Growing Great British Businesses

This report has been produced by the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (“BVCA”) to demonstrate the activities of our members in 2021. The statistics in this report are largely drawn from the BVCA’s Investment Activity Study, a detailed and comprehensive survey of our members’ activity in the year, covering fundraising, business investments and business exits.

With a significant presence in the UK, developed over the past 30 years, private equity and venture capital provide companies with the finance and know-how to deliver sustainable business growth. Active ownership, over the medium to long term, delivers economic and social value to those involved in the businesses (from employees, management and owners on the one hand, to customers and suppliers on the other) and a wide group of stakeholders (from local communities and local and regional economies, to national policy makers focused on issues such as climate change, diversity and inclusion (D&I) and social justice).

Both private equity and venture capital are focused on delivering sustainable growth for the companies in which they invest: venture capital firms typically support early stage and younger companies, holding minority stakes in the businesses, while private equity firms typically acquire controlling stakes in more established businesses.

In this report we look at the story of 2021: how the BVCA’s members invested in businesses of all shapes and sizes, across all parts of the economy and across all the nations & regions of the UK.

A companion publication “Report on Investment Activity 2021: Statistics from our annual member survey” provides the full aggregated survey results and an excel extract of the aggregated results can also be downloaded from our website here.