British Business Bank backs multi-fund VC Fuel Ventures with €11 million investment

The British Business Bank (the Bank) announced €11 million (£10 million) to the Fuel Ventures funds, made through the Bank’s Regional Angels Programme. This programme launched in 2019 to address imbalances in access to early-stage equity finance.

Fuel Ventures was set up to back the next wave of ambitious Tech founders and has since evolved into a multi-stage VC, with funds designed to support companies beyond initial investment, from pre-Seed through to Series A.

“The Regional Angels Programme exists to close gaps in early-stage access to capital across the UK, and this commitment is a good example of that in practice. Fuel Ventures brings founder-operator experience and its offering structure means the capital we’re providing does not stop at the first round—it keeps working for founders as they grow.” said Mark Barry, Senior Investment Director at the British Business Bank.

The Fuel Ventures commitment follows a wider series of investments by the British Business Bank in UK venture and growth-capital managers during 2026. Most directly, the Bank has already committed up to €11.5 million (£10 million) to Ascension Ventures and a further €11 million to SFC Capital through the same Regional Angels Programme, which is intended to reduce geographic imbalances in access to early-stage equity.

Elsewhere this year, EU-Startups has reported British Business Bank commitments of up to €104 million to ten emerging VC managers through Investor Pathways Capital, €46 million to FPE Capital, €35 million to Tapestry VC and €58 million to Soho Square Capital.

More recently, the Bank committed up to €53.6 million to Zinc Capital Management and €87 million to Molten Ventures. Together with the new Fuel Ventures allocation, these disclosed commitments amount to approximately €417 million, spanning funding strategies from pre-Seed and Seed through to later-stage growth.

The Bank has also been deploying capital directly into UK technology companies. In June, EU-Startups reported that its direct investment portfolio had passed 50 companies after more than €695 million had been invested in UK science and technology scale-ups.

Founded by Mark Pearson following the sale of his business MyVoucherCode, Fuel Ventures looks to help secure investment for some of the UK’s most promising early-stage companies who struggle to secure follow-on funding from their existing investors.

This commitment will allow Fuel Ventures to widen its capacity across the fund structure, supporting new early-stage investments and continued follow-on rounds for existing portfolio companies as they scale towards Series A.

Since inception, the Fuel Ventures says its funds have deployed over €330 million (£280 million) across more than 230 early-stage UK companies, including being one of the first investors in companies such as Volt valued at £256m (one of the fastest growing FinTech in Europe), ContentCal who were acquired for €129 million (£110 million) by Adobe, and Capdesk who were acquired for €78 million ($88 million) by Carta.

“We’re built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, wherever they’re building. This backing from the British Business Bank is a strong vote of confidence in the model we’ve built at Fuel, it means we can keep standing behind the founders in our portfolio for longer and support them further as they grow.” added Mark Pearson, founder and Managing Partner of Fuel Ventures.