{"id":570366,"date":"2026-07-27T12:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/570366\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T12:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:38:08","slug":"uk-pension-providers-in-talks-for-1bn-scale-up-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/570366\/","title":{"rendered":"UK pension providers in talks for \u00a31bn Scale-Up Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block=\"p\" class=\"\">The UK&#8217;s biggest pension funds are in talks to launch a \u00a31bn investment vehicle dedicated to backing British tech scaleups, in the latest attempt to unlock more domestic capital for the sector.<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">A consortium of pension providers, including Railpen and Nest, is working with the British Business Bank on the proposed new UK Scale-Up Fund, aiming to create a first-of-its-kind vehicle to help homegrown startups commercialise, expand internationally and create jobs.<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">The announcement comes just weeks after <a href=\"https:\/\/sifted.eu\/articles\/eu-scaleup-fund-uk-france-blocked-eqt-british-business-bank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sifted revealed<\/a> France was seeking to block the UK&#8217;s participation in the EU&#8217;s own \u20ac5bn Scaleup Europe Fund, casting doubt over British startups&#8217; access to one of the continent&#8217;s biggest new sources of late-stage capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">In a statement released on Monday, prime minister Andy Burnham described the proposal as \u201ca vote of confidence in British business, British talent and British ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">He said: \u201cThis new fund would help unlock good growth in every postcode, connecting pension investment with the entrepreneurs and technologies that will reindustrialise Britain and create the jobs of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">The fund would seek to generate long-term returns for pension members by investing in successful UK companies, while supporting economic growth through innovation and job creation.<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">&#8220;Our priority is always to deliver strong long-term outcomes for our members,&#8221; said Railpen CEO Andy Bord. &#8220;The UK Scale-up Fund represents a compelling investment opportunity where disciplined, patient capital can help growing companies scale.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">Nest chief Ian Cornelius added that the pension provider saw &#8220;an important role for pension capital in helping successful UK businesses access the funding they need to grow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">The proposal follows years of debate over the UK&#8217;s shortage of domestic growth capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-block=\"p\">While Britain boasts one of the world&#8217;s largest VC markets, many of its most successful startups still depend on foreign investors to fund later-stage growth, prompting repeated calls from founders, investors and policymakers for UK pension funds to play a larger role in backing homegrown tech companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK&#8217;s biggest pension funds are in talks to launch a \u00a31bn investment vehicle dedicated to backing British&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":["post-570366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}