BVCA lays out £190bn UK growth plans – UKTN

The British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) has identified £190bn of funds held by investors expected to be deployed over the next five years.

The investment trade body, which gathered the data from over 2,000 funds, has therefore published a series of recommendations on how the untapped funds can be used to most effectively achieve the growth demanded by policymakers.

Highlighting the success of life sciences, which the BVCA said raised £3.5bn last year, the report noted that the sector in the UK is extremely active at early-stages but relies on US crossover funds and acquisitions to achieve scale.

It therefore called for government-backed programmes specifically targeting growth-stage life science businesses in a similar style to the British Business Bank’s recent Growth Capital Initiative.

The report also noted the success of the UK AI sector, which now accounts for a quarter of recent UK venture capital funding. For the BVCA, the issue here is largely in the ability of universities, where some of the most cutting-edge research in the field happens, to spin out companies.

It has urged the government to implement the recommendations made in the landmark 2023 Spinout Review.

Finally, the report looked at the increasingly investor-engaged defence tech sector. The government has already committed support for backing investments in the defence, however, the BVCA said greater coherence across policy, regulation and messaging is needed.

In particular, the group identified procurement reform and wider access to government contracts for mid-market firms as a way to broaden the success of the sector beyond a handful of established giants.

“With £190bn of dry powder available to invest, the private capital industry is ready to play a bigger part in strengthening the UK’s growth trajectory,” said BVCA chief executive Michael Moore.

“The UK has huge strengths in sectors like AI, life sciences and defence which can be built on, but this will require action from Government with a renewed focus on removing the barriers and friction which is holding back even greater levels of investment.”

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