Albion Capital opens £60m VCT top-up to invest in UK startups
This article covers Albion Capital, a fund manager, opening applications for a £60m top-up offer across its three Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) with an over-allotment facility of up to a further £30m. It aims to deploy fresh capital into UK B2B software, DeepTech and healthcare startups and to give retail investors continued exposure to portfolio holdings such as Quantexa, Proveca and Oviva.
Albion Capital has opened applications for a £60 million top-up offer across its three Venture Capital Trusts, with an over-allotment facility of up to a further £30 million. The raise will deploy fresh capital into UK B2B software, deep-tech and healthcare companies, while giving investors continued exposure to established portfolio names such as Quantexa, Proveca and Oviva.
Why it matters
The scale of this raise matters because Albion is one of the larger managers in the UK VCT space. The firm says it has invested more than £156 million over the past three years and that a majority of its portfolio has moved from growth to scale-up: 64% of portfolio companies advanced a stage over the same period. Those dynamics underpin Albion’s case that its VCTs can channel public retail capital into fast-growing UK companies.
Inside the offer
The top-up offer covers Albion’s three VCTs and is being opened on a first-come, first-served basis. Albion has built an over-allotment option that could increase the pot by a further £30 million, taking the maximum raise to £90 million.
Inside the portfolio
Albion lists Quantexa, Proveca and Oviva among its headline holdings. Quantexa is an AI-driven decision intelligence platform used by large organisations; Proveca is a paediatric-focused pharmaceutical company; and Oviva is a digital health business focused on obesity and weight loss in Europe. Albion also cites recent activity from portfolio companies such as Gravity and TransFICC, which have secured growth rounds in the past year.
Combined, Albion’s top three holdings — Quantexa, Oviva and Proveca — have a reported holding value of £198 million, underscoring where the VCTs’ concentrated value sits.
Who’s behind the fund
Albion Capital manages multiple VCTs and associated funds and reports around £700 million across its three Albion VCTs. Across its wider group, Albion says it has over £1 billion under investment management or administration. The group is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
In the announcement, Will Fraser-Allen, Managing Partner at Albion Capital, said:
This top-up will allow us to deploy more capital into companies driving technological and scientific progress across our core sectors.
What investors should know
Albion reports average annual returns for its VCTs of 6.5% over five years and 6.9% over ten years to 30 June 2025. The firm notes those figures exclude the Albion Crown Plc C shares and are reported excluding tax relief. Albion also points to investor behaviour: many VCT holders retain their positions for extended periods, which the firm interprets as a sign of confidence in the asset class.
What’s encouraging is that more investors are recognising this potential. Our recent VCT Investor Survey shows that the asset class is maturing, with growing participation from younger and more diverse investors as they see VCTs as a smart, long-term way to invest in the UK’s future while generating returns. Many investors now hold their VCTs for more than 10 years, which speaks volumes about the confidence and connection they feel to the innovation they’re helping to fund.
The bigger picture
The top-up comes at a time when VCTs are under renewed scrutiny and interest as a vehicle for retail investors to participate in early-stage growth. Albion’s numbers — a recent three-year investment run-rate of about £156 million and a significant concentration in a handful of high-value holdings — show how established VCT managers are directing capital into later-stage UK innovators as well as early-stage businesses.
For the UK startup ecosystem, the raise signals continued retail-channel capital into sectors where the country still has technical depth: enterprise software, deep-tech and healthcare. Whether VCT flows translate into follow-on rounds for smaller companies or more support for scaling businesses will be a metric to watch for policymakers and founders alike.
The offer is now open to investors and will close once capacity is reached.
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