Key Takeaways
- • The British Business Bank has committed £180 million across six venture capital and growth equity funds backing AI and deeptech companies, spanning inception, seed, early-stage, and growth stages.
- • The largest single commitment is £55m ($75m) to Intrepid Growth Partners Fund I, a growth investor focused on AI, followed by £35m to Crane III, an inception-through-seed fund.
- • The Bank also made a direct £10m investment in Oxford spinout Salience Labs, which is developing optical switching technology for AI networking.
- • CEO Leandros Kalisperas framed the move as addressing a gap between UK technical excellence and domestic funding, aiming to keep more innovation value in the UK.
- • Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds linked the investment to UK sovereign AI capability, stating the goal is to make the UK "AI makers, not AI takers."
Summary
The British Business Bank has committed £180 million to six venture capital and growth equity funds focused on artificial intelligence and deeptech, according to an announcement reported by SME Magazine and mirrored in the Bank's own press release dated 15 October 2026. The commitments are designed to cover the full investment lifecycle, from inception and pre-seed through to Series B and beyond.
The individual allocations are: £35m to Crane III, a global inception-through-seed fund investing at the intersection of AI, software, infrastructure and deep science; £20m to Connect V, which backs technical founders at pre-seed covering AI, hardware and real-world automation; £22m ($30m) to Entrepreneurs First's Early Stage Fund, targeting seed, Series A and Series B companies including AI infrastructure; £55m ($75m) to Intrepid Growth Partners Fund I, a specialist AI growth investor; £26m (€30m) to Headline EU VIII, a $400m fund backing Seed and Series A companies across Europe with an AI focus; and £22m ($29m) to Evantic Fund I, which partners with globally focused AI companies at the growth stage.
In a separate transaction, the Bank announced a direct £10m investment in Salience Labs, an Oxford spinout developing optical switching technology that the company says removes a key bottleneck in AI networking. The Bank has also separately committed £10m to Odyssey Ventures' early-stage fund, Odyssey Discovery I, according to its publisher context.
British Business Bank CEO Leandros Kalisperas said the UK has no shortage of ideas or talent, but that its funding landscape does not currently match its technical excellence, and that the commitments form part of a strategy to create deeper pools of funding at every growth stage. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said AI is a transformative technology and that the investment would help build "safe, secure, homegrown companies," reinforcing the government's push for sovereign AI capabilities.
BusinessCloud reported the same six-fund commitment under the headline "British Business Bank commits £180m across 6 AI funds."
The individual allocations are: £35m to Crane III, a global inception-through-seed fund investing at the intersection of AI, software, infrastructure and deep science; £20m to Connect V, which backs technical founders at pre-seed covering AI, hardware and real-world automation; £22m ($30m) to Entrepreneurs First's Early Stage Fund, targeting seed, Series A and Series B companies including AI infrastructure; £55m ($75m) to Intrepid Growth Partners Fund I, a specialist AI growth investor; £26m (€30m) to Headline EU VIII, a $400m fund backing Seed and Series A companies across Europe with an AI focus; and £22m ($29m) to Evantic Fund I, which partners with globally focused AI companies at the growth stage.
In a separate transaction, the Bank announced a direct £10m investment in Salience Labs, an Oxford spinout developing optical switching technology that the company says removes a key bottleneck in AI networking. The Bank has also separately committed £10m to Odyssey Ventures' early-stage fund, Odyssey Discovery I, according to its publisher context.
British Business Bank CEO Leandros Kalisperas said the UK has no shortage of ideas or talent, but that its funding landscape does not currently match its technical excellence, and that the commitments form part of a strategy to create deeper pools of funding at every growth stage. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said AI is a transformative technology and that the investment would help build "safe, secure, homegrown companies," reinforcing the government's push for sovereign AI capabilities.
BusinessCloud reported the same six-fund commitment under the headline "British Business Bank commits £180m across 6 AI funds."
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