Augmentum raises £26m to take advantage of ‘significant deal flows’

The London-listed firm says it has run the rule over 675 fintech firms in just over a year.

British investor Augmentum Fintech has raised £25.8m in an initial placing to take advantage of “significant deal flows” it has seen over the last year.

The London-listed firm - which owns stakes in iwoca, Monese and Seedrs - sold just over 23 million ordinary shares to investors at 112p, in a sale open to retail investors.

Augmentum chief executive Tim Levene (pictured) said in a video on the firm’s website: “We’re looking to issue further capital to further our growth plans to capitalise on a significant amount of deal flow that we have developed over the past 12 months.”

He added the business had looked at 675 companies since it launched on the main market of the London Stock Exchange last March raising £94m, making 9 new investments.

Key projects

The venture capital firm is currently looking at £450m of new investments, said Levene. 

Analysts at Numis pointed out that Augmentum had initially been looking to raise around £30m when it launched the share sale last month. The broker added that Augmentum plans to invest the cash raised in nine projects covering Prop Tech, Insurtech and asset management.   

Earlier this month Augmentum posted its maiden set of annual results, which saw its investment portfolio valued at £77.6m, including valuation gains of £12.2m. The company added at the time it will have substantially deployed the remaining £25m of available cash by the middle of this year.

Augmentum was founded by Tim Levene and chief operating officer Richard Matthews as a private vehicle in 2010 to invest in European fintech companies, seeking to disrupt traditional banking and financial services business models.