Redrice Ventures, the consumer brand seed-stage investor, has closed a £50m fund with backing from the British Business Bank.

The Redrice Fund wants to invest in forward-looking, digital-first premium consumer brands, unafraid of technology.

The £50m fund plans to make around 25 investments, taking equity stakes of 10 per cent to 20 per cent in businesses that typically generate annual sales between £200,000 and £3m.

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The fund will invest between £250,000 to £2m in each business.

The Redrice Ventures team includes Robert Senior, former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, and Jonathan Heilbron, former CEO of Thomas Pink, as well as angel investors Andrew Sutcliffe, Oksana Stowe and Tom March. Arnaud Massenet, founding partner and board member of Net-a-Porter, is acting as adviser.

Redrice has also partnered with Walpole, the UK sector body for luxury brands, whose 270 members include Farfetch, Burberry and McLaren Automotive.

Britain’s luxury sector is worth £48bn to the UK economy with brands having to pivot during the pandemic. However, the boom in limited-edition NFT digital art, for example, has shown the appetite for luxury items even if they do not physically exist.

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Marc Lepere of King’s College London has developed an environmental, social and governance (ESG) scorecard for Redrice portfolio companies, tracking 30 ESG measures.

Tom March, founder and partner of Redrice, said: “We are really excited to launch this fund aimed at developing the next generation of premium consumer brands in the UK. Our brands have so far secured fast growth through challenging and disrupting established markets and established incumbents.

“Consumers are increasingly buying into brands rather than buying from companies and we will continue to invest in brands that define this mindful new culture, brands that build a community of fans.”

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