Scaleup programmes
Back to programmesProgramme
Development Bank of Wales [2023]
Finance and Risk Capital
Impact for scaleups
£109m
direct investment
95%
outside of London
£1.9bn
funds under management
Key sectors
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 £10m. 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 2023, DBW invested more than £124m and “created or safeguarded nearly 3,500 jobs.” It showed a 97% growth in equity investments from £11.6m to a record figure of £22.9m. Equity and debt totaling £20.5m to finance succession deals for 44 different businesses.
DBW continues to focus on working with the private sector to maximise the flow of private capital in Wales. Private sector co-investment in 2022/23 was £114.5m. Scaleups that it has supported include events company Worldspan and biotech Jellagen.
DBW continues to be the biggest equity investor in Welsh businesses – participating in 350 deals across the high-growth ecosystem between 2013 and 2022. It co-invests alongside other banks, VCs, angel investors, crowdfunding platforms and grant funders. It has a network of dedicated, local account managers. The number of investors registered by Angels Invest Wales (AIW) has continued to rise to 334, with 102 of them angel investments in the financial year 2022/23. The DBW’s five year plan to 2027 is to directly invest over £650m into Welsh companies.
