Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the availability of later-stage capital on the ability of university spin-out companies to scale in the UK.

Since 2015, the UK has grown share of global VC investment at all stages. It now matches the Bay Area at early stage, though still lags at breakout and late stages. UK companies also progress between VC rounds at a higher rate than European peers.

To improve later-stage capital, alongside wider government measures, we have increased the British Business Bank’s total financial capacity to £25.6 billion, including £5 billion for growth-stage funds such as the £1 billion+ UK S&T Scale Up Fund. Pensions reforms could unlock up to £50 billion, supported by British Business Bank programmes helping pension funds invest in venture. In parallel, Innovate UK is working with the public finance institutions to create a connected investment pipeline to support science and technology firms from innovation to capital at scale.