FT Ventures, the new venture capital arm of the Financial Times Group, is looking invest sums of between £500,000 and £5m in a range of promising information companies, reports Bron Maher of Press Gazette.
Maher reports, “All the businesses in which FT Ventures invests, she said, would be ‘linked to information, intelligence, media – it could be data, it could be content. We don’t want to limit it too much, but there is that fundamental link with our industry…
“‘The purpose of it is to help the FT Group innovate and grow, to help small businesses do that alongside us.’
“FT Group, which is privately-owned by Japan-based Nikkei, grew revenue by 5% to £458m in 2022 and reported operating profit down 7% to £29m.
“Calinikos said the establishment of FT Ventures was ‘a logical next step in our corporate development strategy… we’ve been thinking about it for quite some time.’
“The FT has made investments in media brands before, for example Sifted, a news site targeted at young European start-up founders, and B2B website The Business of Fashion.”
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