User:Vcwatcher/Episode 1

Episode 1 is a venture fund set up to invest in early-stage technology companies based in the UK. The three partners behind the fund – Simon Murdoch, Damien Lane and Adrian Lloyd – are experienced entrepreneurs and investors, and have been through every stage of the start-up process, from inception to initial public offering. The fund will invest between £250,000 and £2m in up to 30 early-stage companies. It's objective is to give a better start to the next generation of British tech ventures than their predecessors. It was created with a mixture of public and private money, including backing from Alex Chesterman of Zoopla Property Group. It is one of the UK Government's Enterprise Capital Funds - set up to support fund managers who invest in small, high growth businesses. The £12.5m of private investment was matched with £25m of public money. The Government's Business Secretary Vince Cable endorsed the launch of the fund, saying it 'will target a serious gap in the equity market for high-growth small firms'.

The team at Episode 1 made early investments in a number of noteworthy technology businesses including Betfair (which is now listed on the London Stock Exchange and has a market cap of over £1.3bn), LoveFilm (which was sold to Amazon in 2011), Natural Motion (which was sold to Zynga in 2014, ScanSafe (which was sold to Cisco Systems in 2009), Shazam and Zoopla ((which is also listed on the London Stock Exchange).

Managing partner Simon Murdoch previously worked at Octopus Investments