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Response to the Spring Budget 2023

Press release 15 March 2023

British Patient Capital

At today’s Spring Budget the Chancellor announced the extension of British Patient Capital’s mandate until 2033. This recognises British Patient Capital’s strong track record, with total commitments, including capital from other institutional investors, now more than £10.7bn.

We welcome the extension of British Patient Capital to 2033. British Patient Capital’s mission is to enable long-term investment into innovative companies with the potential to build world-class businesses. This extension, and the agreement in principle to recycle our capital to fund new investments, gives us the certainty to plan for the future, and means more high potential companies will be able to access the long-term, patient capital they need to scale up. Louis Taylor CEO, British Business Bank

Established in 2018 in direct response to the UK Government’s Patient Capital Review (PCR), British Patient Capital had an initial £2.5bn to invest over 10 years in venture and venture growth capital, unlocking billions in further private investment that high growth, innovative companies need to grow.

Across its three programmes, British Patient Capital now manages assets with a total value of £3,075m. Since its launch, British Patient Capital has become the largest domestic investor into UK venture capital.

The Chancellor’s decision to extend British Patient Capital will allow us to keep backing the innovative companies that will drive our economic growth. I’m proud of the role British Patient Capital has played over the past five years catalysing billions of pounds of private sector investment into venture capital. Today British Patient Capital is the largest domestic institutional investor in UK venture capital funds and the most active direct investor in late stage deep tech and life sciences companies. But there is still more to do.

Catherine Lewis La Torre CEO, British Patient Capital

A recently published independent evaluation has found that investments by British Patient Capital are a driving force for innovation behind scale up Britain. By enabling innovative companies across frontier science, disruptive technology and deep tech solutions to access finance more quickly and at a larger scale, British Patient Capital’s investment is having a wider economic impact: British Patient Capital-backed firms are likely to generate economic benefits of £5.1bn by 2030/31. 1

Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science

The Chancellor also provided an update on the Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) initiative. The government has published an invitation to provide feedback on the LIFTS proposals, which includes the potential for government investment into successful bids, as well as potential investment collaboration with British Patient Capital, leveraging our investment capabilities and market access.

This is an important initiative, with the potential to unlock billions of pounds of additional investment for the UK’s fastest growing and most innovative companies, while also enabling the UK’s pension savers to benefit from the value created by UK innovation. The Bank looks forward to supporting government in the next phase of the LIFTS initiative, and on its wider package of ambitious measures to unlock DC pension investment into innovative firms to be announced in the autumn. Louis Taylor CEO, British Business Bank

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