A question of access: Realising the goals of the Patient Capital Review on venture capital schemes

Despite the UK being home to one of the world's most dominant financial centres, it ranks only 13th in the OECD in terms of the number of scale-up businesses based in the country.

Put another way, fewer than one in ten firms that receive seed funding in the UK go on to get fourth round investment, compared to nearly a quarter in the US.  In order to strengthen the UK as a place where innovative firms can obtain the long-term 'patient' finance they need to scale up, Prime Minister Theresa May announced in November 2016 that HM Treasury would be conducting a Patient Capital Review (PCR).   The final recommendations of the PCR will be presented to the Chancellor Philip Hammond ahead of the Autumn Budget and are set to identify the barriers to growing firms accessi...