The British Business Bank has hit a major milestone with more than £600m invested into UK science and technology scaleups, increasing its direct equity portfolio to more than 50 high-growth companies.
The Bank has more than doubled its direct equity investments since October 2025, investing more in the last nine months than in the previous four years.
The Bank says it has ramped up the pace and scale of its direct equity investing activity to tackle gaps in the UK late-stage capital market and support high growth companies to scale up and stay in the UK.
Since its first direct equity investment into Quantexa in 2020, the Bank has built a portfolio spanning life sciences and deeptech, including advanced manufacturing, clean energy and defence, AI and fintech.
The Bank completed 18 new investments plus 18 follow-on investments in FY25/26 compared to 12 investments the year before. Total investments went from £75m to £188m year-on-year, and are expected to scale to over £400m this year.
Its five-year strategic plan aims to deliver deeper pools of scale up funding by mobilising institutional capital at scale and supporting the launch of larger, growth stage funds.
The investment business is expected to deploy around £2bn per year into the UK venture capital ecosystem, with approximately 20% (£400m) allocated to direct equity activity. The strategy is expected to support 14 to 18 new investments per year, with initial cheque sizes typically ranging from £10m to £40m and long-term cumulative investments of up to £75m.
“Supporting UK scaleups is a national economic imperative. The UK excels at creating businesses, but our domestic capital base has yet to match our scientific excellence,” says Leandros Kalisperas, chief investment officer at the British Business Bank.
“Our activity should be interpreted as a clear signal to UK institutional capital that we want them to join us in backing UK scaleups. We now have fuel in the tank and intend to put UK innovation in fifth gear.”
