British Business Bank: Research
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what performance indicators his Department uses to measure the extent to which the British Business Bank has reduced the scale-up financing gap of R&D intensive companies.
Answered by Blair McDougall
The indicator used to assess the financing gap is venture capital (VC) investment as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the UK as compared to the US, measured over 3 years. This gap (across all sectors) has narrowed from 30% greater investment in the US in 2019-2021 to 10% for 2022-2024.
The British Business Bank’s Small Business Equity Tracker report 2025 notes that the gap for R&D intensive sectors is wider. VC investment in these industries represented 0.25% of GDP in the UK during 2022-2024 against 0.31% in the US, equivalent to a gap of 30%.
Between 2022 and 2024, 49% of Bank-supported deals were in the tech sector, compared to 42% of deals across the overall market.
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