BOOST&Co Limited secures additional £20m commitment from British Business Bank Investments Ltd for its Industrial Lending 1 fund  

British Business Bank Investments Ltd, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, has increased its commitment in BOOST&Co’s Industrial Lending 1 fund by £20m as part of an additional £40m extension to the fund.

BOOST&Co’s Industrial Lending 1 fund provides venture debt loans of between £2m and £8m to innovative, fast growing companies looking to scale-up. These loans are available to early stage technology startups which have an established business model and can support their rapid growth prospects. To date, the fund has made total commitments of £100m, with investments in 33 UK based SMEs. The additional investment announced today means that it will make up to £100m of further commitments to SMEs.

Previous recipients from BOOST&CO’s funding have spanned a range of technology companies, including Software as a Service (SaaS) for improving customer experience, data analytics, and smart digital tools for website bookings.

British Business Bank Investment Ltd’s Investment Programme, which is providing the additional funding, has so far committed over £580m to providers of finance to UK smaller businesses. The programme helps to widen the choice of funding SMEs can find on the market.

Lance Mysyrowicz, Partner at BOOST&Co commented on the increased investment: “We are delighted to receive continued support from British Business Bank Investment Ltd. We look forward to deploying the additional capital in innovative, growing UK SMEs with a passion for technology, and are excited about this next phase in our relationship.”

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, British Business Bank Investments Ltd, added: “This £20m extension to BOOST&Co is a further demonstration of our commitment to promoting greater choice in the supply of lending to smaller businesses. Venture debt finance is an important option for innovative businesses that want to grow rapidly, as a form of capital that can help them scale-up without having to relinquish control of the business. We are pleased to support BOOST&Co as they expand the level of this type of funding they can provide to the market.”

ENDS

BOOST&Co

Edd Hatfield. BOOST&Co, Edd@boostandco.com

British Business Bank

Andy Johnson-Creek, MHP Communications, +44 20 3128 8589, bbb@mhpc.co.uk

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

About Boost&Co

BOOST&Co creates growth capital, venture debt and acquisition finance solutions for promising SMEs.

BOOST&Co Limited is Registered in England and Wales, company number 07728296 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, registration number 711918.

About British Business Bank Investments Ltd

British Business Bank Investments Ltd is the commercial arm of the British Business Bank. It aims to earn a commercial return by investing – through finance providers – in smaller businesses and small mid-caps, pursuing investments on a fully commercial basis without receiving any advantage from the government. Find out more at www.bbinv.co.uk.

British Business Bank Investments Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank, registered in England and Wales, registration number 09091930, registered office at Foundry House, 3 Millsands, Sheffield, S3 8NH. Neither entity is authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

About the 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.

British Business Bank programmes support more than £3.4bn of finance to more than 54,000 smaller businesses and participate in a further £5.1bn finance to small mid-cap businesses (as at end June 2017).

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, including asset finance, available to smaller businesses. It has published the Business Finance Guide (in partnership with the ICAEW, and a further 21 business and finance organisations). This guide impartially sets out the range finance options available to businesses – from start-ups to SMEs and growing mid-sized companies.  Take the interactive journey at www.thebusinessfinanceguide.co.ukLink opens in a new window or download/print a copy.

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.

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.

More information, including a legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries, can be found on the British Business Bank website.

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