Octopus to stop fundraising for EIS products

Follows record inflow into Titan VCT

Jayna Rana
clock • 1 min read

Octopus Investments will not be undertaking any further fundraising for its EIS product range, as it aims to focus on growing assets across its VCT offering instead.

The company will also stop accepting new applications for its Octopus Eureka EIS product after 13 May.

The decision comes after the group raised a record breaking £100m for its Octopus Titan VCT, as Investment Week revealed earlier this month.

The growth in demand for VCT products has been prevalent since investors began searching for complementary options for retirement planning, following pension freedoms.

Furthermore, recent changes in legislation have meant the government is focusing future EIS investment into smaller, earlier stage entrepreneurial companies.

With over 7,000 investors and more than £500m in its EIS vehicles, Octopus said it will continue to deliver on its commitments to existing EIS investors and will remain an active investor in the EIS market. 

However, its fundraising focus from now on will be on its VCT products, which have seen a surge in demand.

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The group said in a statement: "We are seeing a lot more demand for our range of VCTs on the back of the latest pension reforms as more people look for complementary tax-efficient solutions to support their retirement planning.

"We saw record breaking inflows into our Octopus Titan VCT, which is the largest VCT in the UK investing into some of the UK's most exciting early stage companies, over the most recent tax year end period.

"With demand on the rise, it makes sense for us to focus on growing our VCT products. We have no immediate plans to undertake further fundraising into our existing EIS products but will continue to review EIS qualifying investment opportunities."

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