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British Patient Capital – Full Year Results for the period ending 31 March 2021

Press release 18 November 2021

Accelerating innovation: British Patient Capital’s total commitments reach almost £1.3bn.

British Patient Capital committed £297m in the year to March 2021, taking our total commitments since inception to almost £1.3bn. We now have 51 fund investments in our portfolio, including nine commitments to new venture and venture growth funds during the last year. We also made our first two co-investments, investing alongside our fund managers into two of the most promising companies within our underlying portfolio.

More than half of our portfolio – 26 of the 51 fund investments – are now in the venture growth stage, which we define as funds that invest at Series B onwards. This is in line with our investment strategy and is a key milestone in the evolution of British Patient Capital’s portfolio. By strengthening the UK market for later stage venture capital, we help our ambitious growth stage founders to scale up while remaining anchored in the UK.

The number of companies within our underlying portfolio also increased from 503 to 676 over the 12-month period. Many of these innovative companies operate in sectors critical to driving the country’s wider economic recovery and future prosperity, including life sciences, AI & big data, cybersecurity, cleantech and fintech.

In line with the exceptional momentum in the wider venture capital market, we also generated a strong financial performance in the year to 31 March 2021. While most our portfolio is yet to be realised and the long-term performance of our portfolio is not yet evident, this is an early indication that a patient capital investment strategy can produce attractive returns.

Judith Hartley CEO, British Patient Capital

Key highlights:

In its third year, British Patient Capital has continued to deliver strongly against its business plan:

  • Total value of portfolio commitments reached £1,293m across 51 funds and two co-investments
  • Total commitments, including capital from other institutional investors, now total more than £7.3bn
  • Nine new funds commitments1  and two co-investments with a total value of £297m during the last year
  • Commitments to the life sciences sector reach more than £150m via five fund investments

Achieving an attractive rate of return for the UK taxpayer2 :

  • The total portfolio Internal Rate of Return since inception was 25.3% (7%)3
  • The portfolio TVPI was 1.514  (1.15)

Notable investments during the year include commitments to:

  • Balderton Capital’s inaugural venture growth fund
  • Abingworth Bioventures 8, supporting companies developing novel therapeutics
  • Evolution Technology Fund II, providing growth-stage finance to companies utilising big data and AI to tackle increasing cybersecurity challenges.
  • UCL Technology Fund 2, bringing the academic research of world-renowned university, UCL, to commercial reality

Establishing our co-investment portfolio

As companies in the underlying portfolio mature and scale, British Patient Capital sees increasing opportunities to invest directly in the later-stage funding rounds of the most promising UK companies.

This year, British Patient Capital made its first two co-investments, investing alongside British Patient Capital fund managers into two of the most promising companies within its underlying portfolio: Quantexa’s $65m Series C funding round and Thought Machine’s $125m Series B funding round.

Co-investments will play an increasingly important role for British Patient Capital in achieving its vision for more home grown and fully-funded high growth companies to fulfil their potential to be significant players on the global stage.

Looking ahead, British Patient Capital will expand the capability and capacity of the investment team in order to increase co-investment activity and facilitate the delivery of Future Fund: Breakthrough.

Portfolio themes

While British Patient Capital is sector agnostic in its investment strategy, the underlying companies within our portfolio fall in to one of eight themes: Future of work and education (24%), Marketplaces and consumer (13%), Digital health and life sciences (18%), Big data and AI (12%), Future of finance (12%) and Clean growth, sustainability and mobility (7%), Cybersecurity (6%) and Frontier tech (5%).

  • 1

    All fund commitment figures refer to British Patient Capital and third-party mandates

  • 2

    All returns figures refer to British Patient Capital only

  • 3

    Figures in parathesis show returns for reporting year 2019/20

  • 4

    Total Value to Paid in Capital: the ratio of the current value of remaining investments within a fund, plus the total value of all distributions to date, relative to the total amount of capital paid into the fund to date

While the impact of Covid-19 led to profound difficulties, it also highlighted the value of innovative companies to society and the economy. From enabling many of us to remain productive from our homes to developing and delivering Covid-19 vaccines, innovative companies have helped sustain the economy and our future wellbeing. It is the long-term patient capital that we, and others, provide that will enable the continued growth of these exceptional businesses. Russ Cummings Chair, British Patient Capital

Further Information

Notes to editors

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. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has £2.5bn to invest over 10 years in venture and venture growth capital 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.

British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. Neither British Business Bank nor its principal operating subsidiaries are authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

British Patient Capital makes commitments and invests on its own behalf and on behalf of third-party investors whose investments British Patient Capital manages.

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