The UK Future Technologies Fund – a venture “fund of funds” financed equally by the UK government and the European Investment Fund – says it’s giving some of the money to VC house DFJ Esprit to invest.
The £200 million UK Future Technologies Fund was started by Lord Mandelson’s Department for Business, Innovation & Skills in February, with £100 million from taxpayers and match-funded by another £100 million from EIF.
Today the fund says it’s making its first “commitment” in to DFJ Esprit III, which DFJ Esprit gathered in September to finance “the most exciting early and later stage technology companies across Europe”. It means public funds for tech startups.
Disappointingly – since this is partly public money – the UK Future Technologies Fund is not specifying how much it (and, therefore, the government) is giving to DFJ Esprit. But it says it “enables the DFJ Esprit III Fund to have a further closing moving significantly towards the fund