British Business Bank surpasses £600m in scale-up investments

The British Business Bank has surpassed £600m of direct equity investment into the UK’s fastest-growing science and technology businesses, more than doubling the amount invested over the past nine months as it steps up support for high-growth scale-ups.

The Bank’s direct equity portfolio now comprises more than 50 UK companies, up from 31 in March 2025, reflecting a significant acceleration in investment activity aimed at addressing longstanding shortages of late-stage growth capital.

Since making its first direct equity investment into Quantexa in 2020, the British Business Bank has built a portfolio spanning life sciences, deep technology, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, defence, artificial intelligence and fintech, positioning itself as one of the UK’s most active late-stage investors in strategic growth sectors.

During the 2025/26 financial year, the Bank completed 18 new investments alongside 18 follow-on investments, compared with 12 investments in the previous year. Total investment increased 2.5-fold year-on-year from £75m to £188m, with annual deployment expected to exceed £400m going forward.

Leandros Kalisperas, Chief Investment Officer at the British Business Bank, said: “Supporting UK scale ups is a national economic imperative.

“The UK excels at creating businesses, but our domestic capital base has yet to match our scientific excellence. Our activity should be interpreted as a clear signal to UK institutional capital that we want them to join us in backing UK scale ups. We now have fuel in the tank and intend to put UK innovation in fifth gear.”

Charlotte Lawrence, Managing Director and Head of Direct Equity at the British Business Bank, said the organisation was increasing the pace of investment to match the quality of innovation emerging across the UK.

She said: “We are accelerating our ambitions to match the calibre of UK innovation. By investing £400m per year into the most exciting venture-backed UK scale-ups across life sciences, deep tech, AI and fintech, we aim to act as an ecosystem multiplier and ensure the most innovative UK businesses have the capital and support to rapidly scale.”

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the increased pace of investment demonstrated the Government’s commitment to supporting innovative businesses through its Industrial Strategy.

He said: “We are ramping up the pace and scale of investment – backing the UK’s highest-growth scale ups at a level not seen before, through our modern Industrial Strategy.

“By more than doubling investment in just nine months, we’re giving firms the firepower they need to stay and scale here in the UK and drive the economy.”

The expansion forms part of the British Business Bank’s five-year Strategic Plan, which aims to strengthen the UK’s scale-up funding ecosystem by mobilising greater levels of institutional investment and supporting the creation of larger growth-stage funds.

Under the strategy, the Bank expects its Investment business to deploy around £2bn annually across the UK venture capital market, with approximately 20% – around £400m each year – allocated to direct equity investments. The programme is expected to support between 14 and 18 new investments annually, with initial investments typically ranging from £10m to £40m and long-term cumulative commitments of up to £75m per company.