Octopus Apollo’s portfolio of B2B software companies is, by VCT standards, dull.

B2B companies benefit from large, hopefully reliable, corporate customers. Software is an inherently cash generative business, since once the product’s built it can be sold again and again with very little additional cost per customer.

By targeting more established companies that are already making £2 million a year or more in revenues the manager hopes to invest after product-market fit has been achieved and the business has been substantially derisked.

None of this is rocket science, but then Apollo isn’t about moonshots. While its small companies are still high risk, it does everything it can to mitigate the downside and back more predictable outcomes.

That has served it well in recent years, helping Apollo avoid the pain that’s engulfed more adventurous VCTs.