The British Business Bank has distributed some data points pertaining to the Future Fund on the 711 individual companies that have been approved to receive £720 million via convertible securities offerings.
The Future Fund is a COVID support program that is seeking to support early-stage ventures that frequently can not afford one of the other loans offered by the COVID lending schemes. A qualified applicant may receive matching funds from the UK government for a convertible security that may morph into equity at some point in the future. To date, the Bank indicates that 1,073 applications have been received since May 20, 2020. Some of these issuers utilize crowdfunding platforms to raise matching funds.
According to the British Business Bank, 40% of funding approved to companies for convertible loan agreements worth £291.1 million have their headquarters located outside of London.
Of the total amount, 17% is to companies headquartered in the South (South East and South West), 10% in the North (North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber), 7% in the East of England, 4% in the Midlands (East Midlands and West Midlands) and 3% in the Devolved Nations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).
As one may anticipate, London accounts for the majority (60%) of companies.
Of the 711 companies that have been approved for Future Fund investment, 82% of funding is to companies with mixed-gender senior management teams.
“Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) only and mixed ethnicity management teams” account for 65% of funding to companies that have been approved for Convertible Loan Agreements so far, worth £427.1m.
The British Business Bank said it will publish a report examining the state of Entrepreneurship and Diversity in the UK in autumn 2020.
Future Fund data by gender of company senior management team (self-reported by applicant)
| Management Team | No. of convertible loans approved |
Value of convertible loans approved |
| All female team | 8 | £7.2m |
| All male team | 181 | £118.4m |
| Mixed gender team | 492 | £554.5m |
| Chose not to provide data | 30 | £39.9m |
| Grand Total | 711 | £720.0m |
Future Fund data by ethnicity of company senior management team (self-reported by applicant)
| Management Team |
No. of convertible loans approved | Value of convertible loans approved |
| All BAME team | 37 | £28.3m |
| All white team | 275 | £233.1m |
| Mixed ethnicity team | 342 | £398.8m |
| Chose not to provide data | 57 | £59.8m |
| Grand Total | 711 | £720.0m |
Future Fund data by location where company applying to Future Fund is based
| No. of convertible loans approved | Value of convertible loans approved | |
| East Midlands | 6 | £7.6m |
| East of England | 51 | £53.2m |
| London | 404 | £428.9m |
| North East | 20 | £18.7m |
| North West | 35 | £36.0m |
| Northern Ireland | 8 | £7.3m |
| Other | 1 | £0.5m |
| Scotland | 12 | £5.1m |
| South East | 86 | £103.5m |
| South West | 28 | £17.5m |
| Wales | 14 | £7.1m |
| West Midlands | 23 | £18.6m |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 23 | £15.8m |
| Total | 711 | £720.0m |
