Our 40th anniversary

Since the BVCA’s formation, private capital has backed, and continues to back the new technologies, products and services that have shaped our world for the better. From the early investments of the industry in the 1980s, to the rapid technological changes of the past two decades and the focus on decarbonisation, private capital has always been well-suited to meet the challenges facing our world.

During the BVCA’s history, the private capital industry has attracted billions of pounds of inward investment from across the world into the UK. That investment has powered the growth of diverse sectors, including technology and life sciences, while reinvigorating established businesses too.

Most organisations receiving investment over the past forty years have been SMEs – private capital has helped them to turn ideas into successful businesses, scaling and growing internationally. The industry’s impact on the UK’s GDP and employment has been significant during that time and continues to be so.

During the BVCA’s lifetime, private capital’s impact on people has been deep and wide-ranging. Whether it’s the millions of jobs that have been backed by the industry, how entrepreneurs and founders have relied on private capital to help them develop the skills their business needs, how successful founders have gone on to become angel investors in the next generations of entrepreneurs, how the biggest pension funds in the UK and the world have invested in BVCA members’ funds to generate returns for pension-holders, or how the industry has supported a strong advisory ecosystem of jobs to make investments happen, the industry’s impact on people has been far-reaching.

The BVCA has engaged closely on policy and technical matters with politicians and policy makers across a vast range of detail for four decades, consistently making recommendations and shaping for the better the environment in which private capital operates and benefits the UK. The work has spanned many areas including access to capital, fostering innovation, attracting and keeping the best talent and for many years, sustainability.

The BVCA and its members have had strong conviction in the economic and societal contribution the industry makes for decades. For that reason, since its early days, the BVCA has produced research and reports demonstrating the value the industry brings across jobs, the economy, performance benefitting investors such as pension funds and nationwide impact across the UK.

In recent years the BVCA has demonstrated its members’ advancement of work on Environmental, Social and Governance issues, including climate, and diversity and inclusion. In addition, the BVCA has made landmark changes in developing the industry’s commitment to transparency and disclosure with the introduction and development of the Private Equity Reporting Group and UK Private Equity Annual Public Reports.

Strong and focused governance by the industry has remained consistent throughout the 40 years of the BVCA’s history, and it is this approach to governance, above all, that helps British business to be invested in a better future.

From fledgling industry to becoming part of the mainstream, private capital has not always been well understood by its stakeholders, which is why for forty years the BVCA has engaged on the industry’s behalf in communicating the role and benefit of the industry to politicians, the media, regulators, and others so that it is understood.

With thousands of members over many years, the BVCA throughout its history has been a meeting place and a source of insight to help members develop their teams and their businesses for the future.

Today’s industry leaders attended BVCA training courses at the beginning of their careers, and the BVCA’s insightful content, delivered at events and in publishing, has helped its members to shape the development and success of their own businesses.