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British Patient Capital makes £20m cornerstone commitment to ETF Partners’ latest fund

Press release 10 July 2020

London: British Patient Capital, a subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has made a £20m cornerstone commitment to ETF Partners’ third fund as it announces its £167m close today.

Investing at series A and beyond, and with the capital to support companies as they scale through multiple funding rounds, ETF Partners’ third fund has already supported companies in diverse fields such as smart mobility, ethical cybersecurity, microbiome AI and software, and energy efficient data centres.

ETF Partners analyses each potential investment through a unique impact scorecard that, unlike traditional ESG metrics more suited to large established companies, assesses the future impact potential of innovative companies, based on attributes such as alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals, financial performance, and environmental impact.

One impact of Covid-19 has been to propel us into a new, digital age. Another has been to make us think about the world we now want to build, and how to make that world resilient and sustainable to address the challenges of climate change. These two themes, Digitisation and Sustainability, will define much of our future world.

Throughout this recent crisis, many digital companies have proved themselves to be robust, and they are also ‘scalable’ – able to grow fast in relatively capital efficient ways. So, by harnessing the right digital tools, the world can move quickly to achieve both sustainability and prosperity. That’s where we invest. By viewing the world through the lens of sustainability, we can see opportunities that may not be immediately obvious to all, but these companies can grow quickly to be large and significantly important.

Our investment in Zeelo is a case in point. It provides smart bus services for commuters. During the crisis, it adapted rapidly to also offer safe transport for critical workers.

Or Eagle Genomics, revolutionising how scientists collaborate to deliver products that help rather than harm the human and plant biomes, ensuring both bio-diversity and the ongoing vitality of species.

Or TravelTime where users can rapidly search journeys based on travel time rather than distance, enabling cities to pursue innovative urban planning initiatives and demonstrate that public transport is often superior viewed from a time perspective.

- Patrick Sheehan Managing Partner, ETF Partners

Tackling the climate emergency while also sustaining economic growth is critical.

We find in ETF Partners a compelling approach to investing sustainably in a way which leverages key trends such as the accelerated adoption of digital technologies.

Providing high-growth innovative businesses with the capital they need to scale-up rapidly and address emerging opportunities sits at the core of our investment strategy and is well aligned with our long-term vison for more home-grown companies to become influential players on the global stage.

- Catherine Lewis La Torre CEO, British Patient Capital

Further Information

Notes to editors

About British Patient Capital

British Patient Capital is the trading name of British Patient Capital Limited, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the UK government’s economic development bank. It forms part of the British Business Bank’s commercial arm.

Its mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative firms led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build large scale businesses. British Patient Capital has been given new resources of £2.5bn and will deliver a programme designed to support high growth potential innovative UK businesses in accessing the long-term financing they require to scale up. Find out more at britishpatientcapital.co.uk.

British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. Neither British Business Bank nor its principal operating subsidiaries are authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

British Patient Capital makes commitments and invests on its own behalf and on behalf of third-party investors whose investments British Patient Capital manages.

The investment from British Patient Capital into Environmental Technologies Fund 3 L.P. does not amount to any endorsement or warranty from British Patient Capital, the British Business Bank PLC, or the government of the UK.

About ETF Partners

ETF Partners supports talented entrepreneurs and management teams with investment capital and experience. Our funds come from institutional investors, global corporations and family offices. We create value by investing in technology companies that make a difference. We call it ‘sustainability through innovation’.

For more insight into ETF Partners’ view on Sustainability through Innovation, please read our investor briefings.

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