Legal & General Capital (LGC) has appointed Tanu Chita as Investment Director within its SME Finance arm. Chita will be responsible for leading Legal & General’s strategy to invest into Venture Capital (VC) growth companies via vehicles including long-term Defined Contribution (DC) pension schemes.
Within its SME Finance platform, LGC now has relationships with 11 venture capital managers comprising GBP128 million of committed capital and has added 5 new managers to its portfolio over the last 12 months. LGC has continued to invest in the real economy via start-up businesses in the UK and Europe. During a challenging time for smaller scale companies and newly formed businesses, LGC has remained committed to providing funding for over 300 companies, delivering enhanced returns whilst boosting job creation. Its existing portfolio includes major European VC funds such as Balderton Capital, LocalGlobe, Dawn Capital and Sofinnova Partners. Demonstrating the value of our patient investment approach, the portfolio has now delivered a 21 per cent IRR after fees, since inception.
Working closely with LGIM, LGC is making strong progress in developing investment solutions which could increase access to VC companies for investors including DC pension schemes. In his new role, Tanu will lead the next evolution of this strategy as L&G looks to share the benefits of the Innovation Economy with retirement savers in the UK and open up a significant growth market to a wider pool of investors.
Chita joins LGC from his role as a Principal at Pantheon Ventures, where he was a senior member of Pantheon’s private equity and venture capital investment team, and most recently responsible for the investment strategy of Pantheon International PLC, a leading FTSE 250 investment trust focused on private equity investments. With over 17 years’ experience in the sector, he has spent time working in both San Francisco and London. Previous roles include working within the Corporate Finance team at Deutsche Bank.
Jasan Fitzpatrick, Managing Director of Principal Investing, says: “Tanu’s appointment reflects an important step forward in progressing our strategy to provide access to the VC sector for investors including DC pension savers. This could unlock significant growth opportunities for a wider pool of investors and open up a sector currently dominated by international pension funds. Investing a small proportion of long-term DC pension schemes into growth companies would not only democratise access to higher returns for savers, but the sheer scale of the DC pension market means that even small allocations could be game-changing for UK VC and scale-up companies.”
