Edtech is far from uncommon in EIS investing, but is still a little away from the mainstream. Today Matthew O'Kane from Nexus Investment Ventures discusses his experiences from investing in the area.

We talk about the sector a little and why the target customers may not be who we think they are. However, the bulk of our discussion is a dive into the eight year journey with Boclips, a market place for providing licensed video clips for educational purposes. We dig into some of the bumps along the way, particularly what happened when a founder left and how the company and Nexus coped with that.

Matthew contrasts this, ultimately, successful investment with a recent failure to draw out several lessons that can be taken from the difference between the two companies.

Nexus Ventures website: https://www.nivl.co.uk/

Scale-up Fund: https://www.scaleupfund.co.uk/

Suggested book:

The Islander by Chris Blackwell

Bio

Matthew O'Kane

Managing Director, Nexus Investment Ventures

Matthew left Deloitte to join Nexus in 2013. He devised and launched Nexus’s first EIS Fund, the Nexus Investments Scale-Up Fund, which was shortlisted for Best Generalist EIS Fund and Best Sector Specialist at the 2019 Investment Week Tax Efficiency Awards. He acts as an angel investor and active mentor to many of the UK’s brightest healthcare and education and food tech founders.

57. Lessons from edtech investing with Matthew O'Kane of Nexus Investment Ventures