Investors - optrical

Our Investors

Optrical is backed by two of the UK’s major technology specialist VCs- Mercia Technologies and Wren Capital.

Mercia Technologies

Mercia is a leading UK investment group focused on the funding and scaling of innovative businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions. The group benefits from 19 university partnerships and eight offices across the UK, providing it with direct access to high quality, regional deal flow. Mercia aims to provide the ‘Complete Capital Solution,’ offering a range of debt, venture and growth capital to UK SMEs.

Mercia is represented in Optrical’s board by their Investment Director,

Mr. Ashwin Kumaraswamy

Mr. Kumaraswamy joined Mercia in 2008 and has over 12 years’ Venture Capital experience. He is responsible for a number of technology investments including Faradion and SureCore…. He is a member of the NPIF- Mercia Equity Team and part of the Electronics, Materials, Manufacturing & Engineering sector Investment Team. Ashwin worked in IP Ground pic, commercialising intellectual property from UK universities and at ITI Scotland, analysing technology markets. Ashwin holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications from Bangalore University, an MSc in Systems Level Integration from Edinburgh University, and was a Chevening Technology Enterprise Fellow in 2004/05. During his Chevening fellowship he was part of a business training programme, jointly run by London Business School, Cambridge University and Imperial College focussing on taking early-stage technologies to market.

Wren Capital

Wren is an angel investor in science, engineering and software. Wren Capital was founded in 2011 and has invested in 50 companies so far. Wren is well known in the early-stage investment community and has co-invested with a wide range of both angel and institutional investors.

Wren Capital is represented by Rajat Malhotra,

Mr. Rajat Malhotra

Rajat Malhotra is the managing partner of Wren Capital and the UK Business Angels Association’s Angel Investor of the Year for 2013. Wren Capital specialises in early stage investing in science, software and engineering and has invested in more than 60 companies. Rajat is an experienced investor and sits as Director or Observer across a number of Wren portfolio companies. Prior to co-founding Wren, Rajat had a career as a competition lawyer in London and Brussels.