Tech firm has a fight to raise its funds in UK

A former Royal Marine who wants to expand his fledgling combat training tech firm in Britain warns he may be driven to the US to raise money.

4GD uses virtual reality and special effects to allow soldiers to practice fighting at smaller facilities in Army garrisons rather than having to travel to vast training areas such as Salisbury Plain.

The company’s technology is already used at Merville Barracks in Colchester, Essex.

Now co-founder Rob Taylor, a former Royal Marine, is looking to expand domestically, as well as in the United States, both of which will require new capital.

He said: ‘Our intention initially as a UK-owned and veteran-owned business was that we really wanted to keep things in the UK.’

But he found that the higher valuations that could be obtained on the other side of the Atlantic as well as the reduction in tax breaks for entrepreneurs in the UK were ‘testing patriotism or the desire to maintain sovereignty’.

Taylor said: ‘We need to encourage higher valuations of high-growth potential UK start-ups because if you’re getting valued at say £40 million in the UK and £100 million in the US, it is not in the business’s interest to maintain equity in the UK.’

The company is starting a fundraising with the aim of achieving a ‘low nine-figure’ valuation, raising tens of millions of pounds. Taylor added that at best, the company would probably conduct a ‘blended’ funding round on both sides of the Atlantic, but that it would probably be predominantly in the US.