British Business Bank commits up to £10m to Ascension Ventures
The British Business Bank has announced a new up to £10m commitment through its Regional Angels Programme to Ascension Ventures, one of the UK and Europe’s leading Pre-Seed and Seed funds with a focus on helping high-growth technology companies scale.
The Regional Angels Programme, launched in 2019 with the objective of addressing regional imbalances in access to early-stage equity finance, targets angel networks and other early-stage investors outside of London. This commitment supports this mission, enhancing access to capital for early-stage businesses across diverse sectors and ensuring that innovative founders outside of London and the South East have access to the patient capital required to scale.
This strategic partnership will see Ascension deploy the Bank’s capital alongside its existing funds (EIS/SEIS) and its institutional impact fund, Ascension Fund III. Ascension has been one of the most active technology investors in the UK since 2015, and was 2022 Seed VC of the year (finalist in 2025) and Impact Leader runner-up at last year’s EUVC Awards.
Mark Barry, senior investment director at British Business Bank, said: “We’re delighted to partner with Ascension, who have an incredible founder friendly reputation. This reputation, coupled with how they have demonstrated their commitment to invest commercially with impact across the UK, makes this an exciting commitment through our Regional Angels Programme.”
Jean de Fougerolles, managing partner at Ascension, said: “We have long believed that talent is distributed across the UK, but opportunity is not. This up to £10m commitment from the British Business Bank allows us to double down on our mission to back exceptional founders regardless of their postcode.
Crucially, this partnership bolsters our commitment to the regions, allowing us to deploy capital alongside our other funds. It reinforces our strategy to write high-conviction cheques, providing the patient, long-term support that regional founders need to build category-defining companies.”