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British Patient Capital to invest in Thought Machine, as part of $125 million series B funding

Press release 28 July 2020

London: British Patient Capital announces it will participate in Thought Machine’s series B funding round as Thought Machine announces the signing of an additional $42m, bringing the round’s total value to $125m. This extension is led by Eurazeo Growth, with SEB, a customer of Thought Machine, also joining the round, which is due to close in early August.

The participation in Thought Machine’s series B round will be one of the first direct investments by British Patient Capital in a company as part of a long-term co-investment strategy that identifies and supports high-potential, later-stage UK companies in its underlying portfolio. British Patient Capital had prior exposure to Thought Machine via its investments in Draper Esprit, who led the Series B round, and the IQ Capital Growth Fund. IQ Capital led the Seed round in the company in 2016.

Thought Machine’s flagship technology, Vault, is being used by major banks and fintech companies around the world as they transition to cloud native technology. The company has scaled up international hiring, adding 100 employees in the first two quarters of 2020 across three regions. Thought Machine has also expanded product compatibility to all major cloud providers.

This direct investment by British Patient Capital, alongside our fund managers IQ Capital and Draper Esprit, will be a significant step forward to achieving our long-term vision for more home-grown and fully-funded high growth companies to fulfil their potential to be players on the global stage.

We have followed Thought Machine’s development closely and have been particularly impressed with the scale of the team’s ambition. By focusing on transforming core banking technology Thought Machine will bring innovation, agility and resilience to banks around the world.

- Catherine Lewis La Torre CEO British Patient Capital
The prospect of transitioning to cloud native technology is now at the forefront of every major bank’s roadmap. Plans have been hastened in the wake of regulatory pressure, economic uncertainty and the need to manage cost-income ratios. We are delighted to partner with British Patient Capital, which demonstrates ongoing investor interest in our technology and the significant market opportunity we are addressing. - Paul Taylor CEO and Founder, Thought Machine

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. Launched in June 2018, British Patient Capital has £2.5bn to invest over 10 years in venture and venture growth capital 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 Thought Machine Group Limited will not amount to any endorsement or warranty from British Patient Capital, the British Business Bank PLC, or the government of the UK.

About Thought Machine

Thought Machine was founded in 2014 with a mission to enable banks to deploy modern systems and move away from the legacy IT platforms that plague the banking industry. We do this through our cloud native core banking platform, Vault. This next generation system has been written from scratch as an entirely cloud native platform. It does not contain a single line of code which is legacy, or pre-cloud.

Founded by entrepreneur Paul Taylor, Thought Machine’s customers include Lloyds Banking Group, SEB, Standard Chartered and Atom bank. We are currently a team of more than 350 people spread across offices in London and Singapore. For more information visit thoughtmachine.net.