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Development Bank of Wales [2021]
Finance and Risk Capital
Key sectors
The Development Bank of Wales was initially established as Finance Wales in 2001 by the Welsh Assembly Government. In October 2017, it was renamed as the Development Bank of Wales and strengthened as a national financial institution with greater scope to provide commercial funding to businesses in Wales.
It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Welsh Government, providing Welsh businesses with capital to start up, strengthen and grow, and directing public funds to where they can have the most impact. The bank provides loans, property loans, seed and acquisition finance and equity investments between £50,000 to £5m.
In the financial year ending 31 March 2021 the Development Bank of Wales directly invested a total of £197.6m into over 400 Welsh businesses, including £105.6m of non-covid related support. 47% of these investments have been made into its existing portfolio. The bank’s investment activity covers all three Welsh regions, in 2020/21 (excluding CWBLS funding) £49.6m was invested in South Wales, £31m in Mid and West Wales and £25m in North Wales. Further private sector capital of £60m was invested alongside its funds.
The Development Bank of Wales’ total equity investment in the year was £13.8m, of which £9.4m was in 38 tech ventures. To date thirty businesses have received investment in excess of £1m. Scaleups that it has supported include BookingLive and Litelok.
The Bank co-invests alongside other banks, VCs, angel investors, crowdfunding platforms and grant funders. It has a network of dedicated, local account managers. Referrals are also made to Business Wales for business advice and support. During 2018/19 the Bank established Angels Invest Wales, which now provides businesses access to more than 250 angel investors and syndicates through an online platform. It is working to increase the diversity of its investor base, currently 9% of investors on the platform are female. Angels Invest Wales has made 31 investments with a total value of £2.6m.
