Calculus VCT plc

Half Yearly Report for the six months ended 30 September 2025

 

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

The Company's principal objectives for investors are to:

 

● invest in a portfolio of Venture Capital Investments that will provide investment returns that are sufficient to allow the Company to maximise dividends and capital growth over the medium to long term;

 

● generate sufficient returns from a portfolio of Venture Capital Investments that will provide attractive long-term returns within a tax efficient vehicle;

 

● review and pay the appropriate level of dividends annually taking account of investment returns achieved and future prospects; and

 

● maintain VCT status to enable qualifying investors to retain their income tax relief of up to 30 per cent. on the initial investment and receive tax-free dividends and capital growth.

 

 

FINANCIAL OVERVIEW

                                                                                                             

 

 

Financial Highlights	6 months to 30-Sep-25		12 months to 31-Mar-25		6 months to 30-Sep-24
	pence		pence		pence
Opening net asset value	59.04		61.58		61.58
Capital loss	(0.60)		1.50		(1.74)
Revenue return	(0.05)		0.30		0.22
Total return1	(0.65)		1.80		(1.52)
Dividends paid	(1.81)		(3.91)		(2.77)
Impact of share capital movements	(0.15)		(0.43)		(0.09)
Closing net asset value	56.43		59.04		57.20

 

 

Total Shareholder value	Ordinary shares (pence per share)
Total dividends paid to 30 September 20252	29.60
Net asset value on 30 September 2025	56.43
Total shareholder value to 30 September 2025	86.03

 

² total dividends paid include cumulative dividends paid since 2017

 

 

£47.18M Total Net Assets as at 30 September 2025	56.43p NAV per share as at 30 September 2025	£2.5m Total cost of new and follow-on investments in the six months to 30 September 2025	1.08X 5-year total return
£4.3m Funds raised in the six months to 30 September 2025	£2.0m Total sales in the six months to 30 September 2025	£0.7m Shares bought back in the six months to 30 September 2025	38 Portfolio companies at period-end

 

 

 

 

 

 

Historical Total Return

 

 

Financial period-end	NAV at period-end	Cumulative dividends received (p)*	Total return (p)**
30-Sep-25	56.43	-	56.43
30-Sep-24	57.2	2.95	59.38
31-Aug-23	61.55	5.72	62.15
31-Aug-22	64.61	8.67	65.1
31-Aug-21	64.01	11.73	68.16
31-Aug-20	64.27	14.75	71.18

 

 

*     Cumulative dividends received includes all dividends received since the relevant Financial period-end to date

**   Total NAV return is equal to the sum of NAV at 30 September 2025 and cumulative dividends received

 

CHAIRMAN'S UPDATE

 

I am pleased to present your Company's results for the 6 months to 30 September 2025.

 

Performance summary

 

The Company has maintained a positive total return over a 2-year and 5-year period across the qualifying portfolio. The NAV at the period end was 56.43 pence per share, which, after paying the 1.81 pence dividend in October 2025, represents a marginal decline of minus 1.36% for the NAV Total Return in the 6-month period since the March 2025 Financial year end.

 

The strongest positive movement within the qualifying portfolio was generated by Quai Administration Services, which sits within the technology segment. Quai provides platform technology and back-office administration services to the high-volume personal savings sector. The business has grown substantially in recent years and now oversees more than £2.5 billion of assets under administration, supports over 450,000 retail clients, and manages over 70,000 SIPPs. The uplift in carrying value over the past six months reflects both its sustained performance and a recently completed equity funding round.

 

Insurtech business Optalitix continued the strong momentum that made it the top-performing company in the 12 months to March 2025, achieving a further 20% increase in Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue. These results underscore the accelerating adoption of Optalitix's low-code SaaS platforms and reinforce its position as a strategic technology partner for leading specialty insurers and reinsurers. Optalitix's performance contributed an additional 0.23 pence of growth to the overall NAV per share.

 

Arecor, the drug discovery firm and one of only two AIM-listed companies within the portfolio, contributed a similar level of growth to the NAV per share. Improved investor sentiment led to a share price increase in the six months to September 2025, marking a positive step towards better alignment with the company's underlying fundamentals.

 

Given the broader economic and political environment and the recent period of instability, some valuation reductions across parts of the portfolio were unavoidable. These adjustments reflect the balanced and prudent valuation approach adopted by Calculus Capital as the Investment Manager. Home Team Content, a UK-based production company focused on elevating underrepresented voices, particularly filmmakers of colour and women , experienced a reduction in carrying value due to certain development delays. Nevertheless, the company remains committed to progressing its slate through strategic partnerships, distribution agreements, and new revenue opportunities.

 

IPV, a provider of proprietary software that enables efficient access, storage, modification, tagging, and transfer of video content, also saw a decline in its carrying value in the six months to September 2025. This reflects challenging industry conditions that have made securing new clients and driving revenue growth more difficult. Although growth has been slower than anticipated, the company has reached breakeven and expects to move into profitability.
​

Overall, the Company portfolio and sector balance continues to provide long term growth for shareholders. This has been recognised with one of the most successful fundraising periods for the Company across the 25/25 & 25/26 tax year share offer.

 

 

New and Follow on Investments

 

In August 2025 life sciences firm EnsiliTech was added to the qualifying portfolio. EnsiliTech's patented Ensilication technology preserves the integrity of vaccines, antibodies, and other biopharmaceuticals, eliminating the need for a cold chain, which allows medicines to be stored and transported at temperatures up to 50°C. The platform is validated across several 'proof-of-concept' projects with leading vaccine biomanufacturers. In August 2025, the Company raised £4.5m from existing and new investors to further commercialise the patented platform. The Company is advancing a promising development pipeline in collaboration with global partners in both animal and human health.

 

To further enhance the Company's life sciences sector, a follow-on investment was made in Laverock Therapeutics, with the company raising £20 million after extending its seed round in June 2025. Recent in vivo and in vitro data demonstrate successful, tunable, multiplex gene silencing and self-regulating expression, enhancing both persistence and safety. Laverock is now expanding beyond oncology, is actively engaging in partnership discussions for its CAR-T platform and is preparing for a Series A funding round in 2026.

 

During the 6 months to September 2025 an additional £2.5m of follow-on funding was deployed to support existing investee companies across the qualifying portfolio. Additional details on the breakdown of these investments can be seen below.

 

 

Company Exits

 

The six months to September 2025, along with the subsequent months, have also been a successful period for portfolio company exits. In June 2025 the Company exited Rota Geek ltd, a provider of AI driven workforce management and scheduling software. The company was sold to ELMO Group, a Australia-based HR technology provider. Rotageek was the 6th largest holding in the Calculus VCT portfolio as of the FYE March 2025 accounts, and represented the second  largest investment based on initial cost. The exit  provided a 1.3x multiple on cost for the Calculus VCT, returning just under £2m of proceeds to  the portfolio.

 

Following the half year-end, in November 2025, the Company exited Mo (Thanksbox Limited). Mo is an award winning employee engagement and recognition platform. The company was acquired by U.S. based UKG, a leading global AI platform unifying HR, pay, and workforce management. Calculus VCT first invested in 2020 this represented a 1.51x return on investment cost, delivering £1.53m in cash to the portfolio and further supporting the fund's annual target tax-free dividend yield for shareholders. Mo represents the second profitable exit achieved by the Calculus VCT in 2025. The exit valuation and final purchase price was 30% higher than Mo's carrying value in the March 2025 FYE accounts. This serves to further illustrate the conservative approach to valuations consistently employed by the Calculus Investment Management team. Specifically, Mo was valued through analysis of precedent M&A transactions, discounted cash flows, and comparable company metrics.

 

 

 

In the year to 30 September 2025, nine follow-on investments were made on behalf of the qualifying portfolio and three new investments were made:

 

New investment

 

Date of Investment	Name of Investment	Location	Sector	Amount of Investment
December 2024	Smartr365 Finance Limited	United Kingdom	Technology	£742,500
March 2025	BookedIt Limited	United Kingdom	Technology	£1,570,000
August 2025	Ensilicated Technologies Limited	United Kingdom	Healthcare	£753,000

 

 

 

Follow-on Investments

 

Date of Investment	Name of Investment	Location	Sector	Amount of Investment
October 2024	Rain Dog Films Limited	United Kingdom	Entertainment	450,000.00
February 2025	Notify Technology Limited	United Kingdom	Technology	£232,000
March 2025	Laverock Therapeutics Limited	United Kingdom	Healthcare	£325,000
March 2025	IPV Limited	United Kingdom	Technology/Healthcare	£990,000
June 2025	Laverock Therapeutics Limited	United Kingdom	Healthcare	£107,000
June 2025	Riff Raff Entertainment Limited	United Kingdom	Entertainment	£500,000.00
July 2025	Invizius Limited	United Kingdom	Healthcare	£139,000
August 2025	Quai Administration Services Limited	United Kingdom	Technology	£500,000
September 2025	Engaging Works Holding Limited	United Kingdom	Technology	£538,000

 

 

We believe the portfolio is well positioned to continue to provide long term growth to shareholders and that our Investment Manager is similarly positioned to exploit these opportunities.

 

Buybacks

 

During the period, the Company bought back and cancelled 1,272,463 Ordinary shares. The Company continues to review opportunities to carry out share buybacks at a discount of no greater than 5% to NAV.

 

Dividends

 

As mentioned above, a dividend was paid on 2^nd October 2025 of 1.81 pence per eligible Ordinary share. It is expected that the next dividend will be paid in March 2026 as announced below.

 

 

Board composition

 

The board consist of three Directors, two of which are independent from the Manager. Janine Nicholls stepped down from the Board of Directors with effect from 30 September 2025, following five years of dedicated service. Janine also served as Chair of the Audit Committee. The Company is pleased to announce that Hemant Mardia, currently a Non-Executive Director, has succeeded Janine as Chair of the Audit Committee, effective from 1 October 2025.  

 

 

Ordinary share issue

 

The offer for subscription for Ordinary Shares that opened on 14 October 2024 and closed on 2 October 2025 received aggregate subscriptions from the issue of Ordinary shares of £9.3 million. On 3 October 2025 a new prospectus was launched for a further offer for subscription for Ordinary Shares, with the shares to be issued in the 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years.

 

 

Developments since the period end

 

In October 2025, the Company added Grateful Limited-a London- and Harrogate-based SaaS business that provides automated tip pooling and tronc solutions for the hospitality industry-to the qualifying portfolio. During the same month, the Company also completed a successful investment in drug discovery firm Trogenix Limited. The Calculus investment formed part of a £70 million Series A financing round intended to advance the clinical development of potential curative therapies for aggressive cancers.

 

These two new investments represent £1.7 million of capital deployed since 30 September. The strong level of deal flow and the addition of high-quality investee companies across diverse sectors is encouraging and further enhance the breadth and resilience of the well-diversified qualifying portfolio.

 

As mentioned above, in November 2025, the Company exited Mo (Thanksbox Limited) representing a 1.51x return, further supporting the fund's annual target tax-free dividend yield for shareholders.

 

In October 2025, a dividend of 1.81p per share was distributed to all eligible shareholders, achieving the Company's target dividend yield of 5%. During the same month, over £1 million was raised through a combination of an allotment and the Company's dividend reinvestment scheme. Since the period end, the Company has repurchased and cancelled an additional 707,389 shares at a price of 54.30p per share.

 

The new investments, profitable exits and buy backs in the subsequent months since the 30 September 2025 have significantly strengthened the company's liquidity position, delivered positive returns and enhanced shareholder value.

 

On the 26^th November we heard what has been a long anticipated and purposely delayed Autumn budget. For months, warnings of potential tax hikes in various forms have dominated the headlines, and at times it appeared almost inevitable that Labour would break their manifesto pledge to leave income tax rates untouched. However, improved economic forecasts allowed the Chancellor to step back from this move.

 

The Chancellor has consistently expressed support for EIS and VCT legislation, recognising the role both schemes play in channelling capital into early-stage companies and promoting broader economic growth. This support was further reinforced by the Budget announcement to raise the annual and lifetime limits on the amount of EIS an VCT investment a single company can receive. However, a more counterintuitive change came in the form of the reduction of the income tax relief available through VCTs, reduced from 30% to 20%. This change comes despite the Chancellor's longstanding support for VCTs and their role in fostering growth and backing the UK's early-stage business ecosystem. The rationale given for this is to further balance the tax reliefs available across VCTs and EIS, with the change tax relief to be effective from 6 April 2026. Overall, it seems a counter-productive move within the Government's stated growth objective.

 

From April 2026, the basic and higher rates of dividend tax will each rise by two percentage points, increasing from 8.75% to 10.75% and from 33.75% to 35.75% respectively. Dividends paid by VCTs remain tax free. In an increasingly high-tax environment, VCTs remain stable and reliable source of tax relief. It is worth remembering that the sunset clause for VCTs was recently extended to April 2035, ensuring they remain a consistent and dependable option in a fiscal landscape that is constantly shifting and becoming progressively more punitive.

 

 

 

 

 

Jan Ward

Chairman

15 December 2025

 

INTERIM MANAGEMENT REPORT

 

Venture Capital Investments

 

Portfolio developments

 

Calculus Capital Limited manages the Company's portfolio of venture capital investments. In general, Calculus Capital prefers investments to be of a sufficient size to enable them to play an influential role in helping the investee companies develop. Investments by the Company are primarily in equity but may also be by way of loan stock and/or preference shares which provide income to assist in paying dividends and provide a measure of risk mitigation.

 

As at 30 September 2025, the portfolio had 38 Qualifying Investments. An update on some of the portfolio's top investments has been provided below.

 

 

Optalitix Limited

Optalitix has maintained strong momentum since the year-end, with Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue rising over 20%. Building on high-profile implementations with Pool Re and Tokio Marine, the Company is seeing particular traction in the reinsurance market, where demand for scalable cloud-based underwriting solutions continues to grow. These results highlight the accelerating adoption of Optalitix's low-code SaaS platforms and reinforce its position as a key technology partner to leading specialty insurers and reinsurers in the insurance market and lenders in the banking market.

 

Quai Administration Services Limited ("Quai")

Quai provides platform technology combined with back-office administration services for the high-volume personal savings industry. Quai has grown considerably over recent years, the Company now has over £2.5 billion of assets under administration, supports over 450,000 retail clients and manages more than 70,000 SIPPs. This increased scale, combined with the Company's broad product set and suite of regulatory permissions, position Quai as a leading technology and service provider to the UK wealth management sector. In August 2025 the Calculus VCT participated in a £1m equity funding round, primarily from existing shareholders, to support the continued growth of the business.

 

 

Riff Raff Entertainment Limited ("Riff Raff")

Riff Raff, co-founded by Jude Law and Ben Jackson, is a UK-based production company known for bold, character-driven storytelling. Its latest project, Black Rabbit, is an eight-part Netflix drama starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman, who also directs some of the episodes. Created by Zach Baylin and Kate Susman, the series explores the tense relationship between two brothers in New York's restaurant scene. Black Rabbit marks Riff Raff's first fully originated episodic TV production-a major creative milestone for the Company. With a growing team in the UK and expanding presence in the US, the Company is actively building bridges between the two markets to support its long-term growth and has a number of series in development with streamers, studios and broadcasters.

 

 

Brouhaha Entertainment Limited ("Brouhaha")

Brouhaha, based in London and Sydney, is a film and television production company founded by experienced industry professionals. After the phenomenal success of the TV Series Boy Swallows Universe on Netflix in 2024, topping charts in multiple countries, Brouhaha is working on several other TV series and films in paid development with leading streamers and broadcasters. The film Dangerous Animals, shot in Australia and released in June 2025, earned critical praise at Cannes. The film has garnered excellent reviews with a very high audience rating. Motel Destino was released in the UK in May with Curzon. A Talent for Murder, a film starring Helen Mirren, wrapped filming and is in post-production phase. Brouhaha has several series in development with streamers and broadcasters.

 

Oxford BioTherapeutics Limited ("OBT")

OBT is a clinical stage oncology company that is developing a pipeline of novel immunotherapy drug candidates in partnership with major pharma companies. In March 2025 OBT entered into a strategic collaboration with Roche to leverage OBT's proprietary OGAP-Verify discovery platform. Under the agreement OBT received $36m of upfront payments and may (depending on the progress of the selected candidates) be eligible to receive milestone payments exceeding $1billion in addition to royalties. Roche is the fifth-largest pharmaceutical company in the world by revenue and the leading provider of cancer treatments globally, the agreement represents a significant step in OBT's development.

 

 

Blu Wireless Technologies ("Blu Wireless")

Blu Wireless achieved a major milestone with its first defence program successfully delivered and deployed in the field for the US Army, earning strong endorsement from key military stakeholders. The Company continues to strengthen its US defence positioning. In rail, global project delays persist, though Blu Wireless is leveraging its strategic partnership with Westermo to progress commercial opportunities as well as engaging directly with key potential customers and partners.

 

 

The BookedIt Group Limited ("Booked It")

Booked It is a B2B SaaS and payments company that provides booking, ticketing, payments, marketing, CRM and loyalty software in one hosted platform.  The Company serves a number of different industries including family entertainment (soft play centres/water parks), competitive socialising (bowling alleys/escape rooms) and visitor attractions (museums/cinemas).  The Company has performed well since the first Calculus investment in March 2025. Management engaged very effectively in the Calculus 100 Day Planning process and are on track to deliver the targets set for the first year of the plan.

 

 

Home Team Content Limited ("Home Team")

Home Team Content, founded in 2021 by Dominic Buchanan and Bennett McGhee, is a UK-based production company dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices, especially filmmakers of colour and women. Its debut feature, ISH, premiered at the Venice and BFI London Film Festivals in 2025. While development delays have impacted valuation, the Company remains focused on advancing its slate in the months ahead through strategic partnerships, distribution deals, and new revenue opportunities.

 

 

 

Developments since the period end

 

As mentioned above, the Company invested an additional £1.7m between two new investments, Trogenix Limited and Grateful Limited.

 

Calculus Capital Limited
Investment Manager                             

15 December 2025