Enterprise Capital Fund is a British government financial programme that provides venture capital funding to Start-up companies that is operated by the British Business Bank.
It was established in 2006 by the UK governments Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in the United Kingdom to address a market weakness in the provision of equity finance to UKs small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
As of 1 April 2008, responsibility for the management of ECFs along with BIS's other equity funds and the Small Firms Loan Guarantee (SFLG) was transferred to a new body, Capital for Enterprise Limited (CfEL).
CfEL was incorporated in March 2007 as a private limited company wholly owned by BIS,[3] and commenced actively trading in April 2008.
One implication was that such businesses could have been forced to hand back millions of pounds to HM Treasury.