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Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, Judith Hartley, CEO of British Business Investments, comments on the need for more action to increase funding for female founders to scale up their businesses.

08 March 2023: International Women’s Day is always a great opportunity to celebrate the amazing work that women across the UK undertake across a variety of different industries. It also acts as a trigger to remind us of the many barriers that still exist for female founders seeking to grow their business. Scaling businesses, including …

An extraordinary year for British Business Investments

British Business Investments recently published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2020/21. They show a strong set of results and a record year in terms of a number of new commitments and diversification of our portfolio. Key highlights include: A record number of 18 commitments to new and existing delivery partners, totalling £473m In our …

Block discounting – From dentist chairs to dust carts

In 2013, British Business Investments received its first application for a block discounting facility. Although peripherally aware that this product existed, I didn’t know much about what it entailed and how it worked. Asset finance companies provide funding to smaller businesses which need to acquire equipment that is considered critical for use in their day-to-day …

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Venture Capital: Why ‘fees on fees’ can be good for investors

For some private equity investors looking to allocate capital to the Venture Capital (VC) asset class, funds of funds are a no go. They traditionally have the reputation of being expensive, due to the double layer of management fees.

Q&A with Bootstrap Europe’s Stephanie Heller

Bootstrap Europe II invests venture debt with a focus on high growth technology companies. The fund aims to provide successful entrepreneurs and their investors with less dilutive funding to help them grow quickly, and scale without giving up significant equity stakes in their business. We caught up with Stephanie Heller, Managing Partner and Founder of …

Regional high-growth SMEs get a Boost

The recent announcement that British Business Investments has committed £50 million to BOOST&Co’s second fund, Industrial Lending II is a great example of how we make this strategy a reality. BOOST&Co is an independent asset manager specialising in lending solutions for high-growth SMEs in the UK. During 2019 they have expanded from their London office …

Increasing access to patient capital

The year-long Patient Capital Review, led by the Treasury, showed that a lack of longer-term investment was holding back the development of these young innovative firms. This ‘patient capital gap’ slows firms’ growth, dampens their ambition and means that some are sold to trade buyers rather than growing to maturity in the UK. And with …