Just 2% of Future Fund going to Devolved Nations

On 20 May the UK govt opened the £250m Coronavirus Future Fund, providing government-backed loans worth between £125k and £5m to innovative businesses, as long as the money is at least matched by private investors. The fund is managed by the British Business Bank.

There have been 1,432 applications since the scheme launched in May, of which, £975.5m (way more than the original £250m) worth of convertible loan notes have been approved for 971 startups affected by Covid-19.

The fund published the diversity data of companies receiving convertible loan agreements recently, and Amy Lewin of Sifted has added some interesting insights to the data via Twitter.

Lewin notes that "Companies HQd in London have nabbed 61% of the funding. (That's about in line with equity investment across the UK in general.)". But what really stands out is the stat that only 2% of the fund has been allocated outside of England.

William Fraser of GrantTree wrote about the fund in June, saying that "All indications are that Future Fund support is being distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis [so] it’s important to move quickly.".

The scheme is still open, we can change this.