The UK’s most active seed-stage investor has received an additional £10m commitment from British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank.
SFC Capital has received the money through the British Business Bank’s Regional Angels Programme, which is designed to reduce regional imbalances across the UK.
The commitment is expected to provide funding for 100 early-stage businesses across the UK, unlocking a total of £100m in new funding for startup and scaleup businesses.
This comes after a £15m commitment from the programme in 2020, which SFC fully deployed across more than 150 companies.
SFC has previously achieved several successful exits from the commitment, including Peopleforce, an HR software business which SFC exited to a leading European HR tech investor in a deal that returned 5x the original investment.
The firm announced in January that it has invested in over 500 UK startups since 2012, including the likes of Onfido, Cognism, and Transcend Packaging.
Only a few weeks before this milestone, it invested in London-based female-led MedTech Mulder.
“We are incredibly pleased to receive this extension and grateful to British Business Investments for their continued trust,” said Joseph Zipfel, chief investment officer.
“This was made possible by the strong performance of the companies that we have invested in so far under the programme, a testament to the strength of entrepreneurial talent that we have in the UK.
“The Regional Angels Programme is a formidable case study of how the private and public sector can collaborate to boost the startup ecosystem nationally while providing a positive return to taxpayers.”
Adam Kelly, managing director, British Business Investments, added: “Our Regional Angels Programme is designed to address imbalances in access to early-stage finance in the UK, and to increase the overall amount of capital available to smaller businesses through angel networks.
“Following our earlier commitments in 2020, this further commitment of £10m will allow SFC Capital to build on its track record of supporting high growth-potential businesses across the UK.”