British Business Bank commits £135m to support UK life sciences sector
The British Business Bank has agreed to commit £60m to Advent Life Sciences Fund IV and committed £75m to Advent Life Sciences Growth Fund, bringing its total commitment across these two strategies to £135m. Together, these investments will help create deeper pools of capital for the UK’s high-potential life sciences companies, supporting companies from early-stage development through to later-stage growth and commercialisation.
The Bank has been a close partner of Advent since 2019 having made a commitment to Advent Life Sciences Fund III. Since then, the Bank has co-invested alongside Advent into innovative life sciences companies such as Proximie in 2022 and Cyted Health in 2025.
Advent Life Sciences is a transatlantic venture capital firm focused on building and investing in innovative life sciences businesses across the UK, Europe and the United States. The firm specialises in early and mid-stage companies developing new medicines, medical technologies and enabling platforms.
Advent Life Sciences Fund IV will support the development of early-stage companies developing products addressing significant clinical needs across the full breadth of the healthcare and life sciences sector.
Advent Life Sciences Growth Fund will focus mainly on the UK market, supporting companies progressing through clinical development as well as the commercial scale-up of non-therapeutic assets with initial market traction.
The British Business Bank is the largest investor in UK venture and venture growth capital funds, and today’s announcement brings the Bank’s total commitments, including agreed commitments to life sciences funds to more than £745m across 17 life sciences funds. The Bank’s commitments have collectively leveraged over £3bn from private sector investors into the life sciences sector.
Leandros Kalisperas, chief investment officer of the British Business Bank, said, “We are increasing the scale of our investments into sectors where the UK has a genuine international strategic advantage, and life sciences is top of that list. By writing larger cheques to leading specialist managers, we ensure the UK’s best companies access the domestic capital they need to scale and build the UK’s ever-growing life sciences ecosystem.”
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said, “Britain’s incredible life sciences expertise and facilities make us among the best in the world for medicines discovery, and this £135m backing for Advent means more of our most promising life sciences firms can scale up here, create skilled jobs across the UK, and get new treatments to patients faster. Life sciences is already a UK success story, but it has the potential to grow even further. This investment shows how we are continuing to genuinely back the companies and the sectors of the future.”
Mark Andrews, senior director, Life Sciences, at the British Business Bank, said, “Advent is one of the leading investors in UK life sciences, so we’re pleased to expand our relationship with them. The reality is that life science companies in the UK remain undercapitalised relative to their potential. By putting more capital behind specialist investors like Advent, we help the UK’s most promising life sciences companies turn world-class science into new treatments, while growing and creating jobs here in the UK.”
Professor Chris Molloy, CEO of the BioIndustry Association, said, “Commitments of this size and breadth are essential to give innovative UK businesses the fuel they need to start, scale, stay and serve the world from here. Through strategic backing of Britain’s expert venture firms, the British Business Bank is actively expanding our funding ecosystem, accelerating the delivery of medicines to patients and value to taxpayers.”