A dedicated fund supporting early-stage London-based businesses, MMC London Fund has turned five. Marking this milestone, venture capital firm, MMC Ventures looks back at the fund’s highlights.

The MMC London Fund is supported by the Mayor of London, and since its launch, it has secured more than £100 million of investment into its 19 start-up-strong portfolio.

The fund’s goal is to help early-stage London-based businesses scale-up to generate significant levels of economic growth as well as new jobs in the capital. The £14 million technology co-investment fund – of which £9 million was provided by the Mayor of London – was designed to be matched by private investors ensuring at least £28 million would be channelled into high-growth SMEs in London.

To date, the MMC London Fund has directly invested £12.5 million, and the portfolio has attracted co-investment of more than £100 million from private investors including; Funding London, Accel, Index, Balderton, Unilever, Mastercard and Mitsui, beating its target by 700 per cent.

“Five years ago, we were challenged by the Mayor of London to create a new kind of co-investment fund to back London’s most promising early-stage technology companies. So it’s a real pleasure to report on a successful and thriving portfolio, attracting more than £100 million of capital and creating hundreds of high-quality jobs in the capital,”Simon Menashy, Partner at MMC Ventures, said. “This great city produces world-leading talent – from engineering and data science to creative and retail – and it’s fantastic to be partnering with the Mayor to help ambitious entrepreneurs grow global companies from London.”

The companies in the portfolio have been held for an average of three and a half years, and in that time, have achieved revenue growth of almost 5x. Portfolio companies have also created more than 700 jobs across the capital.

“The MMC London Fund is a fantastic example of early-stage investment in the capital. With more than £100 million invested, together with our partners, this shows our city continues to support growing businesses and entrepreneurs and is further evidence that London is open to innovation and investment,” Deputy Mayor for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, said.

Companies in the MMC London Fund portfolio include:

• Appear Here – an online marketplace connecting landlords’ vacant spaces with retailers and brands looking for short-term commercial space
• Gousto – a home delivery service, providing ingredients in precise proportions, with recipes to cook delicious meals at home
• Mastered – Education provider offering 10-month training accelerators to the fashion and creative industries
• Masabi – Providing mobile ticketing solutions for mass transit and allowing users to buy tickets anywhere at any time
• Sky-Futures – Enabling enterprise customers to make drone-based infrastructure and industrial inspections

In addition, there have been two successful exits from the MMC London Fund: Love Home Swap and Wool and the Gang. Both female-led businesses were sold to global organisations; Wyndham Worldwide and BlueGem Capital Partners respectively. Returns from the fund will be cycled back into funding for future companies, creating a growing pool of capital for London to support its thriving entrepreneurial community.