Recommendation 19

The failure to scale companies reflects longstanding and deep-seated weaknesses in availability of laterstage capital, including a shortage of large, specialist funds and a limited pool of investors with the technical expertise and risk appetite to lead deeptech investments. The government is taking steps to address the issue, but they may not be enough. Public investment institutions such as British Business Bank play an important role in supporting UK tech but are too limited in scale and coordination to mobilise private capital at the level needed. Recent reforms, including the Mansion House agenda, have the potential to unlock substantial new capital, but their impact will take time to materialise, and without systemic reform they are unlikely to resolve the scaleup gap on their own. (Conclusion, Paragraph 80)