PRESS RELEASE

PASSION CAPITAL OPENS THIRD FUND TO CROWD INVESTORS IN PIONEERING COLLABORATION WITH SEEDRS

  • Investors registered with the Seedrs platform have the unique opportunity to invest in one of the UK’s most prolific early-stage venture capital funds.
  • The partnership between Passion Capital and Seedrs is the first time a Europe-based private VC fund is opening up to crowd investors.  

LONDON 10 MARCH 2021: Passion Capital, one of the UK’s pre-eminent early-stage tech venture capital firms, today announces that it is opening up its latest £45 million fund, Passion Capital Fund III, to investors registered and qualified by the Seedrs platform. Passion Capital will make an allocation available to the public, making it the first time retail investors can be part of a private venture fund that invests in some of the UK’s most exciting early stage tech startups.

Passion Capital’s third fund includes new General Partner Malin Posern, who joins existing partners Robert Dighero and Eileen Burbidge. Through this opportunity, an allocation will be made available on the Seedrs platform so that any investors who self-certify as “high net worth” or “sophisticated” can back the Passion Capital portfolio and have the opportunity to invest indirectly in future household names. To date, Passion Capital has made 81 tech investments in companies worth more than £3 billion, including Monzo, GoCardless, Butternut Box, Adzuna, and Marshmallow. 

This is the first time a European crowdfunding platform has facilitated access to a private venture fund to the general public. Passion Capital has already made 11 new investments from Fund III, which Seedrs investors will automatically be part of, with a further 15-20 new investments to be made. 

Eileen Burbidge, Passion Capital partner and one of the UK’s most influential venture capitalists said: “Investment into a private venture fund is usually reserved for institutions. We are throwing our doors open to a much wider range of investors in this unique collaboration with Seedrs as we look to diversify our investor base and increase access for investors who might be interested in partnering with us. This way their single investment will be applied across a range of world-class entrepreneurial talent, rather than through the direct single company investment traditionally made through equity crowdfunding campaigns.”

Jeff Kelisky, CEO at Seedrs, added: “This is a very innovative collaboration for both the venture capital and the equity crowdfunding space. We’re thrilled to be supporting Passion Capital in this activity. It presents our community with another avenue to participate in SME equity finance that delivers additional investment opportunities and the potential for exceptional returns, beyond the direct investment campaigns we also run.”

Pre-registration for the Passion Capital Seedrs campaign, where an initial allocation of £350,000 is available, goes live on the 8th March. A public opening to follow on 24th March. To register your interest please go to https://www.seedrs.com/passioncapital/coming-soon


About Passion Capital: https://www.passioncapital.com/

Passion Capital was established in 2011 to bring founder-friendly operationally-minded venture investing to the UK and Europe. Founded by former entrepreneurs instead of traditional asset fund managers, Passion was one of the first operator-led venture funds in Europe as well as one of the first to have a female founding GP. Additionally, it was the first in London not to be based in Mayfair, but closer to entrepreneurs and innovation in the “silicon roundabout” area on Clerkenwell Road, the first in the world to publish and use an English language term sheet and not to charge its portfolio companies any of its own legal fees, the first in Europe to publish fund infographics and to host joint office hours (for pitching sessions) and the first to manage a coworking office space where many portfolio companies were also based. 

Over the last ten years the team has invested in some of the strongest European founders including those from Mendeley, Pusher, GoCardless, Ravelin, Tide Banking, Monzo, Lendable, Adzuna, Digital Shadows, Smarkets, Tray.io, urban, Spotahome, Butternut Box, Nested, PolyAI, Marshmallow, and many more.