British Business Bank commits £50m to deep tech fund

The British Business Bank has pledged up to £50 million to Longwall Venture Partners' latest fund to support early-stage deep tech companies.

Founded in 2008, Longwall Ventures is a UK early-stage venture capital firm that's so far invested in more than 50 deep tech companies, ranging from medical devices to defence and aerospace applications.

"The UK's strong research base across academia and industry has created a rich seam of opportunities to turn ground-breaking science into valuable businesses, but these businesses often struggle to raise long-term capital to support them on their journey to commercialization," said David Denny, managing partner at Longwall Venture Partners.

"We are excited to find the next crop of deeptech investments for our new fund."

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This new British Business Bank commitment to the Longwall 4 fund follows similar investments in Longwall's Oxford Technology ECF LP in 2008, Longwall Ventures ECF LP in 2012, and Longwall Ventures 3 ECF LP in 2017.

The first of these was one of the first investors in OrganOx, which was sold in 2025 to Terumo Corporation for more than $1.5 billion – making it the biggest acquisition of an Oxford University spinout to date, and one of the UK's biggest-ever medtech exit deals. It delivered a 19.2x return for investors, including the Bank.

And with five exits so far in OTECF, the fund's private LPs have received a return of six times on their original investment.

"British Business Bank's investment into Longwall Venture's new fund will provide a major boost to startups across key growth sectors and is a shot in the arm for the UK's thriving technology sector," said business secretary Peter Kyle.

"This news demonstrates how this government is using our Modern Industrial Strategy to deliver long-term growth and opportunities that support skilled jobs and raises living standards across the UK."

The British Business Bank is the largest investor in UK venture and venture growth capital funds. Its Enterprise Capital Funds program aims to increase the supply of equity capital to early-stage UK companies with long-term growth potential, and reduce the barriers to entry for fund managers looking to operate in the VC market. It's backed 54 funds to date, representing around £2.7 billion of finance.

"The Enterprise Capital Funds programme plays a crucial role in helping early-stage funds raise capital with a cornerstone investment, increasing the amount of scale-up finance available for high-growth early-stage companies," said Mark Sims, managing director, head of development equity funds at the British Business Bank.

"With businesses like OrganOx already pushing the boundaries of what's possible, our continued partnership with Longwall Ventures will help uncover the next generation of breakthrough technologies and UK success stories."

Working with the same strategy as its previous funds, Longwall 4 will continue to target UK-based startup and early-stage science and engineering deeptech companies across a range of sectors, including the Industrial Strategy sectors of Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy, Defence, and Life Sciences.

Fund 4 is targeting investing between £500,000 and £2 million into around 15 companies, with a 'significant' amount of capital reserved for follow on investments. It has already raised £86.2 million, and is targeting £100 million at close.