Capital Pilot Advisory has announced the launch of Boost Fund 1, which will invest in high-growth UK start-ups using a unique automated selection and completion process.
Boost Fund 1 is the first automated high-volume investment fund targeting UK start-ups, bringing efficiency and transparency to the fundraising process for founders, and building high-quality and truly diverse passive portfolios for its investors.
Capital Pilot is the investability rating agency for start-ups and scale-ups, combining human insight, proven analytics and sophisticated algorithms to produce comprehensive assessments of the attractiveness of a start-up or scale-up to potential investors. Its rating system combines data analytics with human assessments of a company’s business model and team, to provide objective insights into fundraising and scaling potential. Capital Pilot’s aim is to help founders identify and fix flaws in their investor proposition early, to maximise their chances of funding success.
Now open for applications from high-growth start-ups from across the UK, Boost Fund 1 provides a final investment decision by the fund in around two weeks from application. The fund is sector agnostic, and particularly welcomes applications from founders and companies with backgrounds and business models which are currently underrepresented in the UK seed-stage funding landscape.
The application process is entirely online, and takes 30 minutes. Applicant companies are assessed using Capital Pilot’s data-driven Investability Rating System, and the fund will automatically select those companies which have achieved the fund’s target rating, subject to confirmatory due diligence.
The fund plans to complete 100 equity investments in less than six months, making it immediately the leading UK start-up investment fund by volume.
Boost Fund 1 is already closed for investment, having raised £5m from private investors to begin deployment shortly. Further larger-scale funds are planned once Boost Fund 1 has been deployed, with the ambition of investing £200m per year in UK start-ups as soon as possible.
Richard Blakesley, founder and CEO of Capital Pilot, said:
“We all know how important it is to ensure great businesses get the funding they need to thrive, and we also know how difficult and time-consuming fundraising can be. The Boost Fund will supercharge start-ups’ funding campaigns in line with our mission to ensure equal access to funding. For everyone. Everywhere.”
Peter Wall, Chair of Capital Pilot, said:
“As a serial angel investor I understand not only how inefficient early-stage fundraising is for founders, but also how difficult it is for investors to build high-quality portfolios which are properly diversified. Capital Pilot and the Boost Fund bring objectivity and automation to play in a sector which will benefit significantly from a data-driven approach.”
Capital Pilot Advisory is a trading name of Sturgeon Ventures LLP (FRN: 452811), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Find out more at www.capitalpilot.com