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British Patient Capital adopts Institutional Limited Partner Association diversity template

Press release 04 February 2019

British Patient Capital, a commercial subsidiary of the government-owned British Business Bank, is adopting the recently launched Institutional Limited Partner Association (ILPA) diversity template for venture capital firms applying for its programmes.

The new template, part of an expansion of ILPA’s due diligence questionnaire, enables venture capital teams to measure and report the gender and ethnic diversity of their teams by seniority and role, and aims to encourage conversations about issues around diversity.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, British Patient Capital said:

There is growing consensus that diversity is a critical success factor for high performing teams. As the leading LP in UK venture capital, if we aren’t actively promoting the necessity for diverse teams with the General Partners (GPs) we back, then we are failing in our mission to spread best practice and, importantly, missing out on better financial performance.

British Patient Capital strongly believes in the value of diverse teams and their importance in business. British Patient Capital are active proponents of increasing the spotlight in this area and are enhancing the diversity aspect of their due diligence by adopting the latest ILPA, diversity template. British Patient Capital team investment manager, Anu Adebajo, sits on the ILPA Diversity & Inclusion Committee which created the ILPA template.

The template is one of a number of recent developments which highlight and address issues around diversity in the VC industry. This week the British Business Bank published its VC & Female Founders report (PDF, 972 KB) which revealed that for every £1 of venture capital (VC) investment in the UK, all-female founder teams get less than 1p while all-male founder teams get 89p. A possible contributing factor is that venture capital firms themselves currently have few female decision makers, with women holding just 13% of senior positions in UK investment teams.

Catherine Lewis La Torre continued:

The institutional investment community tends to adopt change gradually. However, when changes occur, they are usually permanent. It is clear the issues of diversity and inclusion have been moving up the agenda, therefore, we welcome the latest British Business Bank research. As a leading LP in the UK venture and growth market we look forward to working with our General Partners, to help drive positive change.

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About British Patient Capital

British Patient Capital is the trading name of British Patient Capital Limited, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. It forms part of the British Business Bank’s commercial arm. Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large scale businesses. British Patient Capital has been given new resources of £2.5bn and will deliver a programme designed to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. Find out more at britishpatientcapital.co.uk.

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