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British Patient Capital announces £20m commitment to Episode 1’s Fund III

Press release 06 February 2024

British Patient Capital announces today a £20m commitment to the third fund by Episode 1, a specialist early stage technology investor. The £76m fund will back a new generation of B2B innovators at pre-seed and seed stage, as well as deepen their reputation as an innovative early stage investor.

Launched in 2013, Episode 1 has backed over 69 portfolio companies to date, including Carwow, Huboo, CloudNC, Raft, Robin AI, Fatmap and Omnipresent. The team has also overseen high-profile exits including Fatmap (acquired by Strava), Passfort (Moody’s), Feedr (Compass Group), Touch Surgery (Medtronic) and Atlas (Meta).

Episode 1 will be making investments of between £250k and £3m in pre-seed and seed stage startups, with capital also allocated for follow-on investments. The firm’s focus is in software-led companies operating primarily in the UK which focus on key areas including AI, TechBio, open-source, software infrastructure, healthtech and marketplaces.

British Patient Capital is joined by a range of additional institutional investors, including Molten.

Episode 1 have a track record of investing in UK B2B tech start-ups through a team of investment professionals with operational expertise. We are pleased to partner with them in supporting the next generation of home grown tech start-ups to scale into the leading businesses of tomorrow. Christine Hockley Managing Director, Funds at British Patient Capital
This new fund, our biggest yet, is really a testament to the work of our portfolio founders who are building some of the fastest growing companies in Europe. It’s their tenacity, creativity, and vision which has enabled our fund to go from strength to strength and made this new fund possible. “As a team, we never sit still. This fund gives us the ability to double down on our team and the proprietary tech that’s got us to where we are today, as well as providing more firepower to invest in the next generation of extraordinary founders.” Hector Mason General Partner at Episode 1

The British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds programme, which helps develop and maintain effective venture capital provision in the UK, lowering the barriers to entry for emerging fund managers, backed Episode 1’s Fund I in 2013 and Fund II in 2017.

Further Information

Notes to editors

About British Patient Capital

British Patient Capital Limited is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large-scale businesses. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has more than £3bn of assets under management, investing in venture and venture growth capital to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. Find out more here.

British Business Bank plc and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website. 

British Patient Capital makes commitments and invests on its own behalf and on behalf of third-party investors whose investments British Patient Capital manages.

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party in respect of Episode 1 or its products or services.

About Episode 1

Episode 1 is a VC fund formed by a team of entrepreneurs, operators and technologists with over 20 years of experience in the 0-1 journey, investing in B2B software companies at Pre-Seed and Seed. The team has invested in notable companies such as Zoopla, Huboo, Carwow, Omnipresent, Betfair, Shazam and Raft.

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