UK venture capital firm Fortunis Capital is embarking on a “major drive” to invest in wealth management businesses.

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London-based Fortunis is looking at “ambitious wealth managers” across the UK and “is currently closing the first set of deals with a combined £500m ($682m, €580m) in assets under management” (AuM).

It aims to have completed its first M&A deals by the third quarter of the year.

Fortunis has already begun talking to a number of wealth managers about prospective investment deals and is seeking out other firms who want to build AuM.

The wealth management drive is a completely separate strand of the business from the Fortunis venture capital investments.

Justin MacRae, chief operations officer of Fortunis Capital, said: “What we are proposing is unlike anything else currently in the UK marketplace. It will give the wealth management businesses access to technology that they can use to transform the services that they offer their clients.

“It also means that an investee wealth management firm will be able to offer venture capital investment to some of its clients. We are already in advanced talks with some prospective businesses, but we are seeking other firms that already have significant assets under management and are ambitious to go much further.”

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