Swarraton Partners is a full service venture capital firm with one overriding goal – to build great technology companies.  When we succeed in this goal, our investors will make a substantial return as a result of their faith in us.

Investment focus

We back entrepreneurs.  We know it takes all sorts to be a successful entrepreneur but we look for a few key attributes in the people we back: vision - entrepreneurs must be able to see the end game and persuade others of its possibility; energy - entrepreneurs must have lots of this; ownership - entrepreneurs must feel possessive about their businesses and own large chunks of them.

We back world class technology.  Swarraton is managing a fund set up to invest in companies built around ideas and people from Europe’s leading research institutions.  We believe this investment strategy will focus our efforts towards companies containing globally competitive technology and world leading scientific brainpower. 

We back small companies that have the potential to become big companies.  To do this they need to be solving major problems in large markets.

We back early stage companies.  Typical characteristics of such companies are: pre-revenue, incomplete team, prototype product and some preliminary industry validation.  Our sweet spot is Series A but we will also come in at Seed stage.

We need to get bang for our buck.  We are happy to come in early but need to own a significant equity stake following our investment which will typically be £0.5-1m initially and up to £3m over time.

We back European companies.  We are focused for the time being in our own back yard.  We are particularly comfortable in the UK, Switzerland and Germany but can invest elsewhere so long as we are happy that someone in our team is able to engage with the company locally. 

Our approach

We believe that a venture capital investor can and must contribute significantly to a company’s success.  We will only invest where we see that we can help and will assist entrepreneurs in the following ways: active strategic and operational input; active involvement in senior management recruiting; constant and constructive involvement in high level business development; and active participation in capital raising and exit planning.  We have extensive networks in Europe, the US and beyond and will leverage these constantly to help our companies engage with customers, build teams and raise money.