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Programme

Development Bank of Wales [2022]

Finance and Risk Capital

Impact for scaleups

£528m

direct investment

94%

outside of London

1,740

Welsh companies backed

£1.9bn

funds under management

Key sectors

Building & Construction Creative, digital, film, games & media Defence & security Engineering / Advanced Engineering Environmental Science & Technology Farming, fisheries & forestry Finance Food & drink Healthcare

The Development Bank of Wales (DBW) 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. The DBW Group is made up of the Development Bank of Wales, Angels Invest Wales and North of England fund manager FW Capital.

In the financial year ending 31 March 2022 DBW directly invested a total of £109.1m into more than 460 Welsh businesses – an increase of £3.6m compared to the previous year (excluding Covid-related loans). Just over half of the 519 investments (51%) were awarded to existing customers. 

DBW continues to focus on working with the private sector to maximise the flow of private capital in Wales. Co-investment in 2021/22 was £64.1m, an increase of £4.1m on the previous year, with £30.3m of the co-investment was for tech ventures. South East Wales businesses received the largest proportion of the amount invested (about 43%) with each of the other Welsh regions receiving around 30%.

Scaleups that it has supported include fintech Delio and software company Vizolution.

DBW 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. The investor base held by Angels Invest Wales (AIW) now stands at nearly 300 angels and syndicates and 92 individual angel investments totalling £3.3m were made in the year. 

The DBW five-year plan aims to support over 2,200 businesses and create 20,000 jobs by 2027 with a focus on high-growth businesses.

Development Bank of Wales [2022] website