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Barclays

Barclays sets aside £100m for UK tech fund

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By John Glenday, Reporter

May 1, 2015 | 2 min read

Barclays has launched a £100m fund for UK tech firms designed to facilitate growth in the fast evolving sector by firms unwilling to sacrifice an equity stake.

Individual businesses will be offered up to £5m over a three-year period to invest so long as they have already secured venture capital financing, bringing the UK into line with America which already offers similar options.

British technology firms have enjoyed rapid growth in recent years, making them an attractive proposition for investors including banks, private equity firms and per to peer businesses.

Ashok Vaswani, chief executive of Barclays Personal and Corporate Banking, said the fund will offer a "welccome boost" to growing UJ tech firms, and will provide a "catalyst" for their development into larger companies.

“We identified a significant gap in the traditional way technology businesses were financed, and with this new drive we will be truly able to support businesses right from their inception, to becoming major global players.

“Entrepreneurs and SMEs are the life blood of the UK economy and the technology sector is an incredible incubator for many of these talented individuals and businesses. The rapid growth we’ve seen in the UK rivals the activity and dynamism of Silicon Valley with record levels of investment from the US into London-based technology firms in particular,” he said.

London in particular has ridden the crest of a financial technology boom, hovering up the lion’s share of $623m invested in the sector over the past

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