Akshata Murty, Rishi Sunak’s wife, to close venture capital fund Catamaran Ventures UK: Report

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murty will be shutting down her venture capital fund Catamaran Ventures UK, according to company filings. Giving little details about the decision, Catamaran Ventures UK, in its latest company filing at Companies House, said its directors “have decided to liquidate the company”, The Times reported on Friday.

The company was co-founded in 2013 by Sunak and Murty and was backed by Infosys founder and billionaire Narayana Murthy. Sunak stepped down as director in April 2015, shortly before he was elected as an MP.

According to its website, the investment firm handles $1 billion worth of assets, which is more than Rs 8,320 crore. The most recent balance sheet of Catamaran Ventures UK in 2022 had put the value of its investments at £3.8 million, which was a slight increase from the £3.5 million from 2021.

The filings also revealed that its cash holdings fell from just below £400,000 in 2021 to £21,890 in 2022.

In the past, Catamaran Ventures UK's operations have been under lens when it emerged that a number of the startups it backed received cash infusions through taxpayer-backed schemes, or owed money to HM Revenue and Customs.

One such firm was the upmarket furniture firm New Craftsmen which collapsed into liquidation after receiving £300,000 in taxpayer-funded loans. The policies were put in place while Sunak was the chancellor.

Another was Mrs Wordsmith. It was an education company that secured £1.3 million from the Future Fund, conceived by Sunak to aid small startups during the pandemic. Mrs Wordsmith later collapsed, owing £249,000 to HMRC.

Another investment was fitness chain, Digme Fitness. It received Covid furlough payments of up to £630,000, despite that it went into administration with more than £6.1 million in VAT and PAYE taxes owed.

Catamaran also invested in Study Hall, an education technology business which is still trading, that was given a government grant of £349,976 from Innovate UK in 2022.

Earlier this year, Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer called out Sunak and Murty after Study Hall received close to £350,000 from Innovate UK, a publicly funding body.

In May, Starmer said that there are “questions to answer in relation to this” and that there appeared to be an “emerging pattern of behaviour here”.

In the past, Murty's financial arrangements have been a point of discussion during Sunak’s tenure. Sunak was criticised after it was revealed that his wife held “non-dom” tax status, allowing her to legally minimise tax on dividends from Infosys, which were worth £11.5 million in the last financial year. She subsequently agreed to pay tax in the UK on her worldwide income.

Her shareholding in the childcare company Koru Kids later became a source of controversy, after Sunak was found to have breached parliament’s code of conduct by failing to declare it while being questioned by MPs earlier this year.

Murty is one of the promoters of Infosys. As per the shareholding pattern of Infosys for January to March 2023 quarter, Akshata Murty is shown holding 3,89,57,096 Infosys shares, which is 1.07 per cent of the total paid-up capital of the company.

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