Scottish Widows, Aberdeen Investments and IP Group today announced their first investments to connect workplace pension savings with high-growth, innovative UK science and technology companies via the CG Scottish Widows Growth LTAF (the ‘Fund’).

The Fund is amongst the first UK pension schemes to actively allocate members’ capital to UK venture growth by connecting patient institutional capital with high-potential British businesses.

The Fund’s initial investments:

Oxford Quantum Circuits, which is building commercially available quantum computing systems;
Quantum Motion, which is building scalable silicon-based quantum computers designed for mass adoption;
Nyobolt, whose ultra-fast-charging battery technology is advancing high-performance energy storage; and
Genomics Limited, which is applying AI, machine learning and large-scale genetic datasets to transform preventative healthcare and drug discovery.

Together, these investments show how pension capital can help category-defining UK companies move from scientific leadership to commercial scale.

Aberdeen Investments, which manages the growth sub-fund for Scottish Widows, has appointed IP Group to manage a UK Venture growth portfolio within the fund, helping bring private markets exposure to workplace pension savers.

It demonstrates a model that can be expanded over time, increasing the flow of long-term pension capital into high-growth UK businesses, as part of the Fund’s broader global private markets remit. The mandate is designed to support stronger retirement outcomes for members and address a critical constraint on the UK innovation economy: the availability of meaningful follow-on funding for companies ready to commercialise and expand.

Peter Fitzgerald, Chief Investment Officer, Scottish Widows, said:

"We believe pension savers should be able to benefit from the growth and innovation taking place across the UK.

Our proposition helps connect our workplace pension customers' long-term savings with some of Britain's most innovative, high-growth companies, giving them access to investment opportunities that have traditionally been available mainly to institutional investors."

Nalaka De Silva, Head of Private Markets Solutions, Aberdeen Investments, said:

"The UK has no shortage of scientific excellence and does not lack entrepreneurship or talent to develop globally relevant ideas.

What competitive companies have lacked is sufficient pools of patient domestic capital to help them expand and grow. This partnership turns intent into investment.”