I am an active tech investor and have been both chair and a non executive director in a number of UK tech start-ups with a major focus on scale-up and achieving global impact.

I am also an entrepreneur and a former chief executive of Imagination Technologies, a British tech company backed by Herald Investment Trust.

I write with concern that Herald is now under attack from US hedge fund Saba Capital Management, with Saba wanting to take over the governance and management of Herald’s £1.2bn of capital and divert it away from the early-stage sector (“UK trusts hit back at US activist Weinstein”, Report, January 7).

Herald is the most important institutional investor in the UK small cap tech sector, having supported 584 fundraisings for UK companies including 66 UK initial public offerings since 2007. Herald, for example, was an early-stage backer of four UK tech companies involved in the iPhone’s development, including Imagination Technologies.

Although Herald’s investment remit is worldwide, Herald plays a major role in the UK tech ecosystem; an ecosystem that needs growth-stage investors to thrive and one that must be protected.

Losing the liquidity Herald brings would jeopardise the UK’s independent ability, through the stock market, to take tech companies to scale and exit.

This short-termist attack by a US hedge fund should be a matter of concern for anyone who cares about the UK tech sector ecosystem and its future. The 2021 UK National Security and Investment Act has been a much-needed framework to begin to protect what matters. Given Herald is an investor in companies operating in many of the 17 sensitive areas of the economy, it should itself — as a key ecosystem player — be subject to NSI considerations.

Sir Hossein Yassaie
Tech Entrepreneur, Investor and NED, Former Chief Executive Officer Imagination Technologies, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, UK