News

British Business Bank appoints Dharmash Mistry as non-executive director

The British Business Bank has appointed Dharmash Mistry as non-executive director (NED) to the board of British Business Bank plc, effective from 1 May 2019.

Dharmash Mistry is an experienced venture capitalist, entrepreneur and NED who has served on the boards of many well-known businesses and organisations.

He is currently a Partner at Lakestar VC, which makes early and growth stage investments on both sides of the Atlantic. Notable Lakestar investments include Spotify, Skype, Facebook and Airbnb.

Additionally, he is co-founder and Chairman of blow LTD, a leading app-based provider of expert beauty services to people’s homes.

Previously, Dharmash was a partner at Balderton Capital, where he was involved in raising and investing two funds totalling around $1bn. Prior to this, he was Group MD of Emap Consumer Media, where he co-led the delisting of Emap plc from the FTSE 100 and sold the consumer business for £1.1bn.

Dharmash currently sits as a non-executive director on the board of BBC Commercial Holdings Ltd (BBC Worldwide, Studios and Global News). His previous NED roles include Dixons Retail plc, Hargreaves Lansdown plc and BBC Executive Board

Mr Mistry said: “I am delighted to join the British Business Bank board and act as a champion for British Patient Capital, getting capital, efficiently and effectively, to the best entrepreneurs and working hand in hand with the market. In a global, structural changing world, entrepreneurialism will continue to be the lifeblood of any economy”

Lord Smith, Chair of the British Business Bank, said: “In our role as providers of finance to the venture capital sector and ultimately, entrepreneurs, we are delighted to welcome Dharmash to the board of the British Business Bank. Dharmash’s perspective and wide experience as an investor, entrepreneur, founder and NED will be invaluable as the Bank continues to grow its operations.”

Dharmash will also act as ‘British Patient Capital (BPC) champion’ on the British Business Bank plc board. This will include making sure that the interests of BPC – a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the Bank established in 2018 with funding of £2.5bn to invest into venture and growth capital funds targeting high growth potential, innovative companies across the UK – are represented in a non-executive capacity on the plc Board.

ENDS

Further information

Contact:

Scott Shearer
Senior Communications Manager
0203 772 1351 / 07770 704 761
Scott.Shearer@british-business-bank.co.uk

Suzanna Jebbitt
Communications Manager
07827 552 301
Suzanna.Jebbitt@british-business-bank.co.uk

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank is currently supporting more than £5.9bn of finance to over 82,000 smaller businesses (as at end of September 2018).

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses:

  • The Business Finance Guide (published in partnership with the ICAEW and a further 21 business and finance organisations) impartially sets out the range of finance options available to businesses at all stages – from start-ups to SMEs and growing mid-sized companies. Businesses can take the interactive journey at www.thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk.
  • The new British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to high-growth businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. The new site also features case studies and learnings from real businesses to guide businesses through the process of applying for growth finance.

As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, British Business Bank plc is wholly owned by HM Government and is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank operates under its own brand name through a number of subsidiaries, one of which is authorised and regulated by the FCA.

British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.