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Sarah Sclarsic and Sierra Peterson, of Voyager Ventures, say the city is an innovation hub and vow to ‘figure out’ challenges of the budget

Business & Money

Hannah Prevett

It was a dream realised for Sarah Sclarsic and Sierra Peterson, two former Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, when they opened a London outpost of their venture capital firm in October. However, no sooner had they set up shop when the chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her maiden budget announcing measures that entrepreneurs complained risked damaging the UK’s competitiveness on the world stage. They included increasing capital gains tax (CGT) at the lower rate from 10 percent to 18 percent and from 20 percent to 24 percent at the higher rate. There were also changes to business asset disposal relief, also known as entrepreneurs’ relief, making it less generous, as well as an increase in CGT paid by institutional investors on “carried interest”, or the profits they make from investing in early-stage businesses. Sclarsic, who started Voyager Ventures, a $200 million fund that invests predominantly in climate technology companies, with Peterson in 2021, said that neither the budget nor Brexit could dampen their enthusiasm for London as a hub of innovation. Both had decided from the outset that they would open a London office as soon as they “felt ready to do so”.“We always pay attention to changes that affect our business in every market we operate in. That being said, we’re not in this business to maximise our tax gains. These decisions are about where are the best founders and where’s the best technological innovation,” said Sclarsic, who previously co-founded Getaround, a carsharing marketplace, before working as a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Peterson is a former White House adviser to the Obama administration on energy and climate change.“Some of the biggest companies in the world that are getting built will be founded in energy, in materials, and computing, so we need to be where those companies are. And if there’s a little more paperwork or a slightly better or worse tax regime, we’ll figure it out because it is so big [an opportunity] that it swamps any bureaucratic concerns,” Sclarsic said. Advice and inspiration for entrepreneurs in The Times Enterprise Network’s briefing. Sign up with one click Similarly, Brexit could not dissuade Sclarsic and Peterson from opening their London branch, which is being run by Matthew Blain, a long-term Voyager employee. “It has certainly added to the paperwork. But London has a longstanding position as a global hub, financially, technologically, socially … and London is also a great hub for accessing the rest of Europe, so we’re very glad to be here and to have it be our first presence outside the US.” Sclarsic said five out of the 29 investments Voyager has made so far have been in start-ups based in Europe. Although she expects the US to continue to represent a bigger market opportunity, she said Europe and the UK punch above their weight. “Unfavourable comparisons between Europe and the US are unfounded. Europe is home to some of the most innovative start-ups in the world,” she added. One of Voyager’s UK-based portfolio companies is Packfleet, the all-electric courier firm started by Tristan Thomas, previously one of the first employees of Monzo, the digital bank. Packfleet, which employs 35 people at its headquarters and more than 100 drivers, raised $10 million last March in a round co-led by Voyager and General Catalyst, a backer of Airbnb, the accommodation booking platform, Stripe, the payments processor, and Canva, the graphic design software company.