As the world's first listed space tech fund, Seraphim Space Investment Trust has a first mover advantage in a sector that is starting to get crowded.

Private equity, sovereign wealth funds and climate-related funds are now appreciating what Seraphim had predicted years ago in that space tech provides the utilities required for sustainability, digitisation, climate protection and national defence.

Managing director and chief executive Mark Boggett says with its 126 strong space tech company portfolio Seraphim is "the most prolific and most active investor in the space market".

He talks about how economies are intrinsically linked to space related activities. "If you were to switch off the satellites", he says, "the loss to the U.K. over seven days would be $7 billion."

Boggett says the industry globally is worth $450 billion a year, and a few of the companies in Seraphim’s portfolio have already achieved single digit billion dollar valuations and "there's plenty of scope for them to be valued in tens of billions and beyond during the course of the next few years and we believe that there is evidence they are heading in that direction".

He and his team aspire to, and are accustomed to big numbers and big concepts. Chairman Will Whitehorn was a founding member of Virgin Galactic and advisor to Sir Richard Branson as was Seraphim’s Richard McCall. The roll call of entrepreneurial greats is a force that is strong within the company and includes Maureen Haverty, who was COO at space startup Apollo Fusion that was acquired for $145M.

Key moments:

00:00 Intro

00:10 About Seraphim Space Investment Trust
Sarah Lowther welcomes Mark Boggett, CEO at Seraphim Space Investment Trust, for a chat around the fund's business model. Seraphim is the world's first listed space tech fund. Its objective is to generate capital growth over the long term through investment in a diversified international portfolio of early and growth stage, unquoted space tech businesses.

00:39 About space tech
Space tech plays an important part in peoples' everyday life. According to the UK Space Agency, 18% of UK GDP is generated from space-related activities. With US$ 450 billion per year globally, it is a very important industry which, over the next decade, is reportedly growing to trillions of dollars.

01:54 Major players in space tech
Initially driven by a number of billionaires including Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, the industry has now opened up to other big players. With 126 space tech companies in its portfolio, Seraphim represents the most active investor in the space market, while other major players include large, multi-billion dollar generalist technology funds or deep tech funds, predominantly in the US. In recent years, private equity players and sovereign wealth funds have also joined the market, primarily looking to buy capability in the defence realm. Climate-related funds represent the final major player.

11:10 Seraphim's portfolio performance
Launched in July 2021, Seraphim's investment trust's portfolio is trading around cost for the value of the assets, mostly owed to the overall macroeconomic backdrop. Despite the current macroeconomic environment, the fund has seen a maturation of its portfolio over the last year, largely driven by defence organisations as the predominant customer for these companies.

14:39 Seraphim's investor profile
The biggest majority investors in Seraphim's public funds are wealth managers, in addition to large British institutions and a range of space corporates. Investors in Seraphim's private funds are more wide-ranging, comprising among others sovereign wealth funds and banks.

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