Reimagining
litigation funding
with technology

Third-party litigation funding isn’t new. As an asset class, it’s growing in a big way, but it’s reserved for the few: high-net-worth private investors backing large-sum cases for high-risk, high-reward investments.

Back in 2019, the team behind VWM Capital spotted an opportunity to bring lawtech to litigation financing, open it up and create a niche but truly compelling investment.

Our vision was to apply automative technology to litigation funding decisions so a high number of low-figure cases could be assessed for the likelihood of successful outcomes. Litigators would get a quick decision, and the automated algorithmic logic would remove the guesswork, continuously improving itself with the data it obtained.

More people and businesses would be able to access justice, even when up against adversaries with deep pockets. Not only that: investors would have a low-risk alternative to traditional litigation funding, and one that would meet ESG criteria.

Meet our team

With decades of experience in litigation, finance and banking, we have the right team to drive forward our industry-first technology-based offering and deliver high-quality alternative investments.

James
Silk

Portfolio Manager

James is a co-founder of VWM Capital and has over 23 years of experience working in investment operations, banking and capital markets. He has been managing investments in litigation funding since 2020 and oversees all operational aspects of the business.

Before founding VWM Capital, James co-founded Victoria Wealth Management Ltd, an associate representative of Linear Investments, managing the operations and business-wide strategy.

James spent 10 years at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Intl, heading up the operations department, before moving on to Oppenheimer Europe Ltd, where he co-built the Fixed Income Trading team, managing a team of 20 sales traders.

Sarah
Whitehead

Head of Legal & Portfolio Manager

Sarah is a partner, portfolio manager and the head of legal for Sturgeon Ventures, and sits on our fund’s Investment Committee.

After studying English at Oxford, Sarah qualified as a solicitor and joined Clifford Chance’s investment funds department. Her time there included a year in Man Group’s derivative funds team in Switzerland. Sarah went on to spend 11 years at ING Group, first as a trading floor lawyer, then in the capital markets team, before becoming the head of debt capital markets for Russia and the CIS. Subsequently, Sarah worked for five years at the Pemberton funds group as an inhouse legal and compliance advisor before joining Sturgeon in 2016.

Seonaid
Mackenzie

Chief Investment Officer & Portfolio Manager

Seonaid Mackenzie is the founder of Sturgeon Ventures, an award-winning provider of regulatory incubation and portfolio manager services to the financial services sector.

After starting out in 1998 under the name Venture Catalyst, Sturgeon pioneered ‘Regulatory Incubation’ in 2000 and has grown into a leading incubator and portfolio manager, authorised and regulated by the FCA, and a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC.

Before founding Sturgeon Ventures, Seonaid worked in financial services as a US equity international stockbroker at prominent firms. She has years of experience advising and managing portfolios and participating in investment committees and fund boards.

Tom
Powell

Chief Operating Officer

Tom is a partner and the chief operating officer for Sturgeon Ventures.

After qualifying as a chartered accountant, in 2001 Tom joined Mountcashel Ltd where, as the chief operating officer, he was responsible for operations, finance, compliance, AML, and oversight of the company’s first offshore hedge fund. The firm joined Matrix Group Limited in 2004 where he went on to launch four more hedge funds before he left in July 2008 to work as a consultant in the renewable energy sector.

Tom joined Sturgeon in 2010 and brings his wealth of experience in corporate oversight, risk management and project management to his role with VWM Capital.

What makes VWM Capital different?

VWM Capital is one of the first litigation funds to use algorithm-based technology to improve legal financing, make it more widely available quicker, and simultaneously offer lower-risk investments spread across more lower-value cases.

Our blended automated-human approach is unique in our sector and leads to better decisions about the cases we fund.

We take the emotion, intuition and guesswork out of the investment decision, and replace it with data, intelligence and experience.

We’ve developed the first socially responsible, algorithm-based model for safer investments in litigation funding. Now we aim to be the biggest.

“This is one area where automation technology can truly transform our sector. With VWM Capital, we’re using it to create the investment grade equivalent of litigation funding.”

James Scragg, Portfolio Manager, VWM Capital

Get in touch to find out more

Contact us

© Copyright VWM Capital Ltd. 2023


VWM Capital is a trading name of Sturgeon Ventures LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 452811).