Oakley Capital Investments (OCI ), the shop window to private equity manager Oakley Capital, has invested $100m (£79m) in an artificial intelligence (AI) venture fund launched by its parent company.

In a recent half-year trading update, the £783m Bermuda investment company said it had invested in Oakley Touring Venture launched earlier this year to give shareholders exposure to a ‘strategy established to invest in proven next-generation enterprise software companies powered by generative AI’.

The Oakley Capital website states the fund will bring together ‘a diverse and highly technical team who have previously worked together to build three global venture investing franchises, including Qualcomm and M12, Microsoft’s venture fund’.

As a technology and media-focused fund of funds, OCI is largely invested in Oakley Capital funds but also holds a number of direct investments, the most well-known of which is UK-listed Time Out (TMO), an events and listings group that branched out into live markets, offering food and cultural experiences from the host city.

In total, OCI now has £893m committed to Oakley funds that is expected to be drawn over the next five years. It also has £248m of cash, having taken some big profits recently on its stake in online university IU Group. It can also draw on £175m to call in a credit facility over the next two years.

The announcement came in an update showing a quiet half year for the private equity investor which has generated a 146% total return for shareholders over the past five years but, in common with most of its sector, has seen its stock fall to a wide 34% discount to net asset value (NAV). Numis Securities believed this represented ‘exceptional value’.

In the six months to 30 June, the £1.1bn portfolio generated a total underlying investment return of just 0.5% with 2.5p per share of dividends included. The total return to a NAV of 663p per share included 17p per share of valuation gains, although these were largely offset by 15p per share of currency losses as the euro strengthened against the pound.

‘The modest increase in asset value reflects the company’s cautious approach to trading outlook and valuation multiples, and the fact that half of the NAV was not subject to change in the period,’ Oakley said. ‘This results from approximately 50% of the asset value being held in cash, or underlying investments that were valued based upon a transaction within the last 12 months.’

During the half year, Oakley funds also acquired Fastcase, a legal intelligence business which has been combined with Oakley portfolio company vLex, an AI-powered legal research platform. There was also an investment in ‘premium schools group Thomas’s London Day Schools’ and a bolt-on acquisition to Affinitas Education, a single-site school in Spain.

Overall, OCI said its funds portfolio continues to deliver ‘robust trading performance’ in a challenging macroeconomic environment and believed it will continue to benefit as companies and consumers continue to shift their businesses and spending online.