In this interview, Greg Smith, CEO of IP Group, discusses the company’s recent achievements, including NAV stabilisation and successful exits that have strengthened the group’s position, enabling further investments and shareholder returns. He highlights the exits of Garrison, a cybersecurity firm sold to a private equity buyer for around £30m, and Featurespace, an AI fraud detection company being sold to Visa, which is expected to generate £119m with a 30% internal rate of return since 2012. Greg also outlines the portfolio’s profile post-exits, focusing on scaling key deep-tech holdings and supporting 14 life sciences companies in clinical trials, opening monetisation opportunities. He discusses the potential impact of the Mansion House speech and the proposed consolidation of pension funds to invest in growth and infrastructure businesses, highlighting IP Group’s experience managing scale-up capital for one of Australia’s largest funds. IP Group helps to create, build and support intellectual property focused companies internationally. It invests in companies that meaningfully contribute to regenerative (renewable), healthier (life sciences) and tech-enriched (deep tech) futures.

IP Group’s realisation activity has picked up notably in the months leading up to the company’s interim results publication in September, encouraging the company to increase the current buyback programme by £10m to £30m. Subsequently, IP Group agreed to sell the AI-powered financial crime detection business Featurespace to Visa. The exit will result in £134m in realisation proceeds at a 70% uplift to end-2023 carrying value, part of which was recognised in the H124 results, translating in a broadly stable value of IP Group’s private holdings. The de-rating of listed Oxford Nanopore (ONT) was therefore the major driver behind IP Group’s 9% NAV fall in total return (TR) terms in H124 to 104.7p, though nearly half of the ONT share price fall was reversed post end-June 2024, assisted by its half-year trading update and the Novo Holdings investment.