Investment Associate, Octopus Ventures in London

At Octopus, we're entrepreneurs and we're investors, on a mission to back the people, ideas and industries that will change the world. We think working here is great, but we're understandably biased.

Join our Octopus Ventures B2B software team in their next phase of growth. You'll be focused on origination of new deal opportunities and assisting with the execution of pre-series A to Series B investments. This broad role gives you the opportunity to support the boards of portfolio companies as an observer assisting management teams with their growth ambitions. There may also be tasks supporting fund management and fundraising activities.

The team: Octopus Ventures, part of the Octopus Group, is one of the most active early-stage investors in the UK and Europe, with more than £1.5bn in AUM and significant capital to deploy into new and follow-on investments. Today we have a portfolio of over 100 companies and have ambitions to grow this number considerably in the coming years. Our B2B software team provides Pre Series A to Series B funding to software and AI companies that are going through rapid growth. The team has recently seen a strong period of performance and has raised significant fresh capital. We're now looking to expand our team as part of an exciting long-term growth plan. We'll be looking to execute over ten new B2B software and AI investments per year. Examples of recent investments include: Lodgify, a vacation rental software platform; Definely, an AI-enabled legal contract creation and drafting tool, and Vaultspeed, a data warehouse and modelling automation provider. Individual investments are typically between £3m to £10m into UK and International fast-growth software and AI businesses.

What will you be doing?

• Building and maintaining a deal origination network in the adviser/ VC / B2B software and AI sectors
• Working collaboratively to assist in the execution of all aspects of a deal, including evaluation/filtering of deal opportunities, financial analysis, deal structuring and due diligence
• Helping to prepare investment papers and presenting them to Investment Committee
• Direct access to the boards of growing B2B tech companies through observer seats on our portfolio companies
• Other ad-hoc analysis, portfolio monitoring, fundraising and supporting team initiatives

Qualifications

Ideally, you'll have:

• Demonstrated experience in one of these relevant fields: Investing role (VC, growth capital, venture debt or private equity)
• Transaction experience (banking, or corporate finance)
• Experience in financial analysis/modelling, and commercial skills for assessing and analysing investment opportunities is essential

Additional Information

• A competitive salary, bonus, pension and share incentive plan
• Untracked holiday
• Hybrid working – our people spend 3 days a week in the office
• Anchor (our wellness hub) which includes Headspace, one to one coaching through Wellness Cloud, Digital GP, Shout & more
• Up to 6 months paid parental leave regardless of gender
• Life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection
• Private medical insurance for you and your family
• Electric vehicle leasing

Our Values

At our core, we believe that how a company behaves is just as important as what it does. That's why we chose to become an accredited B Corp (the equivalent of a Fairtrade coffee stamp but for companies) and to change our Articles of Association so that the interests of all our stakeholders – employees, customers, communities, environment and shareholders – are considered in every decision we make. We are committed to building a workplace where diversity is valued, and inclusion is a priority. By providing equal opportunities for growth and development, we embrace and celebrate all races, genders, religions, sexual orientations, ages, disabilities, and socio-economic backgrounds. We believe teams achieve their best when every member feels safe, respected and empowered to be their authentic selves. We're proud to be disability confident and are committed to supporting candidates with a disability, including neurodiversity and mental health conditions, throughout the recruitment process. Applicants are welcome to opt-in to the disability confident scheme as part of our application process. If you require any adjustments to the interview process, we'll be happy to accommodate where possible.