16. Some of these technologies may also avail of venture capital to allow them to scale rapidly. Government has shown its support for this necessary innovation underpinning its clean growth objectives with a £20 million cornerstone investment in the venture capital Clean Growth Fund ¹4. This Fund aims to accelerate the deployment of innovative clean technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, alongside catalysing the UK clean growth venture capital market and leveraging private sector funding into early-stage clean tech start-ups. For example, the fund led a £4.7 million investment round into Piclo (the independent energy trading marketplace) with co-investment from Mott MacDonald Ventures. 17. The BBB is a government-owned economic development bank with a mission to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. UK Government has worked with the BBB on their new mission and objective to support the UK's transition to a net zero economy and incorporate environmental, social and governance issues across of its activities. The new net zero objective will support firms looking to move towards net zero, helping the UK reduce its energy consumption and mitigate the impacts of climate change. 18. Going beyond SME finance to larger scale infrastructure finance, there are significant pools of private finance ready to deploy into UK projects but there can be a mismatch between market appetite and the risk profile of projects. Infrastructure investment is vulnerable to market failure, as it is often complex, large, novel and long-term. Launched in June 2021, the new UK Infrastructure Bank can play a pivotal role in this space, crowding in private sector investment in important areas and helping to kick start new sectors. Across the Bank's full mandate (also covering regional growth), it has £12 billion of equity and debt capital and will be able to deploy £10 billion of government guarantees. We expect the Bank to use this to crowd in private investment as a cornerstone investor or guarantor to enable more than £40 billion of investment in the areas most prone to market failure, and to help deliver its dual policy focus of tackling climate change and supporting regional and local economic growth. Furthermore, the Bank will play a pivotal role in catalysing the role of local government in the transition, by financing strategic infrastructure projects led by local authorities,