A year since the launch of its first venture debt fund for UK technology firms, Barclays has announced it is extending the fund to £200 million.

Barclays has seen huge take up from businesses and since launching in May last year has provided £100million in earlier stage financing support to nearly 40 companies.

It is the first of the big four banks to offer high growth businesses and their founders debt funding solutions at this early stage.

The fund is designed to provide access to debt finance; commonly available in the US, but conventionally unavailable to UK businesses. Debt finance provides an alternative to selling equity, keeping control of the company firmly in the hands of the entrepreneur as they focus on growing their business.

Barclays’ fund is designed to enable technology firms and innovative companies to bypass the average 15 year gap between launch as a start-up and consolidation as a mid-size corporate.

Fast growing businesses of this type have traditionally struggled to gain sufficient financing, which is why the Barclays High Growth fund was introduced.