The UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has taken the next step in setting up the UK Innovation Investment Fund (UK IIF), a venture capital fund of funds to support the UK’s technology companies. Capital for Enterprise Ltd. will release the Request for Proposals (RFP) for prospective Fund of Fund managers for the UK IIF. The RFP is a key milestone in delivering the fund as it sets out the parameters for the fund and details the information expected from prospective Fund of Fund managers.
The RFP will ask potential Fund Managers to target the sectors of the future, such as life sciences, low carbon, digital and advanced manufacturing. Success in these sectors is key to the UK Government’s industrial strategy to create highly skilled jobs as Britain emerges out of the global downturn. The RFP will also ask Fund Managers how they will raise money from private sector investors to create the largest technology Fund in Europe.
The Departments for Business Innovation & Skills, Energy and Climate Change and Health will invest £150 M alongside private sector investment on a pari-passu basis. It is the Government’s ambition to leverage enough private investment to create a £1 B 10-year fund.
The UK Innovation Fund will safeguard the Government’s record investment in science over the past decade by demonstrating the wealth-generating potential of the UK research base. It will leverage substantial private sector investment and will boost the venture capital and syndication markets in the UK at a time when they are most vulnerable.