Search British Business Bank
Popular Search placeholder

British Business Bank total financial capacity increased to £25.6bn

Press release 11 June 2025

Today the Government has announced that it is transforming the resources and capabilities of the British Business Bank to deliver the UK’s modern Industrial Strategy and boost growth, marking a major step change in financing to support smaller businesses to start and scale in the UK.

The British Business Bank's total financial capacity will be increased to £25.6bn, which will enable a two-thirds increase in investments to around £2.5bn each year. This investment is expected to crowd in tens of billions of pounds of private capital and will support the most innovative UK businesses to access the capital they need to scale in the UK.

The British Business Bank is the largest investor in UK venture and venture growth capital funds 1 . Our equity programmes have supported more than half of the UK’s current unicorns - 22 UK unicorns have been supported by the Bank’s equity programmes, representing 56% of all current UK unicorns.

Reforms to the British Business Bank’s governance and financial arrangements have also been confirmed and will be implemented by the end of this financial year. These will place the Bank in a position to successfully deliver the increased level of investment activity and will mean the Bank has a newly-permanent capital base, with greater flexibility to re-invest returns over the long term to increase growth and prosperity across the UK.

Louis Taylor, CEO, British Business Bank, said: 

  • 1

    Source: Largest LP investor in UK venture capital via Small Business Equity Tracker 2024, from BBB analysis of Pitchbook data for UK VC funds between 2017 and 2023, based on the amount of capital committed and the number of commitments made to funds.

As the public financial institution with responsibility for supporting the growth of smaller businesses across the UK, the British Business Bank will play a critical role in delivering the UK’s upcoming modern Industrial Strategy.

We welcome today’s announcement by the Government, which is a strong endorsement of the British Business Bank’s 10-year track record, market access and capabilities, including our position as the largest investor in UK venture and venture growth capital funds and the most active late-stage investor in UK life sciences and deeptech.

To deliver the Government’s growth mission it is critical that our most promising entrepreneurs can access the finance they need to grow their businesses, no matter what their background or where they are located.

Further details of new measures supported by the increase in capacity will be announced over the coming weeks.

Further Information

If you are a journalist and have a media enquiry, please contact [email protected].

Notes to editors

The British Business Bank is the UK Government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. 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’s core programmes support over £17.4bn 2  of finance to almost 64,000 3  smaller businesses.

As well as increasing the supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. 

The British Business Bank is also responsible for administering the Government’s three Coronavirus loan schemes and its Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4bn in finance to 1.67m businesses. These schemes are now closed to new applications.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. With the exception of BBB Investment Services Limited they are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority. BBB Investment Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.

Latest news