Maven VCTs

The four Maven VCTs are established and well-diversified trusts which primarily target regional unquoted businesses.

The VCTs follow the same broad strategy and have combined net assets of £294 million (June 2025) spread across a portfolio of over 130 private and AIM-quoted companies.

The VCTs experienced a flurry of exit activity in the 12 months to July 2025, with five full and partial exits generating £50.2 million in proceeds against a cost of £18.6 million. Over the five years to 30 June 2025, the VCTs produced NAV total returns (including dividends) ranging from 16.4% to 23.7%. Past performance is not a guide to the future.

• Seeking to raise up to £30 million plus a £20 million overallotment facility
• Target annual dividend yield of 6% of NAV – dividends are variable and not guaranteed
• Available for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years
• Minimum investment £5,000 (minimum £1,000 per VCT)
• Next deadline: December 2025 for first allotment, 6 February for 1.25% (1.50% existing investors) early bird saving

Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”) is a highly regarded fund manager, which manages around £800 million (June 2025).

In May 2021 Maven was acquired by Mattioli Woods, the national wealth and asset management business. In September 2024 Mattioli Woods was in turn acquired by private equity firm Pollen Street Capital. Maven has continued to operate as an autonomous business and is managed by the same senior team.

Maven invests in the regions as well as in London and the South East. It has nationwide coverage through its network of regional offices, allowing it to see and take advantage of opportunities its peers might not come across. Maven also manages funds for the British Business Bank and the Scottish Government.

A team of more than 25 investment and portfolio executives source, execute and manage VCT investments.

Maven and its executives have to date invested around £5.8 million in aggregate in the VCTs and intend to invest at least a further £650,000 in the current offer, reflecting ongoing confidence in the long-term prospects of the Maven VCTs.

Maven’s investment team applies the same broad investment strategy across all its VCTs.

They look to invest in companies operating in sectors the manager considers defensive and somewhat insulated from changes in discretionary consumer spending, such as cybersecurity, healthcare, data analytics, fintech and software.

The VCTs target more established businesses, available at attractive valuations, and which are typically generating over £1 million in revenue. The companies will also have robust growth prospects and be led by proven management teams.

The VCTs focus primarily on unquoted investments but will consider AIM opportunities as well, although this has become a smaller part of the portfolio.

Maven’s UK-wide coverage, resources, and regional debt and equity funds enable it to access a variety of private company opportunities as well as generating opportunities for the VCTs to invest alongside those non-VCT funds or to provide later stage funding.

Every transaction goes through a structured three-stage investment approval process, led by the relevant regional deal executives and supported by Maven’s UK-wide team. Managing partner Bill Nixon, who leads the investment committee, has the final say on new investments. Typically, Maven invests between £1 and £5 million per deal in total, with each VCT participating in each transaction.

Maven also employs a treasury management policy for cash balances. Rather than holding a large cash balance, which may dilute returns, each VCT invests in a small portfolio of non-qualifying, listed investment trusts as well as money market funds.

The Maven VCTs usually co-invest, so they have similar underlying portfolios with comparable asset allocation and sector exposures.

The VCTs are well diversified, with an average of more than 130 underlying holdings per VCT. The portfolios have a bias towards private companies, with AIM exposure being reduced significantly in recent years (currently 0.8-6.2%). To manage liquidity, the VCTs have an allocation to a variety of private equity, infrastructure, real estate, equity and fixed income investment trusts as well as open-ended funds, that are typically invested in money markets.

In the 12 months to July 2025, the VCTs invested £11.4 million in six new private companies, £11.7 million in follow-on deals and £0.5 million in qualifying AIM companies. The Maven VCTs continue to transition away from later stage management buyout investments made prior to rule changes in 2015, albeit at a slower pace than other VCTs, with 8.0% on average still invested in pre-2015 deals.

The VCTs recorded five exits in the 12 months to July 2025 generating £50.2 million in proceeds against a cost of £18.6 million. These comprised three full exits, including former largest holding Horizon Ceremonies (2.25x return) and contract electronics manufacturer CB Technology (2.85x) as well as two partial exits from financial analytics business Novatus (3.57x) and digital archiving and compliance platform MirrorWeb (3.91x).

Since January 2022, Maven has completed 18 exits from private companies in which one or more of the Maven VCTs invested, through trade sales and secondary market disposals to private equity buyers. Of those realisations 12 have been profitable and have achieved total return multiples of up to 8.2x cost (with an average multiple of 2.6x cost).

Atterley.com was an online fashion marketplace. It hoped to offer consumers access to premium, emerging, and undiscovered labels from boutiques and independent brands, curated by fashion buyers.

Maven first backed the business in April 2021. However, Atterley, like many companies in its sector, was adversely impacted by Brexit-related issues, as well as a fall in discretionary spend across its key markets.

Despite positive market traction, with year-on-year growth in transaction values, it was clear that significant further investment would be required to achieve a cash sustainable position. Attempts to secure a buyer or attract third-party investment were unsuccessful, and a liquidator was appointed in early 2023.

There is a Dividend Investment Scheme that allows shareholders to reinvest future cash dividend payments in new shares if desired. As these are new shares they should be eligible for tax relief (you will need to claim this on your tax return or directly with HMRC) and the shares will count towards the VCT annual subscription limit.

The board of each VCT intends to buy back shares at up to a 5% discount to the prevailing net asset value. This is not guaranteed – please see the offer documents for details. 

VCT shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange. Similar to investment trusts, the share price can fluctuate and can be different from the VCT’s net asset value (NAV), i.e. the value of the VCT’s underlying investments. The difference between the share price of a VCT, and its net asset value per share, is called a discount.

Based on data from Morningstar, the average discount to NAV as at 30 June 2025 was -4.4%. Over the previous five years the average discount to NAV was -6.0%.

The discount history is based on the closing share price of the VCT at the end of each month, divided by the latest net asset value at the time. Past performance is not a guide to the future. Investors looking to sell their VCT shares may get a better price using the VCTs’ share buyback facilities, although this is not guaranteed.

This, like all investments available through Wealth Club, is only for experienced investors happy to make their own investment decisions without advice. 

VCTs are high-risk so should only form part of a balanced portfolio and you should not invest money you cannot afford to lose. They also tend to be illiquid and hard to sell and value. Before you invest, please carefully read the Risks and Commitments and the offer documents to ensure you fully understand the risks. 

To retain the tax benefits, VCTs should be held for at least five years. If you sell VCT shares and reinvest in new shares of the same VCT (including any mergers) within six months, tax relief can be restricted. Tax rules can change and benefits depend on circumstances.

The VCTs have some exposure to AIM. AIM shares can be very volatile and could suffer extreme volatility if the market falls sharply. The difference between the buying and selling price of AIM-quoted companies is often wider than those listed on the main market. 

The offer includes an annual rebate for Wealth Club investors, payable for the first three years. This is a rebate of our renewal commission and should be equivalent to a percentage (shown in the table above) of the net asset value of the offer shares issued to you when you invest. Terms and conditions apply.

• December 2025 for first allotment
• 6 February 2026 for 1.25% (1.5% existing investors) early bird saving
• 2 April 2026 (9am) for 2025/26
• 24 April 2026 (5pm) for 2026/27

We consider Maven to be a well-resourced and experienced investment manager. Its large team is spread across the UK in regional hubs. This helps Maven integrate into local venture networks where it can access deals others may not come across. In addition, Maven’s regional debt and equity funds provide the potential for joint funding outside the VCT mandates, which may have additional appeal to entrepreneurs seeking funding.

The Maven investment portfolio is a mix of unquoted, quoted, and non-qualifying companies, with focus on sectors the investment team considers defensive, such as software, data analytics, and healthcare. Maven believes this can offer some resilience during periods of market uncertainty. Past performance is no guide to the future.

The Maven VCTs offer investors a highly diversified portfolio and relatively defensive approach with no holding currently accounting for more than 3% of the portfolio. A history of consistent dividend payments is likely to be supported by the flurry of recent exits, which will also underpin the recently increased dividend target of 6% of NAV. Please note, as with all VCTs, the Maven VCTs should be viewed as a high-risk investment.

This financial promotion has been communicated and approved by Wealth Club Ltd on 2 October 2025

Wealth Club aims to make it easier for experienced investors to find information on – and apply for – investments. You should base your investment decision on the offer documents and ensure you have read and fully understand them before investing. The information on this webpage is a marketing communication. It is not advice or a personal or research recommendation to buy any of the investments mentioned, nor does it include any opinion as to the present or future value or price of these investments. It does not satisfy legal requirements promoting investment research independence and is thus not subject to prohibitions on dealing ahead of its dissemination.