4. Octopus Ventures

  • Octopus Ventures is one of the largest and most active VC investors in Europe.
  • Octopus specialises in the five areas of health, fintech, deep tech, consumer and B2B software, with dedicated investment teams for each, creating deep pools of expertise.
  • It now has more than £1.7 billion under management and invests over £200 million a year.

 

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About Octopus Ventures

 

Since 2008, Octopus Ventures has backed over 130 teams, including Cazoo, Depop, Secret Escapes, Zoopla and Swiftkey, while many of its portfolio have gone on to join forces with the world’s largest businesses including Microsoft, Twitter, Amazon and Google. Its typical investment is from £1 million for Seed to £10 million for Series B. The fund structure also gives the team the capability to continue funding the companies they back right through to IPO. Patient capital is an attitude as much as a practical necessity, and is core to Octopus Ventures’ DNA.

 

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Octopus Approach

 

Octopus Ventures recognises that talent is critical to the success of the companies it invests in, so it has a dedicated Portfolio Talent team to help its portfolio recruit and retain the best people. The team is made up made up of experienced operators who have scaled companies in the past, taking that expertise and lessons learnt and applying it to the companies it backs.

The approach is always bespoke. Rather than taking a cookie cutter approach, the team gets to know the key individuals within the business to understand what they need to be successful. In a practical sense, this might involve working directly with the founding team to help embed the processes and philosophies necessary to scale a company at the pace required to meet their ambitions, as well as hiring into specific roles. This support is delivered by teams in London and New York, but also by a network of Venture Partners who have created unicorns themselves.

 

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