The British Business Bank, the UK Government's state-owned development bank, committed £10 million to Odyssey Ventures on Thursday 23 July1. The cheque came through its Regional Angels Programme.
Odyssey Discovery I is a $50 million pre-seed and seed fund, the earliest institutional cheques a company takes, run from London and San Francisco by Ali Mitchell and Michelle Robson. Odyssey's own pitch names the problem it is solving: give UK founders American capital, customers and operating support before better-capitalised US competitors take the market from them.
That is a state institution funding an exit ramp. The reasoning is defensible, since a British company that reaches US customers and US follow-on money early is more likely to still exist at Series B. The trade is that the relationships built at pre-seed tend to determine where the company later domiciles, lists and hires. Capital moves the other way too, and without a state intermediary: PhysicsX took a Series C led by Singapore's Temasek in June without leaving the UK. Four days later the same Bank reported a very different instrument, one designed to buy depth at home rather than reach abroad.
