Tech firm is struggling to raise its funds in the UK

A former Royal Marine looking to expand his fledgling combat training technology company in the UK warns he could be rushed to the US to raise funds.

4GD uses virtual reality and special effects to allow soldiers to practice combat in smaller facilities at army garrisons, rather than having to travel to vast training grounds like the Salisbury Plains.

The company’s technology is already in use at Merville Barracks in Colchester, Essex.

Combat Ready: 4GD uses virtual reality and special effects to allow soldiers to practice combat in smaller installations at army garrisons

Now co-founder Rob Taylor, a former Royal Marine, wants to expand domestically and in the United States, both of which will require fresh capital.

He said: “Our original intention as a British-owned and veteran-owned company was that we really wanted to keep things in the UK.”

But he noted that the higher valuations that could be achieved on the other side of the Atlantic, as well as the reduction in tax breaks for entrepreneurs in the UK, represented “a test of patriotism or a desire to preserve sovereignty”.

Taylor said: “We need to encourage higher valuations of high growth potential UK start-ups because if you are valued at say £40m in the UK and £100m in the US it is not in the company’s interest to maintain equity in the UK .’

The company is launching a fundraiser with the goal of reaching a rating in the low nine figures and raising tens of millions of pounds. Taylor added that the company would at best have a “mixed” round of funding on both sides of the Atlantic, but likely mostly in the US.