Venture Investment

Why are we doing this?

We want to support the development of programmes that encourage early stage entrepreneurship. Nesta has a long history of supporting innovative and ambitious companies which are a key source of economic growth for the UK.

What are we doing?

We run and support a wide range of programmes, events and research streams aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship:

• If you have an idea for a business, the research and accelerators that we help fund are a great way to access expertise and contacts to turn it in to something real.
• We are now focusing our direct investment on ventures that deliver positive social or environmental impact as well as financial return, via our Impact Investments Fund
• We have invested in other early stage funds (Pentech Ventures, the UMIP Premier fund, IP Venture Fund, GP Bullhound Sidecar Fund and Bridges Ventures).
• We have published extensively on Crowdfunding, and created a directory of crowdfunding platforms that can be used if you are looking to fund your venture through this method.
• Angels are playing a big role in financing early stage risk, and we support the British Business Angels Association and Clearly Social Angels to connect angel investors with businesses.
• We bring together entrepreneurs, investors and angels through a variety of engaging events that cover key sectors and trends - ranging from our own Hot Topics series to hosting events for organisations such as the EVCA and London Business Angels.

The background

We’ve supported innovative young businesses since our inception. We have invested in more than 75 technology startups through our ventures portfolio and through our support of third party funds that make early stage investments in promising technology companies.