IP Group (LSE:IPO) announced on Monday that it has been appointed by Aberdeen Investments to manage a UK venture growth portfolio within the CG Scottish Widows Growth LTAF, marking one of the first times a UK workplace pension scheme has actively allocated member capital to domestic venture growth companies.
IP Group, which invests in breakthrough science and technology companies, will deploy the mandate's first investments across quantum computing, advanced battery technology and AI-enabled healthcare, sectors Aberdeen Investments and Scottish Widows described as strategically important to the UK.
Aberdeen Investments manages the growth sub-fund for Scottish Widows, and the appointment of IP Group is intended to bring private markets exposure to workplace pension savers while addressing what the companies called a critical constraint on the UK innovation economy: the lack of meaningful follow-on funding for companies ready to commercialise and expand.
Initial investments are expected to include Oxford Quantum Circuits, which builds commercially available quantum computing systems, and Quantum Motion, which is developing scalable silicon-based quantum computers aimed at mass adoption.
The portfolio is also expected to back Nyobolt, whose ultra-fast-charging battery technology targets high-performance energy storage, and Genomics, which applies artificial intelligence and large-scale genetic datasets to preventative healthcare and drug discovery.
"We believe pension savers should be able to benefit from the growth and innovation taking place across the UK," said Peter Fitzgerald, chief investment officer at Scottish Widows, adding that the proposition gives workplace pension customers access to opportunities "traditionally available mainly to institutional investors."
Nalaka De Silva, head of private markets solutions at Aberdeen Investments, said the partnership "turns intent into investment," calling it one of the first active allocations by a UK defined-contribution workplace pension proposition to back British science and technology companies.
Greg Smith, chief executive of IP Group, said the fund's first UK investments span quantum computing, clean energy and healthcare innovation, areas where he said the UK "has the potential to build globally significant companies," and described the mandate as "only the beginning of a much larger opportunity."