Sheffield-based British Business Bank, the UK government’s economic development bank, announced that it has so far co-invested over £250 million directly into the UK’s scale up companies.

“This funding has been invested into 33 UK technology and life science companies, over half of which are university spinouts,” said the bank.

“These companies have raised a total in excess of £2 billion, showing the Bank is successfully crowding in investment into the UK’s most promising scale ups.

“As well as this, the British Business Bank has recently expanded its direct investing team to 13 people as the Bank gears up to increase its investment activity into UK scale ups.

“The Bank recently announced that it has increased the amount that it can invest directly into UK companies at the forefront of driving innovation and growth from £15m to £60m.”

The bank is also working on the launch of the British Growth Partnership, which seeks to catalyse external institutional capital into the UK’s high potential companies.

The British Growth Partnership’s inaugural fund will invest directly into UK growth stage companies, tapping into the bank’s network and existing pipeline.

Aegon UK, NatWest Cushon, and London CIV have already announced their intention to work with the British Growth Partnership.

Leandros Kalisperas, Chief Investment Officer at British Business Bank, said: “The Bank’s co-investing plays a critical role in providing scale up capital, but we need to take this further.

“There are still plenty of high potential and IP rich companies that need funding to scale into globally significant companies, particularly in the eight priority sectors of the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy.”