Octopus Apollo VCT

Octopus Apollo VCT raised £82.7m in 2025/26, the third-largest total in Britain's record VCT fundraising year of £917.7m (Wealth Club), placing it just behind Albion VCTs (£90m) and British Smaller Companies VCTs (£85m) in a league table defined by a retail rush ahead of the 30-to-20% income-tax-relief cut on 6 April 2026. The raise adds to the trust's established position as one of the larger VCTs by assets under management across the Octopus Investments VCT family.

Octopus Apollo VCT is managed by Octopus Investments, one of the UK's largest VCT managers with multiple listed trusts targeting different stages of the UK growth-company market. Apollo is distinct from its sister trust Octopus Titan VCT, which focuses on earlier-stage, higher-risk technology companies; Apollo targets more established, later-stage UK businesses with demonstrable revenues. Both are listed on the London Stock Exchange. Octopus Investments manages several billion pounds across its VCT range and broader alternative investment products.

The 65% fall precedent from 2006/07 applies to Apollo as it does to all VCT managers: Focaldata data shows 41.6% of current VCT investors planning to stop investing entirely after the cut. For a later-stage, lower-risk trust whose retail appeal is partly its positioning as the more conservative Octopus VCT option, the key question is whether Apollo can protect dividend cover when new inflows slow. A collapse in seed and development-stage capital does not directly affect Apollo's portfolio, but a weaker overall VCT market reduces the pipeline of scale-up candidates that later-stage trusts eventually target.