Labour Mayor Helen Godwin has welcomed an extra £8.5m from the British Business Bank to back innovative, high-growth smaller businesses in Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
SME4Labour News
Tuesday 10 November 2026 | Small Business
Helen Godwin welcomes £8.5m to back West of England growth firms
Ambitious smaller businesses in Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire are set to benefit from an extra £8.5 million of equity investment, after the British Business Bank allocated new funding to the West of England Innovation Cluster. Labour Mayor of the West of England Helen Godwin called it “another big vote of confidence in our region”.
Announced on 9 November, the money will be delivered through the Bank’s £200 million South West Investment Fund by equity fund manager Maven Capital Partners. It is aimed at high-growth, innovation-led firms in the eight priority sectors of the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, including clean energy, advanced manufacturing, digital and technologies, life sciences, and professional and business services. Eligible high-growth businesses outside those sectors can also apply.
Godwin: ‘Ours is a region where entrepreneurs choose to start, invest and grow’
Mayor Godwin said the West of England, which she described as “the country’s fastest-growing regional economy”, is “home to incredibly innovative businesses and world-class research”. She added that the £8.5 million “will help ambitious firms access the finance they need to create more jobs here, and bring new products and services to market.”
The British Business Bank says the South West Investment Fund has already facilitated £157 million of investment into 283 businesses across the region since launch, including £82 million of private sector investment. Past West of England backing includes Bristol’s female-founded biotech firm Mykor, Bath medical diagnostics company ReadyGo and Bath digital conveyancing platform Eden Conveyancing.
Adam Kelly, Managing Director of Debt & Regional Funds at the British Business Bank, said many South West businesses “have historically struggled to access the capital needed to scale” and that the cluster would target “the high-growth industries that won’t just be important for regional growth, but also national growth.”
What it means for small firms
The South West Investment Fund offers loans from £25,000 to £2 million and equity investment of up to £5 million for smaller businesses looking to start up, scale up and stay ahead. The new allocation is part of the Bank’s work with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to build regional funding programmes. Founders in the West of England can find out more at southwestinvestmentfund.co.uk.