British Business Bank to boost support for investors in UK start-ups

The British Business Bank will support investors in UK start-ups through a next £100 million phase of its Investor Pathways Capital Initiative.

The initiative, which will invest £400 million in total, helps fund managers provide the catalytic early capital that innovative, early-stage businesses need to scale up, drive local growth and create jobs.

In June, the British Business Bank committed up to £90 million to 10 new microfunds as part of the first Investor Pathways Capital cohort. Applications for the next cohort, which is part of this £100 million deployment, will open in Autumn 2026.

The announcement follows a number of recent reforms to other British Business Bank schemes to help more businesses access government-backed finance. These include an increase in lending capacity for the Growth Guarantee Scheme by a further £2 billion by 2028/29 that could reach an additional 12,000 small businesses each year. Since the Growth Guarantee Scheme launched in 2022, it has delivered over £3.7 billion of financing to UK SMEs with £2.5 billion of this reaching businesses outside of London and the Southeast.

Annual results posted by the British Business Bank in July revealed that in the 2025/26 financial year has supported £9.4 billion of finance for small businesses in the 2025/26 financial year  – £1.3 billion was public funding, £4.3 billion was private capital crowded in by the Bank, and £3.7 billion came through lending the Bank guaranteed.