Rachael Reid and Costantino Mariella spent several years as investors in corporate venture capital before moving to the UK economic development bank.
The British Business Bank has hired two former corporate investors – Rachael Reid from BP Ventures and Costantino Mariella from Sony Innovation Fund – to do deep tech investing at the UK government-funded economic development bank.
Reid was an investment director at BP Ventures, the corporate VC investment arm of the UK oil and gas company, where she spent more than 13 years in various positions. In her new role, she will be senior investment manager of direct and co-investments in deep tech at the bank.
Mariella was a a senior investment manager at Sony Innovation Fund, a corporate venture fund of the Japanese electronics and entertainment company, where he worked for eight years. He will also be a senior investment manager of direct and co-investments at the British Business Bank.
The hires comes as the British Business Bank is increasing the amount it can invest directly into scale-up companies in life sciences and deep tech to £60m from £15m. “We are ramping up our capacity to invest directly through co-investing alongside external fund managers. Whilst the majority of our capital will remain allocated to funds, there are clearly gaps where our capital can be usefully deployed supporting individual companies,” says Leandros Kalisperas, chief investment officer.
Founded in 2014, the British Business Bank has invested more than £1.1bn ($1.5bn) in UK startups over the past 10 years. It is the largest investor in UK venture and venture growth capital funds, accounting for 11% of all equity deals done in the UK and 15% of total equity investment.
Recent investments include Maxion Therapeutics, a biotechnology company; Tokamak Energy, a fusion energy startup; and Purespring, a gene therapy company. It is the most active investor in UK life sciences and deep tech companies in areas such as the future of computing and advanced materials.
