Licensing is a matter for the Civil Aviation Authority.

The repayment of monies obtained through the Future Fund is not driven by businesses becoming operational. The Future Fund is invested through a standardised 3-year term Convertible Loan Agreement (‘CLA’); the CLA either converts to equity or is repaid in accordance with the terms of the agreement. The full scheme eligibility criteria and rules can be viewed on the British Business Bank’s website.

The Department is unable to provide information relating to loan amounts for individual companies as this information is commercially sensitive for both investors and investee businesses.

All investee companies were required to certify that they met the UK nationality criteria as part of the process of signing the Convertible Loan Agreement. Businesses provided details of their country of incorporation, UK Company registration number as well as the citizenship of company officers and an ownership structure chart or supporting documentation showing ultimate beneficial owners of the company. These details were checked as part of the eligibility checks carried out. As this particular business was pre-revenue and pre-operational at the time of application, these checks also satisfied the requirement that over half of employees should be UK-based or half of revenues should be from UK sales.

Licensing is a matter for the Civil Aviation Authority. A UK Air Operator Certificate has not been granted to this company to date.

The Future Fund provides Government loans to UK-based companies, ranging from £125,000 to £5 million. In terms of eligibility, firms qualify for the loans as long as they are able to attract at least equal match funding from private investors, and subject to both firms and investors meeting all the requirements of the scheme. The scheme was launched for firms who are at pre-profit or pre-revenue stage, and who may be ineligible for the various COVID loan schemes, as these firms rely on equity finance rather than debt. The Future Fund does not impose additional conditions on eligible businesses.

The British Business Bank, which manages the Future Fund, has established strong due diligence processes which are built into the portal to ensure firms and investors prove their eligibility. The portal also asks for documentation from investors, firms, and their solicitors, to carry out ‘Know Your Customer’ and anti-money laundering checks, as well as general fraud checks. These measures ensure that fraudulent activity is avoided, in addition to ensuring that the funds have been allocated correctly to the applicant.