Rishi Sunak’s coronavirus start-up fund, the Future Fund, is moving to liquidate dozens of companies in a bid to recover taxpayer debts.
According to court records, the fund filed winding up petitions against 32 companies it backed during the pandemic, resulting in many of the companies being ordered to cease trading without recouping their investments.
The Future Fund was launched in 2020 when Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer, with the aim of supporting loss-making start-ups during the pandemic. It provided £1.1 billion in loans to 1,191 companies on three-year terms, which could be converted into equity if they needed further investment. Companies that were unable to secure further funding had to repay twice the amount of the loan, plus interest.
As loans mature, the fund has taken legal action to recoup up to £5 million of its investment by forcing companies into compulsory liquidation. Since the end of 2022, 23 of the 32 taxpayer-backed companies have been placed into administration or liquidation.
Notable victims include virtual reality company AiSolve, which has debts of £11.4m, investment app Dabbl and companies backed by Nova Group, the investment firm backed by former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy.
A spokesman for the British Business Bank, which manages the Future Fund, said: “We have a duty to protect taxpayers’ interests. Where companies fall due for repayment and loans remain outstanding, we will take action to recover the funds, including liquidating the company. We will work with liquidators to support their investigations and efforts to recover assets for creditors.”The bank also said it had granted extensions to the majority of companies that asked for them, rather than seeking immediate repayment.
As of the end of March, the Future Fund had converted 712 loans into shares in companies and had 211 loans outstanding. A total of 202 companies had collapsed and 66 had returned cash to the fund. Last year, the British Business Bank reported a loss of £289 million on a fair value basis for the fund.