Final Future Fund data shows scheme completed £1.14bn of Convertible Loan Agreements

Press release 06 July 2021

  • £1.14bn worth of convertible loans completed for 1,190 companies
  • 41% of funding to companies outside London worth £463.7m
  • 78% of funding to mixed gender senior management teams
  • 56% of funding to Black, Asian or Other Ethnic Minority background & White senior management teams
  • 34% of funding to technology and IP-based businesses

Today the British Business Bank publishes data that gives a final comprehensive picture of how the Future Fund has supported businesses during the pandemic. The data shows that 1,190 companies have had their applications completed to access £1.14bn (£1136.7m) worth of Convertible Loan Agreements funded by the Future Fund since the scheme was launched in May 2020. There have been 1,851 applications in total since the scheme was launched and the scheme closed to new applications on 31 January 2021.

This final release of data shows where companies are based across the UK and the composition of the senior management teams by gender and ethnicity. This data is self-reported by the companies applying to the Future Fund.

It also gives an overall sector breakdown of investment and the size range of investments.

Data by region

The data reveals, 41% of completed funding through Convertible Loan Agreements worth £463.7m have their headquarters located outside of London. Of the total amount of £1,136.7m, 14% is to companies headquartered in the South (South East and South West), 11% in the North (North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber), 8% in the East of England, 4% in the Midlands (East Midlands and West Midlands) and 3% in the Devolved Nations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). London accounts for 59% of companies, in-line with the wider market trends for equity investments. The British Business Bank’s 2020/21 Small Business Finance Markets report showed that companies outside London received 44% of equity investment by value in 2020.

Data by gender mix of senior management team

Of the 1,190 companies that have been have completed their funding through Convertible Loan Agreements, 78% of funding is to companies with mixed gender senior management teams. As a consequence of investing alongside Future Fund, 31 venture capital firms and angel groups have become signatories to the Government’s Investing in Women Code.

Data by ethnicity of senior management team

Senior management teams consisting solely of team members from a Black, Asian or Other Ethnic Minority background and those with team members from a Black, Asian or Other Ethnic Minority background and White team members account for 61.6% of funding received through Convertible Loan Agreements, amounting to £646.5m.

Data by sector

Of the 1,190 companies that have completed their Convertible Loan Agreements, 38% are technology and IP-based businesses with a value of £382.8m (34%) in funding and 35% are Business and Professional services firms with a value of £471.1m (41%).

Data by size of investment

Over 50% of convertible loan agreements were valued between £125, 000 and £500,000.

Future Fund data by gender of company senior management team (self-reported by applicant)

Read footnote text [1]

Management Team No. of
convertible loans
completed
Value of
convertible loans completed
All female team 16 £15.1m
All male team 314 £219.1m
Mixed gender team 811 £850.2m
Chose not to provide data 49 £52.2m
Total 1190 £1,136.7m

Future Fund data by ethnicity of company senior management team (self-reported by applicant)

Management
Team
No. of convertible loans completed Value of convertible loans completed
Solely from Black, Asian or Other Ethnic Minority background 62 £55.7m
All white team 481 £403.7m
Black, Asian or Other Ethnic Minority background & White team 553 £590.8m
Chose not to provide data 94 £86.5m
Total 1190 £1,136.7m

Future Fund data by location of company receiving convertible loan

  No. of convertible loans completed Value of convertible loans completed
East Midlands 18 £17.1m
East of England 89 £95.7m
London 660 £673.0m
North East 31 £28.0m
North West 84 £61.6m
Northern Ireland 13 £11.6m
Scotland 23 £8.3m
South East 132 £125.7m
South West 47 £30.8m
Wales 25 £18.7m
West Midlands 33 £27.2m
Yorkshire and the Humber 35 £39.0m
Total 1190 £1,136.7m

Future Fund sector breakdown compared to the wider market

Read footnote text [2]

  Sector split by CLA number - Wider Market Sector split by CLA number - Future Fund Sector split by
CLA investment amount - Wider Market
Sector split by
CLA investment amount - Future Fund
Technology/ IP-based businesses 40% 38% 46% 34%
Business and Professional services 24% 35% 29% 41%
Industrials 16% 11% 10% 9%
Leisure and Entertainment 5% 3% 2% 4%
Retail 3% 5% 2% 4%
Personal Services 4% 5% 2% 4%
Media 3% 2% 2% 2%
Other 6% 1% 6% 1%

Future Fund sector breakdown

Sector No. of convertible loans completed Value of convertible loans completed
Technology/ IP-based businesses 452 £382.9m
Business and Professional services 414 £471.1m
Industrials 129 £107.9m
Leisure and Entertainment 32 £43.0m
Retail 60 £48.7m
Personal services 60 £48.3m
Media 26 £19.8m
Other 17 £15.1m
Total 1,190 £1,136.7m

Future Fund breakdown by size of Convertible Loan Agreement (Future Fund amount)

Investment Range No. of companies
£125,000 - £500,000 600
£500,001 - £1,000,000 260
£1,000,001 - £2,500,00 190
£2,500,001 - £5,000,000 140
Total 1,190
  • Return to footnote location [1]

    Official statistics report senior management team composition because Future Fund is available to many companies beyond early stage. Our analysis of the company founder data, where available, shows it tracks above market figures for gender diversity.

  • Return to footnote location [2]

    Wider market references all announced UK SME equity deals tracked by Beauhurst over an equivalent time period to Future Fund as per BBB analysis in Small Business Equity Tracker 2021.

Notes to Editors

The data shown is as per 30 June, 2021.

Future Fund

The Future Fund was established to support the UK’s innovative businesses affected by Covid-19. These businesses were unable to access other government business support programmes, such as CBILS, because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit and typically rely on equity investment. The Future Fund, now closed to new applications, provided UK-based companies with convertible loans, on the condition that third-party investors at least match the Government’s commitment. The convertible loans are designed to convert into equity at the next qualifying funding round. The Future Fund was developed by government and delivered by the British Business Bank.

About the British Business Bank

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 £8bn[3] of finance to more than 93,000 smaller businesses[4]. Between March 2020 and March 2021, the British Business Bank was responsible for running the government’s Coronavirus business loan schemes, delivering more than £79bn of finance to over 1.67m businesses.

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 available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. In light of the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit, the Finance Hub has expanded and it now targets a wider business audience. It continues to provide information and support for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses, but now provides increased content, information and products for businesses in survival and recovery mindsets. The Finance Hub has been redesigned and repositioned to reflect this, during this period of economic uncertainty.

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. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.