British Business Bank backs Fuel Ventures the multi-fund VC built by entrepreneurs
Written by Christina Levada
The British Business Bank today announces a commitment of £10 million to the Fuel Ventures funds, made through the Bank’s Regional Angels Programme. A Programme launched in 2019 to address imbalances in access to early-stage equity finance, targeting angel networks and other early-stage investors to help enhance access to capital for businesses across diverse sectors.
Fuel Ventures was set up to back the next wave of ambitious tech founders and has since evolved into a multi-stage VC, with funds designed to support companies beyond initial investment, from Pre-Seed through to Series A. Founded by Mark Pearson following the sale of his business MyVoucherCodes, Fuel Ventures looks to help secure investment for some of the UK’s most promising early-stage companies who struggle to secure follow-on funding from their existing investors.
This £10 million commitment will allow Fuel Ventures to widen its capacity across the fund structure, supporting new early-stage investments and continued follow-on rounds for existing portfolio companies as they scale towards Series A.
Since inception, the Fuel Ventures funds have deployed over £280 million across more than 230 early-stage UK companies, including being one of the first investors in companies such as Volt valued at £256m (one of the fastest growing FinTech in Europe), ContentCal who were acquired for £110m by Adobe, and Capdesk who were acquired for $88m by Carta.
Mark Barry, Senior Investment Director at the British Business Bank said:
“The Regional Angels Programme exists to close gaps in early-stage access to capital across the UK, and this commitment is a good example of that in practice. Fuel Ventures brings founder-operator experience and its offering structure means the capital we’re providing does not stop at the first round-it keeps working for founders as they grow.”
Mark Pearson, Founder and Managing Partner of Fuel Ventures said:
“We’re built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, wherever they’re building. This backing from the British Business Bank is a strong vote of confidence in the model we’ve built at Fuel, it means we can keep standing behind the founders in our portfolio for longer and support them further as they grow.”
About the British Business Bank
The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.
The British Business Bank’s core programmes support £23bn of finance to almost 64,000 smaller businesses.
British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. With the exception of BBB Investment Services Limited they are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority. BBB Investment Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.
The commitment described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK government, the British Business Bank plc, its subsidiaries or any other party of Fuel Ventures Limited or its products or services.
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