One of the main British venture capital investors is about to unveil an agreement to take over an emerging Finch fund that counted Lord Hammond, the former chancellor, among his advisers.
Sky News learned that Contactopus Ventures temporarily agreed to absorb Fintech Growth Fund (FGF), which boasted of financial commitments from Barclays, the London Stock Exchange, Mastercard and Natwest Group after its creation three years ago.
The FGF has struggled to achieve its objective of collecting funds of origin and has not yet officially disclosed investments.
Sources close to a number of its investors have said that it should be taken up by Octopus investments in the coming weeks, the transaction should be completed by the end of June.
Peel Hunt, the investment bank, had advised fundraising for two years and was itself an investor in the fund.
The FGF was originally designed as a vehicle that would support high potential British Fintechs, largely between their B series and pre-public funding cycles.
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According to an announcement made in August 2023, it aimed to make between four and eight investments per year, with checks between 10 and 100 million pounds sterling.
In addition to Lord Hammond, the FGF advisory council included Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, the former boss of Virgin Money; Baroness Morrissey, the former director of management of legal and general investments; Lord Grimstone, the former Minister of Trade; And Sir Charles Bowman, former mayor of London.
Octopus Investments, which is now managed by Erin Platt, the former boss of Silicon Valley Bank UK, would have important ambitions for the FGF, which built a long pipeline of potential investments.
An Octopus Investments spokesman refused to comment this weekend, while the FGF could not be joined to comment.