£4BN British Business Bank Project Includes Legal Tech – Artificial Lawyer

While it may not be that well-known, the UK has its own special bank for driving growth – the British Business Bank – and it is open to providing loans and investment to legal tech as part of a new funding program, along with many other sectors, Artificial Lawyer has been told. Investments into companies of up to £60m are envisaged, along with other opportunities for funding.

The move comes as part of a wider project to breath new life into UK-based companies with a £4 billion initiative, branded as British Business Bank Industrial Strategy Growth Capital, that the Government has announced.

That large dose of cash will be invested through the Bank’s existing capabilities ‘across the eight growth-driving sectors: advanced manufacturing, clean energy industries, creative industries, defence, digital and technologies, financial services, life sciences, and professional and business services’, they said. That cash is being dished out through a variety of methods, from basic loans, to funding, to grants – all depending on what aspect of the program you engage with.

Artificial Lawyer asked the UK Government’s PR rep if that would include helping legal tech companies? They said: ‘One of the eight growth-driving sectors of the UK’s modern Industrial Strategy is Digital and Technology, and another is Professional and Business Services, and a sub sector of this is Legal Services. Therefore, legal tech may be an area which benefits from investment in the future.’

So, that’s good to hear.

As befits a government program, the roll-out, although very positive, looks complicated and multi-part – and you’ll have to figure out how to access the funds and loans. However, they explained that they would:

‘Tackle the scale-up financing gap for priority sectors by investing greater amounts in companies through our direct investments, leading future investment rounds and making strategic large investments of up to £60m in UK companies that are at the forefront of driving innovation and growth.

Build a long-term funding ecosystem by cornerstoning specialist venture capital funds investing in modern Industrial Strategy sectors and doubling our support for emerging fund managers.

Work with industry to actively develop new products and solutions to support priority sectors and subsectors, for example by making early-stage direct investments into UK AI companies in areas of high potential with a view to keeping them in the UK longer term, or creating new specialist debt funds to leverage private investment into supply chains of priority sectors.’

And this would be alongside:

‘Launching two new Nations and Regions Investment Funds, totalling £350m, in the East and South East of England: these funds will address regional finance gaps outside traditional hotspots by bringing targeted equity and debt finance to growing businesses and supporting innovation clusters.

Strengthening regional innovation through additional targeted £100m investment into the existing Nations and Regions Investment Funds and embedding dedicated Cluster Champions, using the Bank’s expertise and investment capital to help businesses grow.

Expanding the British Business Bank’s Regional Angels Programme: helping reduce regional imbalances in access to early stage equity and support for smaller UK businesses.

Expanding diverse angel networks through new Angel Syndicate Support and Embracing Diversity programmes: these will deliver operational support to angel syndicates focused on bringing in more underrepresented angel investors to back early-stage companies, while helping to ensure that founders from all backgrounds have access to the capital they need to grow.

Creating a more inclusive investment ecosystem with a new Investor Pathway Capital programme.‘

As noted, that’s quite a lot of elements to engage with, but the simple message is: ‘we have taxpayer money for entrepreneurs – including in the legal tech sector – so apply if you want it’.

If you have the fortitude to wade through this mass of benign bureaucracy, then you can find more information here.

(P.S. was just thinking: how many Civil Servants are going to be needed to run this complex network of initiatives? Don’t want to be critical when the Government is trying to help, but surely there is a simpler, one-stop-shop way of shifting taxpayer cash into startups than the above smorgasbord of projects? Any road, good to see they’re trying to help.

P.P.S. of course, some may also argue – especially if from the Hayek side of economic theory – that governments shouldn’t be getting involved in this kind of thing. That said, all nations fund aspects of their private industry base (e.g. oil, defence, transport, etc), so why not legal tech as well…and other areas? )

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