SFC Capital receives £10m boost from the British Business Bank

SFC Capital has received a further £10m from the British Business Bank under the Regional Angels Programme, extending the Bank’s total commitment to £35m.

The Regional Angels Programme is designed to reduce regional imbalances in access to early-stage equity finance. 

Following previous commitments of £25m across three tranches, this fourth tranche of funding reflects the British Business Bank’s confidence in SFC’s ability to deploy capital effectively, support ambitious founders, and strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems across the UK.

The SFC Capital team has deployed all previous commitments in full and the combined capital has funded more than 260 early-stage businesses across the UK, investing alongside SFC’s SEIS and EIS funds as well as the SFC Angel Network.  

The Bank says investments made through the programme have generated encouraging returns and a growing number of successful exits. An example is Peopleforce, an HR software business acquired by a European recruitment technology company, which returned more than five times the original investment.

The new funding is expected to fund a further 100 companies, taking SFC’s total Regional Angels Programme impact to more than 350 early-stage businesses. More than half of SFC’s investments are made outside London, with opportunities sourced through a broad network of universities, accelerators, incubators and angel groups.

“This further commitment from the Bank, which takes our total commitment to SFC to £35m via our Regional Angels Programme, will be put to work to address imbalances in access to early-stage finance across the UK,” says Mark Barry, senior director at the British Business Bank. 

“This will allow SFC Capital to build on its track record of supporting high growth-potential businesses across the UK.”