London Co-Investment Fund

There is currently no funding available

The London Co-Investment Fund (LCIF) is an £85m fund set up by the LEAP to address current SME finance gaps, estimated at £2bn. The scheme, delivered by Funding London and Capital Enterprise, leverages equity funding into early stage growth firms as they emerge from private accelerators, incubators and support programmes. LCIF co-invests in seed rounds between £250,000-£1m that are led by one of the chosen co-investment partners; with the decision on who to invest in, and on what terms, lying solely with the LCIF partners. 

LCIF enables those who can raise funds to raise significantly more so that they have a sufficient money, time and resources to prove their business model. This way London-based tech start-ups will be better able to raise their next round of funding and thereafter become the great tech companies that London so wants and requires.

Investment period due to end in March 2019 with the returns (currently forecasted to be £50m according to the original business model) due to be returned to GLA by 2022/23 for reinvestment in Mayoral priorities.

2017/18 Achievements

406 applications received (1,852 programme lifetime), 210 applicants had a female founder (51.7%) and over half (223) had a main contact who identified as BAME (54.9%).

30 new companies invested in (121 programme lifetime)

7 follow on companies invested in (30 programme lifetime)

£3.83m LEAP funding invested (18.69m programme lifetime), £29.73m private money leveraged (£130.14m programme lifetime)

566 jobs created (1230 programme lifetime), 86 jobs safeguarded (350 programme lifetime)

Portfolio valuation uplift increased from £1.6m in September 2017 to £4.6m in March 2018 (26% increase in net value over cost). In total 42 companies have had uplifts following new funding rounds. The total value of these businesses is over 2x the investment cost.

Threads Styling, an established high-end luxury chat-based e-commerce business founded by Sophie Hill, received almost £500k from LCIF. Following our investment, the company is currently closing a £10m funding round at a £50m valuation, making it the most valuable company in the whole LCIF portfolio.

Live Better With has developed a platform that addresses the non-medical needs of people with long-term illnesses. Founded by female entrepreneur Tamara Rajah in 2015, the company has reached $4m in annual revenues and has 40,000+ unique customers. Tamara is currently expanding the company into the US.