British Business Bank South West Investment Fund
BBB regional fund deploying capital in the South West of England through external fund managers.
Last refreshed: 1 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
How do British Business Bank regional funds fill the VC gap outside London?
Timeline for British Business Bank South West Investment Fund
Deployed regional capital into Third Space Learning via Maven Capital Partners
UK Startups and Innovation: Third Space Learning raises £4.4m for Skye- What is the British Business Bank South West Investment Fund?
- It is a regional sub-fund of the UK Government's British Business Bank that deploys equity and debt into South West England SMEs, managed by Maven Capital Partners. It requires private co-investment and backs seed to Series A companies.Source: British Business Bank public record
- How is the BBB South West fund different from other VC funds?
- The BBB South West fund is publicly backed, designed to crowd in private capital to a region with less commercial VC activity. It does not compete with private VCs but requires them as co-investors, matching rather than replacing private cheques.Source: British Business Bank public record
- Who manages the BBB South West Investment Fund?
- Maven Capital Partners is appointed by the British Business Bank to deploy the South West Investment Fund. Maven makes investment decisions and manages the portfolio on the BBB's behalf.
Background
The British Business Bank South West Investment Fund is a regional sub-fund of the British Business Bank, the UK Government's economic development bank. It deploys equity and debt capital into small and medium-sized enterprises based in the South West of England, a region that has historically received proportionally less venture capital than London and the South East. The fund operates through fund managers appointed by the British Business Bank: Maven Capital Partners is the current equity deployment partner for the South West fund.
The BBB South West Investment Fund invests at seed and Series A stage, typically writing tickets of £100,000-£2m alongside private co-investors. Its role in the UK capital ecosystem is to crowd in private capital to regions where commercial VCs perceive insufficient deal flow, rather than to compete with them. The fund requires co-investment from private sources as a condition of its participation, so every BBB South West cheque is matched by private money.
The fund participated in Third Space Learning's £4.4m round in April 2026, alongside Blackfinch Ventures, Foresight Group and Nesta, deployed through Maven Capital Partners. Third Space Learning is based in London but the round illustrates the BBB's broader mandate to support UK-wide edtech scale-up. The 2026 funding window has demonstrated the BBB regional funds filling a capital-source gap opened by the April 2026 VCT income tax relief reduction from 30% to 20%, which has reduced retail-investor appetite for early-stage UK companies.