London-listed Molten Ventures joins race to run Burnham

London-listed Molten Ventures joins race to run Burnham-backed £1bn tech fund

Molten Ventures, the London-listed investor in early-stage technology companies, has joined the race to manage a £1bn government-backed fund focused on Britain's most promising scale-ups.

Sky News understands that Molten Ventures, which has a market capitalisation of about £1.15bn, is among the applicants to manage the UK's new Scale Up Fund.

Funded by a group of pension schemes including LPPI, Border To Coast, Railpen and Nest, the new vehicle has drawn attention from some of the City's biggest names.

Last month, Sky News reported that M&G Investments and Schroders were among those vying to manage the Scale Up Fund.

The emergence of their involvement sparked opposition from the tech community, members of which argued that a specialist early-stage investor would be better-suited to manage a fund which wants to identify the country's most promising science and technology companies.

The new fund has won the backing of ministers, with Andy Burnham claiming that it would "help unlock good growth in every postcode, connecting pension investment with the entrepreneurs and technologies that will reindustrialise Britain and create the jobs of the future".

A source close to Molten Ventures said running the Scale Up Fund was consistent with its broader strategy.

A successful applicant is expected to be picked by the state-owned British Business Bank as soon as this month.

The Scale Up Fund's formation comes at a time of renewed concerns about an exodus of successful UK start-ups which either sell to overseas strategic buyers or relocate abroad to access growth capital more easily.

The chancellor, John Healey, said in July: "We have the third largest venture capital market in the world and this new £1bn fund will mean more British money to back British scale-ups and better returns for pension savers."

A similar EU vehicle, called Scale Up Europe, is being managed by the Stockholm-based investment giant EQT.

Molten Ventures declined to comment.