Commenting on UK CPI rising to 2.1% Ian Warwick, Managing Partner at Deepbridge Capital, said: “Today’s inflation data serves as further evidence that that the UK economy is moving in the right direction at a significant pace. For many early-stage businesses however, the significant rise in inflation may trigger fears of a subsequent rise in interest rates, directly impacting how much they are able to borrow at a crucial time, when many expected the economy to full reopen again. Therefore, the biggest problem for growing early-stage companies may be access to funding and as we focus on economic recovery, it remains critically important that scale-up businesses, particularly in high-growth sectors such as digital technologies and life sciences are supported; as they will be at the very heart of economic growth as we create an economy fit for the twenty-first century.

“Government initiatives such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) have never been more important for helping entrepreneurs and innovators source the funding they require, whilst also offering private investors with tax incentives to develop UK-supporting private equity portfolios. With our EIS funds reaching record levels of funding in 2020/21 it is evident that there is considerable demand from investors and financial advisers alike to invest in early-stage UK companies which we believe will be at the forefront of our economic recovery.”