, fintech, quantum, deeptech, and hardware as they move from early growth into later-stage scaleups.
Why now? Molten frames the fund as filling what it calls a "critical funding gap" in the UK and Europe for later-stage technology companies. The vehicle gives the firm a dedicated source of third-party institutional capital alongside its listed platform, letting it raise the volume of Series B+ rounds it can support.
By the numbers: Molten cites more than 40 growth-profile deals and over £700 million invested in the past decade, delivering what it describes as top-quartile returns. The British Business Bank has backed Molten's listed platform since 2018 and co-invested in companies including SatVu, IMU Biosciences, Thought Machine, and Paragraf.
Ben Wilkinson, chief executive officer of Molten Ventures, called the cornerstone commitment "a strong endorsement of Molten's strategy." He added: "There is no shortage of exceptional founders or technology businesses in the UK and Europe; what they too often lack is sufficient growth capital to help them become global leaders."
The signal: The fund reflects a push to channel more long-term institutional money into European growth-stage tech, an area where founders often struggle to raise the large rounds needed to scale globally. For Molten, it is also a bid to build assets under management beyond its public vehicle.
Read more: ad-hoc-news.de
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