BGF chief says venture sector has ‘work to do’ but gives stout defence of own fund’s record

The Manchester-based chief executive of the Business Growth Fund (BGF) has told TheBusinessDesk.com there is “work to be done” to diversify teams and back female founders, but defended his own fund’s track record.

Andy Gregory, chief executive of capital investor also revealed the fund had submitted evidence to the recent House of Commons Treasury Committee report on Venture Capital and welcomed the spotlight on investment into regional businesses with high growth potential.

As reported by TheBusinessDesk.com, the committee slammed the investment record of the London-dominated venture capital sector  for its lack of diversity and geographic bias to the south.

Gregory said his fund’s model, and investment track record, was proof of “brilliant businesses and good investments” outside of London and the South East. 

“We were set up in 2011 in response to the post financial crisis funding gap, specifically targeting businesses across every region of the UK and Ireland with the potential to scale. 

“Now with 15 offices across the UK and Ireland, and with more than £3 billion of funding deployed, 70% of our capital is invested outside London and the South East and many of our successful scale-up stories have been businesses in the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands.”

MPs on the powerful House of Commons Treasury Committee were also critical of the venture capital industry’s lack of diversity in investee companies.

Gregory said he was “unwavering” in a belief of the social and economic value that is driven from having diversity of every kind within our portfolio. 

“We’re proud to be the most active investor in female-led scale-ups and we are outpacing the industry in terms of capital committed. Since 2011, BGF has invested £365 million in women-led businesses and provided £60 million follow-on funding. That said, there’s still a lot of work to be done and we’ll continue to work to diversify our own teams and to attract even more female founders to our portfolio.” 

He added: “Last year, BGF also led investment into Cornerstone VC, a new £20 million diversity-focused fund with the remit to invest in exceptional entrepreneurs in the UK from diverse backgrounds. The fund focuses on tech-enabled companies at pre-seed and seed stage, typically investing initial cheques of between £250k and £1 million, with capital reserved for follow-on funding. Investments from Cornerstone VC have included Manchester technology company, Sticky, which raised £1.5 million in seed funding in May to accelerate customer growth across leisure and retail markets around the world.”