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British Business Bank backs new £150m Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) platform to boost digital businesses

The British Business Bank today announces it is backing a new venture to provide investment to innovative UK digital technology businesses, driving growth and job creation across the country.

A third of the funding for the new £150m platform, which will provide evergreen, patient capital to smaller businesses looking to grow no matter what stage of development, will be provided under the Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds (ECF) programme.

The Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) platform will make funds available to digital technology SMEs, boosting sector growth across the UK. The platform will support the existing digital technology hubs in Belfast, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford and Sheffield.

Keith Morgan, British Business Bank CEO, said: “This new venture platform, supported by our Enterprise Capital Funds programme, will help innovative digital technology businesses to start up and scale up rapidly and successfully throughout all stages of their development. We are pleased to be a part of this exciting new initiative, and look forward to seeing businesses across the UK benefit from the much needed long-term funding it will provide.”

Lee Strafford, CEO of ADV, said: “ADV has been established to help more of our emerging startups and scaleups to scale big. There are world class innovators in every corner of the UK. We intend to seek out the best investment opportunities at scale and ensure these companies, irrelevant of size and location, have the support they need to supercharge growth.”

British Business Bank is supporting the new ADV platform, alongside Legal & General (L&G) and Woodford Investment Management, as part of its remit to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

ECFs are commercially-focused funds which bring together private and public money to make equity investments in high growth businesses. This latest commitment – the 23rd ECF – brings the programme’s total investment capacity to just under £870m.

Businesses can find out about their finance options, including equity finance, by accessing the British Business Bank’s Business Finance Guide (co-published with the ICAEW), which provides a comprehensive overview of funding choices for businesses at all stages of their development.

ENDS

For further information please visit the ADV website at http://accelerateddigital.ventures/

Press contacts

James Pignon, MHP Communications, 020 3128 8755, bbb@mhpc.co.uk

Scott Shearer, British Business Bank, Scott.Shearer@british-business-bank.co.uk

Notes to editors

About British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK’s national 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. Our 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 over 51,000 businesses, working through its 90 finance partners. Its programmes support over £3.2bn of finance to UK smaller businesses and participate in a further £4.6bn of finance to UK small mid-cap businesses.

British Business Bank plc is a limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Foundry House, 3 Millsands, Sheffield, S3 8NH.

The Enterprise Capital Funds programme operates under British Business Finance Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, registered in England and Wales, registration number 09091928, registered office at Foundry House, 3 Millsands, Sheffield, S3 8NH. It is not authorised or regulated by the PRA or FCA.

As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, it is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government which 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.

About Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV)

ADV is a new venture platform, created by entrepreneurs, operators, and collaborators. Its team have learnt the hard lessons and now want to pay them forward. ADV provides a full-scale model for venture, across the business lifecycle. It is a meritocratic investment platform that offers access to capital, coaching, customers and corporates; a platform that champions the innovators. It seeks to help build the large ‘difficult’ businesses that the UK is uniquely positioned to foster: the complex, technical, global ones that have a chance of solving real world problems. Say hello at http://www.accelerated.ventures/.