Investment: “Molten Ventures raises €203 million”
Molten Ventures, a British venture capital firm with a 20-year track record investing in technology businesses, has completed the first close of its Growth Fund at €203 million, with the British Business Bank committing €87 million as a cornerstone investor.
Molten Ventures has committed the remaining €116 million of the first close and will continue to seek additional investors with the aim of growing the Growth Fund to a target of €407 million.
Originally founded in 2006 as Esprit Capital, the firm later became Draper Esprit in 2015 before rebranding to Molten Ventures in November 2021. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Molten manages over €2.3 billion in assets under management and has a strong track record in growth investing, having completed more than 40 growth-profile deals and deployed substantial capital across its strategies.
The Growth Fund is a continuation of Molten’s Series B+ investment strategy and will deploy capital into companies across Space, AI, FinTech, Quantum, DeepTech and Hardware, providing liquidity to help companies scale, build meaningful ownership positions and channel long-term institutional capital. The vehicle is designed to offer private institutional capital the opportunity to invest at scale through a private fund structure while benefiting from Molten’s listed platform and governance.
“Securing the British Business Bank as cornerstone investor is a strong endorsement of Molten’s strategy and of the relationship we have built over many years. It also underlines the importance of bringing more long-term institutional capital into venture and Growth, so that ambitious UK and European technology companies have the backing they need to scale,” said Ben Wilkinson, Chief Executive Officer of Molten Ventures.
