Covid startup fund launched by Sunak put nearly £2m into firms linked to wife

Rishi Sunak's controversial fund to support start-ups during the Covid pandemic invested nearly £2m in companies linked to his wife, Guardian analysis has found.

- Rowena Mason

Carousel Ventures, a company part-owned by Akshata Murty's venture capital firm, got an investment of £250,000 from the Future Fund to help fund its ownership of a luxury underwear business called Heist Studios, it can be disclosed.

It is the fourth business linked to Murty revealed to have received an investment from the fund set up by Sunak to support start-ups when he was chancellor. None of Murty's investments that benefited from the fund appears publicly on Sunak's register of ministerial interests.

Critics have raised concerns over a lack of transparency and the potential for a perceived conflict of interest given Sunak launched the scheme to help start-ups, a sector in which his wife is a known investor.

Other investors in Carousel Ventures via an intermediary fund include Andrew Griffith, a Tory MP who is now a Treasury minister under Sunak, and Brent Hoberman, a businessman who publicly pleaded with Sunak to bring in such a scheme and "save our start-ups".

The £250,000 loan to Carousel Ventures has now been converted into equity, so the UK taxpayer owns a small stake in the "revolutionary shapewear" company.

As well as Carousel Ventures, Murty had shareholdings in New Craftsmen, which received a £250,000 Future Fund loan; Mrs Wordsmith, which got £1.3m from the fund; and Digme Fitness, which received an unknown amount over £125,000, according to the terms of the fund. All three went into administration.

In May 2020, Sunak launched the Future Fund to help emerging businesses during the pandemic, but it has since been heavily criticised.