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Future Thinking: Scaling the Blue Economy
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Future Thinking: When Pension Meets Purpose
British Co-investment Fund [BCF]
For decades, the UK has done something consistently well: produce world-class research, technologies and founders.
But it has been less consistent at something else — scaling those companies with high velocity domestic capital.
That gap is now becoming more material.
AI, quantum, semiconductors, defence, energy and advanced biology are not short-cycle industries. They are capital intensive, technically complex and globally competitive from day one. The countries that win in these sectors will be those that align innovation systems with patient, institutional capital over long time horizons.
This is the context for the British Co-Investment Fund at Future Planet Capital and why the first pension fund subscriptions matter.
It signals a shift: UK pension capital starting to participate more directly in the scaling of UK innovation.
We started Future Planet Capital eight years ago with a simple thesis: frontier technologies would define the next era of economic growth and global problem-solving, if backed by the right capital at the right time.
Since then, we’ve backed 300+ companies and now oversee $570m across deep tech, AI, life sciences and climate.
The BCF is a continuation of that approach, designed to invest from pre-seed and seed through to growth-stage companies scaling globally.
The point is simple.
The UK does not have an innovation problem. It has a scaling capital problem.
Fixing that alignment is where the next decade of value creation sits.
🌍 From the UK, to the world and back.
🌊 Future Planet Capital invests in solutions that help protect and restore ocean health.
Oceans are central to the global system, regulating climate, supporting biodiversity, and underpinning economic activity. They are increasingly under pressure from climate change, pollution, and overuse of resources.
Meeting this challenge will require science and technology-driven solutions from ambitious founders, built to scale globally.
Future Planet Capital backs those founders building companies that strengthen ocean resilience and accelerate the transition to a sustainable blue economy.
🌍 Our portfolio includes Armada Technologies (Alex Routledge and Johann van der Merwe, CFA), Captura (Steve Oldham and CX Xiang), Nutri-San (San Chau and Michelle Marin Chau), REGENT (Billy Thalheimer and Michael Klinker) and Roslin Technologies (Ernst van Orsouw and John Clinkenbeard).
Together, our portfolio companies continue to create a new blue economy.
🐠 On Monday’s World Ocean Day, we reaffirmed the importance of long-term capital, strong partnerships, and conviction in backing solutions that can deliver real-world impact at scale.
This information is being communicated by Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This email message and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the addressee(s) and are considered privileged and confidential. If you have received this email in error please (i) delete it and all copies of it from your system and (ii) destroy any hard copies of it. You should not divulge, copy, forward, or use the contents, attachments, or information in any way. Any unauthorized use or disclosure may be unlawful. FPC gives no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of email messages and accepts no responsibility for changes made after dispatch.
Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited: registered in England and Wales with company registration number 02500898
c/o DWF Company Secretarial Services Limited, 1 Scott Place, 2 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AA, United Kingdom
Future Thinking: UK vs US Investor Mindsets in Global Capital Allocation
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Future Thinking: The Discipline Behind Profit for Purpose
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Future Thinking: Turning Pension Ambition into Investable Action
Making Mansion House Happen:
Turning Pension Ambition into Investable Action
The UK pensions industry stands at a pivotal moment. Long-term savings are increasingly being recognised not only as a foundation for secure retirements, but as a powerful lever to support national growth, resilience and competitiveness. The question is no longer whether pension capital should play a greater role in backing the UK’s future industries — but how this ambition can be delivered in practice.
The Mansion House Compact marked a significant shift, with Defined Contribution (DC) schemes committing to allocate at least 5% of default funds to unlisted equities by 2030. Since then, momentum has continued to build. The Mansion House Accord, with its specific UK allocation target, the Sterling 20 Group, and the consolidation of Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pools have expanded both participation and scale. Together, these developments offer the UK the opportunity to invest with sovereign wealth fund–like intent.
With the forthcoming Pension Schemes Bill reserving mandatory powers should progress stall, the direction of travel is clear. The challenge now is to demonstrate that the sector can move forward voluntarily — and at pace.
It was precisely this challenge that Future Planet Capital set out to test through Making Mansion House Happen, a new report published at the end of January. Between July and December 2025, we convened a series of structured, sector-specific workshops bringing together more than 150 experts from across pensions, government, venture capital and industry. The aim was simple but ambitious: to examine how the aspirations of the Mansion House agenda can be translated into practical, investable action.
One message came through clearly. The biggest barrier to pension investment in UK venture and growth assets is no longer willingness — it is delivery.
Across the workshops, participants were aligned on the long-term rationale for greater pension participation in productive private assets. The UK is the world’s third-largest venture capital market and the third-largest pension market, with £2.5 trillion in assets. A 1% allocation of pension assets into domestic venture capital would unlock £25 billion, materially deepening the pool of scale-up capital available to the UK’s most promising companies. Over extended periods, UK venture capital has outperformed public markets, strengthening the long-term returns case for savers.
The challenge lies in translating this opportunity into structures that work for pension schemes in practice. Making Mansion House Happen responds directly to this gap. The report sets out clear, workable pathways for schemes to invest with confidence — without compromising fiduciary standards — across priority sectors aligned with the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, digital infrastructure, life sciences and security technologies.
Importantly, the findings demonstrate that the barriers identified by schemes — from governance and scale to liquidity, cost and implementation — are real, but not insurmountable. With clearer frameworks, better alignment across stakeholders and practical routes to participation, pension capital can play a meaningful role in building the industries shaping Britain’s future, while delivering stronger outcomes for savers.
We are very grateful to the Chair of our Advisory Board, Lord Norman Foster, for his continued support, and to Baroness Ros Altmann for her foreword and sustained leadership on productive finance. As Baroness Altmann notes in the report:
“This report makes clear that there are credible, workable routes for pension schemes to increase their exposure to productive private assets. The prize is not simply meeting a headline target but rebuilding a long-term investment culture that supports both better retirement outcomes and a more resilient UK economy.”
With policy momentum building and industry engagement deepening, the opportunity now is to move decisively from ambition to action — aligning long-term savings with long-term growth, and ensuring the benefits are shared by both pension savers and the wider UK economy.
⚡ One-Minute Watch ⚡
Is “impact investing” just a buzzword or a better way to invest?
Alexander Shadbolt, our Investment Manager and Impact Lead, explains how we think about impact and its connection to financial returns.
Having been named UK Private Capital’s Impact Manager of the Year, we’re confident we’re on to something…
This information is being communicated by Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. This email message and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the addressee(s) and are considered privileged and confidential. If you have received this email in error please (i) delete it and all copies of it from your system and (ii) destroy any hard copies of it. You should not divulge, copy, forward, or use the contents, attachments, or information in any way. Any unauthorized use or disclosure may be unlawful. FPC gives no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of email messages and accepts no responsibility for changes made after dispatch.
Future Planet Capital (Ventures) Limited: registered in England and Wales with company registration number 02500898
c/o DWF Company Secretarial Services Limited, 1 Scott Place, 2 Hardman Street, Manchester, M3 3AA, United Kingdom
Future Thinking: FPC and Mobius Partner to Deliver Pension Access to UK Innovation
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Future Thinking: 44.01 From Earthshot Prize to FPC Investment
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Future Thinking: Discover our new video series ⭐
Read this month's edition to learn key updates from FPC and our team.
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SecureX, MMHH, BVCA Pensions Showcase & World Ocean Summit
Read this month's edition to learn key updates from FPC and our team.
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Making a Success of the Mansion House Accord: Life Sciences
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Future Thinking: Making a Success of the Mansion House Accord
Making a Success of the Mansion House Accord
Last month marked the inaugural roundtable of Making a Success of the Mansion House Accord, a high-level series convening senior leaders from pensions, investment, and policy to advance the practical implementation of the UK Government’s Mansion House reforms.
Focused on security, this session responded to the Chancellor’s July 2023 call for UK pension funds to better align with national growth priorities while upholding fiduciary duties. Building on the Mansion House Compact (2023), leading pension providers signed the Mansion House Accord in May 2025, committing to allocate 10% of default workplace pension assets to private markets by 2030 — with at least 5% invested in the UK economy.
Hosted by Future Planet Capital in partnership with NatWest Cushon, the roundtable examined how long-term capital can drive UK innovation, emerging models for investing in strategic sectors, and governance considerations related to national interest.
This event is the first in a series designed to foster co-ordination and generate actionable insights to inform government policy and industry best practices. We remain dedicated to translating policy ambition into effective capital deployment that benefits savers, society, and the broader economy.
Reach out to Marketing Associate, Sara for further details and to register your interest in future sessions.
Meet the Team
🎥 Meet Malika Arshad, Business Development Manager at Future Planet Capital.
Malika joined FPC in 2023 as an Associate and quickly became an integral part of the team, working across investment opportunities and portfolio value add, fundraising and investor engagement, as well as data.
With a background in investment banking at Credit Suisse — where she worked on M&A, IPOs, and financing projects across EMEA — Malika brings deep financial expertise and a global perspective to our work. Her experience also spans Equity Research, Leveraged Finance, and Asset Management.
She has a keen interest in how the venture capital ecosystem can support broader economic and sustainable development, especially through supporting innovative founders, a vision that closely aligns with our mission here at Future Planet Capital.
Watch the video above to learn more about Malika’s journey, her role at FPC, and her vision for impact through innovation.
At Future Planet Capital we’re proud to have played a significant role in advancing global, national, and regional innovation through strategic investments, board-level support, and ecosystem building. We’ve helped accelerate innovations tackling climate, health, and digital transformation.
Globally, we were among the first to back Captura and continue to support Armada Technologies as it scales maritime innovation.
Nationally, UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund [UKI2S] have backed companies like Cobalt Systems Ltd through to a successful acquisition, and have helped Tokamak Energy raise over £117 million in funding and public-private partnerships to develop commercial fusion.
Future Planet Capital Regional have driven growth in companies like The Supply Register, Utility Stream (USL) Limited and Igloo Vision, scaling teams, revenue, and impact across the UK.
At Future Planet Capital, our aim is to help solve challenges profitably, by backing visionary founders to achieve commercial success and lasting impact.
Find out more about Future Planet Capital on our website.
Future Thinking: 2024/25 FPC Impact Report
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Future Thinking: Reflecting on BEFF 2025
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Future Thinking: The Power of Collaboration, Building Businesses of the Future
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Future Thinking: Unlocking Innovation Through Partnership
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Future Thinking: The Ultimate Deep Tech Frontiers
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Future Thinking: Space Innovations Driving Impact on Earth and Beyond
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Future Thinking: Strategic Technologies
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Future Thinking: DC to VC
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