UK startups are set for a long-awaited cash injection as the nation’s biggest pension funds pledge to invest £50bn into VC and infrastructure projects by 2030.
The Mansion House Accord, which will be signed by 17 workplace pension providers managing around 90% of active savers’ defined contribution pensions on Tuesday, was first announced in 2023 under the previous Conservative government.
Signatories, including Aviva, Legal & General and M&G, are expected to invest 10% of their workplace portfolios in assets that boost the economy such as infrastructure, property and private equity — including VC — over the next five years. At least 5% of those investments will be for UK-based startups and projects.
“I welcome this bold step by some of our biggest pension funds, which will unlock billions for major infrastructure, clean energy, and exciting startups — delivering growth, boosting pension pots, and giving working people greater security in retirement,” said UK finance minister Rachel Reeves.
The plans were hailed by tech leaders last November when Reeves laid out plans to boost pension funds investment into the UK.
“Pension fund reforms are one of the biggest growth levers the Treasury can pull,” Dom Hallas, executive director of lobby group Startup Coalition, said at the time.
“Once it’s delivered we should see billions more into the British venture-backed tech ecosystem — which is not only good for founders, it’s good for the pensions of British workers too.”
The UK has been scrambling to boost its economy after a sluggish start to 2025, made worse by US president Donald Trump’s global trade war that has wreaked havoc with public markets.
The £50bn figure announced today is less than the £80bn the government was using in November. Sifted has approached the Treasury for comment on this.
The British Business Bank, the UK’s state-backed economic development bank, has also received regulatory approval from regulator the Financial Conduct Authority to provide UK pension funds and other institutional investors with access to its pipeline of UK VC opportunities.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/uk-mansion-house-startup-funding/
