In this interview, Dan Ridsdale, global head of technology and communications, speaks with Ben Wilkinson, CEO of Molten Ventures, about the company's new growth fund, institutional and pension capital, investments in ICEYE and Isar Aerospace, and its approach to space, SaaS, AI and other technology themes.

Molten Ventures is a UK 250, London-based VC firm that invests in the European technology sector. It has a portfolio of 100+ investee companies and includes a fund of funds programme (as well as EIS and VCT schemes) in the group, as well as its flagship balance sheet VC fund.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’ 

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit. 

About Edison: 

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients. 

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

264. Bull, Bear & Beyond – Molten Ventures: executive interview

Get the lowdown from Edison's Milosz Papst on IP Group, which gives investors access to innovative private companies and IP rights across themes like anti-obesity drugs, quantum computing and fusion energy. IP Group's NAV per share increased by 13% in FY25, boosted by its royalty exposure to Pfizer's Metsera-derived obesity pipeline.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

263. Bull, Bear & Beyond – IP Group in 60 seconds

In this interview, we speak with Mads Bjerregaard, chief business officer of SynAct Pharma, about the latest analysis from the Phase IIb ADVANCE study and why it could shape the path forward for resomelagon in rheumatoid arthritis. Mads discusses how temporary inflammatory flare-ups may have distorted the placebo response, the statistically significant benefit seen after affected patients were excluded from the analysis, its implications for Phase III patient selection and why a longer 26-week study could better capture deeper clinical responses. We also explore the upcoming FDA Type C meeting, the potential for a direct move into Phase III and how the new analysis could strengthen SynAct’s partnering position. Finally, Mads outlines the company’s broader strategic options, including licensing, an outright sale of resomelagon and other potential transactions.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

262. Bull, Bear & Beyond – SynAct Pharma: executive interview

In this interview, Richard Shepherd-Cross, the fund manager of Custodian Property Income REIT (CREI), discusses the company’s recent quarterly update, the resilient occupier market that is supporting rental growth across the portfolio, and the potential for further private company portfolio acquisitions, a key part of CREI’s growth strategy. In the three months to 30 June (Q127) the NAV total return was 1.8p per share (1.8%) comprising the 1.5p dividend paid and a 0.3p increase in NAV per share to 100p. The portfolio estimated rental value (ERV) increased by 1.0% in the quarter, following 3.3% in the year to March. Q127 ERV was £7m higher than passing rent, representing significant income potential embedded within the portfolio. During the quarter, portfolio valuations increased modestly, despite higher long-term interest rates. The disconnect between the strong underlying fundamentals of UK real estate and investor sentiment for most of the UK-listed sector persists.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

261. Bull, Bear & Beyond – Custodian Property Income REIT: executive interview

In this interview, we speak with Sten Sörensen, CEO of Cereno Scientific, about the strong momentum across the company’s clinical pipeline following its Q2 results. He emphasised the start of the global Phase IIb programme for lead asset CS1 in pulmonary arterial hypertension, with the first US site now activated and top-line data remaining on track for Q428, despite a modest shift in first-patient enrolment. Sten also discusses the encouraging long-term observations from the CS1 Expanded Access Programme and continued progress in partnering discussions. CS014 also remains firmly on track for its Q326 PK bridging readout, an important catalyst that could support the planned FDA Investigational New Drug application and a direct move into Phase IIb development in PH-ILD. He also provides an update on CS585 in antiphospholipid syndrome and outlines how Cereno is positioning its financing strategy to support the next phase of pipeline execution.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit.

About Edison:

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients.

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

260. Bull, Bear & Beyond – Cereno Scientific: executive interview

In this interview, Pathos Communications founder and CEO Omar Hamdi outlines the company’s strategy to make PR accessible to small- and medium-sized enterprises by combining technology-enabled workflows with a highly distributed client base. Pathos serves clients in 80 countries and is using targeted outreach, its proprietary Pathos Mind AI-agent stack and virtual publicist Pressella to increase sales efficiency and operational leverage. Early internal testing showed Pressella booking seven times as many meetings as human colleagues, with general availability targeted for H127. Hamdi also highlights improving revenue quality, with repeat and recurring customers contributing 36% of H1 revenue, supported by an expansion from one to 15 product lines and a new sales structure that lifted new-client sign-ups by 30% in a month. Looking ahead, growth is expected to come from organic scaling, deeper geographic expansion, further technology deployment and selective, potentially accretive acquisitions.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’ 

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit. 

About Edison: 

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients. 

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/ 

259. Bull, Bear & Beyond – Pathos Communications: executive interview

In our interview with Global Fashion Group’s (GFG’s) CEO, Christoph Barchewitz, and CFO, Helen Hickman, they focus on the group’s H126 results, which represents an important milestone as it was the group’s first profitable first half with its current footprint, despite a lower net merchandise value. We explore how a sharper focus on value over volume is improving unit economics and strengthening the resilience of the business model. We also talked about regional performance, from ANZ’s continued growth and emerging AI commerce opportunities to LATAM’s profitability gains and SEA’s turnaround efforts. Finally, we also discuss the changes to the adjusted EBITDA outlook for FY26, the path to normalised free cash flow breakeven and what investors should watch as GFG continues to balance growth, profitability and disciplined execution.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’ 

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit. 

About Edison: 

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients. 

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/ 

258. Bull, Bear & Beyond – Global Fashion Group: executive interview

In this interview, Capita’s chief product and AI officer, Sameer Vuyyuru, discusses how AI is being embedded across the group’s complex public-sector and shared-services operations to reduce cost to serve, improve productivity and support higher win rates. He highlights Capita’s focus on combining process engineering, automation, human judgement and AI rather than treating AI as a universal solution, with security-cleared, AI-capable teams central to delivering regulated services over the long term. The discussion points to front-office adoption already at scale, while identifying middle- and back-office casework as the larger opportunity to shorten waiting times and improve UK citizen outcomes. Vuyyuru also outlines the potential for AI agents to reshape delivery models, including greater onshore execution of work previously handled offshore. For investors, he identifies cost-to-serve reductions and improved bid win rates as the clearest indicators of progress, with successful execution expected to support Capita’s margin-expansion objectives. 

Capita is an AI-enabled business services and outsourcing group that manages complex, often business-critical processes for public- and private-sector clients, with a significant role in UK government and regulated industries.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’ 

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit. 

About Edison: 

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients. 

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/ 

257. Bull, Bear & Beyond – Capita: executive interview

In this interview, we speak with SynAct Pharma CBO Mads Bjerregaard about the proposed co-development and commercial partnership with Hipolabor for resomelagon in dengue and other viral infections in Brazil, the world’s largest dengue market. He discusses why growing momentum from the RESOVIR collaboration and ongoing RESOVIR-2 Phase II study made this the right time to establish a commercial pathway in Brazil, and why SynAct opted for a differentiated 50:50 development-cost and profit-sharing model that aligns incentives while leveraging Hipolabor’s local regulatory and commercial capabilities. Mads also outlines how RESOVIR-2 could inform the path towards Phase III and regulatory discussions with the Brazilian regulatory authority ANVISA, and why being ready to capitalise on future dengue seasons could be important for efficient patient recruitment. Finally, he explains why the dengue deal represents a distinct partnering model and how SynAct has preserved full flexibility to pursue potentially more conventional global or regional partnerships for resomelagon in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.

************************************************************************************** 

About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’ 

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit. 

About Edison: 

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients. 

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/

256. Bull, Bear & Beyond – SynAct Pharma: executive interview

Edison’s investment companies team recently published a review on Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust (TEMIT). The trust’s performance has considerable momentum with strong absolute and relative results in FY26, adding to a positive long-term record. TEMIT has outperformed its MSCI Emerging Markets Index benchmark and ranks highly versus its diversified peers. Lead portfolio manager Chetan Sehgal and co-manager Andrew Ness follow a disciplined bottom-up strategy, focusing on structural growth companies that are selling at a discount to their intrinsic values. Having made a successful call on the semiconductor companies, the managers are taking profits and redeploying capital elsewhere to diversify the portfolio.

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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’ 

Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit. 

About Edison: 

Edison is a content-led IR business. We believe quality investment content should inform all investors, not just brokers. Our mission: engage and build bigger, better-informed investor audiences for our clients. 

Edison covers 50+ investment trusts, read about them here: https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/



255. Bull, Bear & Beyond – Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust in 60 seconds

'Uncovering Trusts': Edison analysts interview investment trusts to uncover how they maximize returns while managing risk for clients. 

Discover fresh perspectives in the Bull, Bear & Beyond podcast series by Edison Group. Our longer episodes feature candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from acr

Bull, Bear & Beyond by Edison Group · Zencastr

Bull, Bear & Beyond by Edison Group

Discover fresh perspectives in the Bull, Bear & Beyond podcast series by Edison Group. Our longer episodes feature candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation and the opportunities shaping their markets. These discussions offer unique insight into how leaders navigate challenges, drive growth and deliver long-term value for stakeholders. Our 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit.

To find out more, please visit: https://www.edisongroup.com/ [https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/]