The Baronsmead Venture Trust and the Baronsmead Second Venture Trust, managed by Gresham House, have raised a further £50m.
The fresh round has brought their total net asset value (NAV) to circa £450m. As with previous years, this tax year’s fundraise was oversubscribed above its £30m target.
Launched in 1995, the Baronsmead VCTs are among the largest venture capital trusts, offering a hybrid portfolio of public and private companies. The VCTs have targeted an annual dividend yield of 7% of NAV since 2019.
They are managed by the Gresham House Ventures team and sit alongside the private companies focused Mobeus VCTs, which Gresham House acquired in 2021.
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The deal comes following Gresham House Ventures investments into companies including business process automation company Azarc, transport software business CitySwift, and banking platform Ozone API.
The team also recently exited logistics and warehousing specialist Master Removers Group for a 3.4x multiple.
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Trevor Hope, chief investment officer at Gresham House Ventures and manager of the VCTs, said: “We are grateful to our investors for their continued support in this oversubscribed share offer. We are enthusiastic to deploy this capital in an exciting growth equity market which is poised to benefit from a wave of dynamic technological changes driven by the adoption of generative artificial intelligence and generally improving economic conditions.
“The hybrid nature of the Baronsmead VCTs allows us to target these value opportunities in private and Aim-listed companies which we believe creates a compelling investment balance of risk and return.”
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