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£5m further commitment comes as UK’s most active seed-stage investor passes 300 deals and £100m in assets under management
30 June 2022
SFC Capital, the UK’s most active seed-stage investor, has received a further £5 million commitment from British Business Investments to invest into innovative early-stage businesses across the UK regions. This new commitment – part of its Regional Angels Programme, designed to reduce regional imbalances in access to early-stage equity finance for smaller businesses across the UK – follows an initial £10 million commitment from British Business Investments made in 2020, which is now fully deployed.
The commitment is managed by SFC Capital and invested alongside its SEIS and EIS funds as well as the SFC Angel Network. In total, SFC expects to fund 200 early-stage businesses across the UK through British Business Investment’s commitment, delivering a total of £60 million in new funding for startup and scaleup businesses across all sectors.
This latest commitment comes as SFC Capital passes two key milestones, having invested in more than 300 startups across the UK since 2012 – including notable names such as Onfido, Cognism, and Transcend Packaging – and now has more than £100 million under management. SFC Capital’s most recent investments include Sheffield-based hardware and data platform FourJaw, ethical fintech platform Algbra, and Welsh cybersecurity company Awen Collective. SFC Capital’s portfolio includes over 200 companies based outside of London, with investments covering all four UK nations.
Joseph Zipfel, Chief Investment Officer at SFC, said: “In these uncertain times, supporting angel investors and early-stage funds is essential to preserve the UK’s world-class entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we thank BBI for extending its commitment to SFC Capital. With already £10m invested in more than 120 companies, this collaboration has been a great success and we look forward to continuing to work with BBI on future investments across the UK. Angel investors and early-stage funds are an essential part of the start-up ecosystem and we believe that this kind of support, along with the preservation of the SEIS and EIS schemes, will allow the UK to retain its leadership as the innovation hub of Europe.”
British Business Investments, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, launched the Regional Angels Programme to increase the supply and awareness of angel and other early-stage equity investments across the country, particularly in areas where this type of finance is less readily available. It commits funds for investment alongside business angels and other early-stage equity investors, acting as a catalyst to bring longer-term capital to smaller businesses with growth ambitions.
Judith Hartley, CEO, British Business Investments, said: “Our Regional Angels Programme is designed to address imbalances in access to early-stage finance in the UK, and to increase the overall amount of capital available to smaller businesses through angel networks. Following our first commitment in 2020, this follow-on commitment of £5m will allow SFC Capital to build on its track record of supporting high growth-potential businesses across the UK.”
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SFC Capital is the UK’s most active seed investor. SFC’s mission is to invest in the innovations of tomorrow and to support the UK’s most innovative start-ups from their very first funding round. They work with the UK’s most active accelerators, university incubators and angel investors to find high potential ventures at an early stage across sectors from Fintech and B2B Software to Life Sciences and Consumer Tech. Founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Stephen Page (DataEase, Sapphire), SFC Capital combines an angel syndicate with its own funds to provide investors with diversified exposure to SEIS- and EIS-qualifying businesses. https://sfccapital.com/
British Business Investments is the trading name of British Business Investments Ltd, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. It forms part of the British Business Bank’s commercial arm.
British Business Investments 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 economic advantage from the government. Find out more at bbinv.co.uk.
British Business Bank plc and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.
The commitment from British Business Investments to SFC Capital does not amount to any endorsement or warranty from British Business Investments, the British Business Bank plc, or the government of the UK.
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