The Financial Times has launched a new venture arm to invest in high-growth media and tech companies, executives told Axios, and FT Ventures’ first investment is in Charter, a future-of-work media startup.
Why it matters: The separate investment arm lets the FT explore strategic investments in smaller, high-growth startups that wouldn’t make sense for the broader FT Group.
Catch up quick: The FT Group is a subsidiary of the Japanese holding company Nikkei and includes the Financial Times, a group of specialized media and data services companies, and a few joint ventures.
- The company has made several strategic minority investments to date, including one in the Business of Fashion. Such deals will now flow through FT Ventures.
- Bigger deals where the FT takes a controlling stake, like its investment in biopharmaceutical media company Endpoints News, will continue to be brokered through the FT Group.
State of play: The initial £30 million being deployed through the new FT Ventures fund will come from the FT Group’s balance sheet, but FT Ventures will operate independently.
www.axios.com/2024/02/27/ft-venture-arm-charter-financial-times