Palatine Growth Credit
The growth credit arm of Manchester private equity house Palatine, an £81m fund lending non-dilutive debt from £2m to venture-backed technology companies outside London.
What they do
Palatine Growth Credit is a dedicated closed-end fund, separate from the firm's buyout funds, lending senior debt to technology companies that are still growing into profitability. Credit is assessed on recurring revenue growth and cash runway: a company is expected to hold at least twelve months of runway and to have a route to breakeven within twelve to eighteen months, with revenue of around £2m and upwards. Investors include British Business Investments and local authority pension funds. Deals have been done in Bristol, Cambridge, Nottingham, Wakefield and Manchester.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Regional technology companies are poorly served by a venture debt market concentrated in London, and this fund exists to correct that, with offices in Manchester and Birmingham as well as the capital. For a late Series A or post-Series B company in the North, the Midlands or the South West raising £2m to £10m without further dilution, it is one of the few obvious calls.
Where they are not the fit
A venture or private-equity backer is required, and start-ups and pre-revenue companies are excluded. Runway under twelve months, or no credible path to breakeven inside eighteen, will stop a conversation. The fund is small at around £81m, which limits how far it can follow a company, and pricing carries the coupon-plus-warrants economics of growth debt.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Sponsor-only - targets VC/private equity-backed tech companies (late Series A or alongside-or-post Series B)
- Where they lend
- UK regions ex-London primarily: North (NW, Yorkshire), Midlands, South West, South East; offices Manchester + London (+ Birmingham). Deals in Bristol, Cambridge, Wakefield, Nottingham, Manchester
- How they decide
- Dedicated fund team (Chappel/Sorby) with delegated mandate within the ~£81m fund. Authority is delegated below committee on at least part of the book
- Search funds and ETA
- No published route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers
As published by the lender and last reviewed August 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
What rules a deal out
Stated limits, taken from Palatine Growth Credit’s own published criteria. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- Start-ups or pre-revenue
- No VC/private equity sponsor
- Under ~12 months cash runway
- No path to EBITDA breakeven within 12-18 months
- No appetite in non-tech, non-technology businesses, pre-revenue or startup
How they sit against the category
- Like 31 of the 46, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
Counted across the 46 private-credit & direct-lending funds in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does Palatine Growth Credit write?
Published facilities run from £2m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does Palatine Growth Credit lend to search funds or ETA buyers?
Not on the published evidence. Palatine Growth Credit publishes no route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers. A searcher's route to a lender usually runs through the quality of the target and the equity behind it.
Does Palatine Growth Credit lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Not on the published evidence. Palatine Growth Credit lends alongside institutional equity or sponsor backing rather than to unbacked borrowers.
Where does Palatine Growth Credit lend?
UK regions ex-London primarily: North (NW, Yorkshire), Midlands, South West, South East; offices Manchester + London (+ Birmingham). Deals in Bristol, Cambridge, Wakefield, Nottingham, Manchester.
What does Palatine Growth Credit lend?
The published product set is growth credit. Published sector focus is advanced manufacturing, ai, cyber, fintech, healthtech.
On the record
February 2024: First close of maiden Growth Credit Fund at £75m (later ~£81m); British Business Investments + local-authority pension funds as LPs; Ryan Sorby hired as Partner (British Business Bank.
May 2025: £2m growth credit to Manchester fintech Voly Group toward an acquisition (Prolific North / palatinegrowthcredit.com.
October 2025: £2m to Patchworks for growth / US expansion (UKTN.
June 2026: Passed £50m committed lending (~two-thirds deployed); 13 deals completed (UKTN.
Sources: british-business-bank.co.uk
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.