Future Fund is now a shareholder of Belfast-based Automated Intelligence (AI)

Taking the total to 464 at 30 September 2022, the new figure means that more than a third of companies have now converted to equity.

Launched on May 20 2020 and open for applications until January 31 2021, the Future Fund issued 1,190 companies with Convertible Loan Agreements worth £1.14bn in total. Third-party investors were required to at least match the Future Fund’s investment.

Companies in which Future Fund is now a shareholder include Belfast-based Automated Intelligence (AI), a data management solution provider that is helping organisations transition from long-term suppliers to a next-generation Cloud strategy.

AI’s unique cloud-based analytics and migration technology leverages the latest innovations in data management which enables organisations to organise, consolidate, migrate and ultimately transform their data holdings.

The Future Fund supported UK companies that typically rely on equity investment to fund their growth. By creating a bridge to the next equity funding round, the Future Fund supported these companies through a period of considerable economic disruption and now the recovery.

Ken Cooper, managing director, Venture Solutions, British Business Bank, said: “The Future Fund was created to ensure a flow of capital, at the height of the pandemic, to companies that would otherwise have been unable to access government support schemes, while ensuring long-term value for the UK taxpayer.

"We are pleased to see so many of those companies now going on to raise further private sector capital, which will allow the Future Fund to benefit from their continued growth.”