The Business Growth Fund (BGF) has revealed that it invested £69m into early-stage UK and Ireland tech companies last year.
The majority of investments made from the fund went toward firms working in deep tech, life sciences in addition to climate and sustainability.
“In 2022 we saw a broad spectrum of earlier stage opportunities across our focus areas and it is promising to see the depth of progress that is being made in these burgeoning sectors,” said Andy Gregory, CEO of BGF.
“The early stage team continues to support companies where we see real scalability and opportunity for BGF to support both growth and value creation in these critically important markets.”
Out of the £69m, £38m went towards new additions to the BGF portfolio and the remaining £31m to 12 companies it has previously invested in.
New investments from BGF in 2022 included Wokingham-based smart boiler maker Tepeo’s Series A and Nottingham-based Cheesecake Energy’s pre-Series A.
Investments inside its portfolio included the hydrogen startup Bramble Energy, agritech firm Arborea, and autonomous vehicle software developer Oxbotica, which in January raised £115m.
Tim Rea, head of early stage, BGF, said: “The UK and Ireland is brimming with talent, and we are at the forefront of innovation in some of the most critically important sectors of our time – namely life sciences and climate tech. BGF remains committed to supporting the next generation of innovative businesses as they position themselves for rapid growth.”
In the UK BGF has various offices including a presence in Newcastle, Belfast, Reading, Cardiff and Leeds.
BGF this month invested in Cambridge biotech Maxion Therapeutics.