Jack Rose: Survival of the fittest

Last year saw a record year of fundraising into venture capital trusts (VCTs), with approximately £540m being invested into the sector. While there was plenty of investor demand, a lack of capacity in available product limited the amount raised. Now, with a big increase in capacity forecast for this year - consensus has it close to £900m - a much higher total fundraising figure is anticipated. Since the 2012/13 tax year, VCT fundraising has increased by more than 120%. So why has there been this sudden increase in interest - what is driving this recent uptick in demand?  First, there ...