British Patient Capital, a venture capital investment subsidiary of the UK government-owned British Business Bank, has committed £40.6m to a new cybersecurity fund.

The Sheffield-based investor will supply the funds to the Evolution Technology Fund III, the third iteration of Evolution Equity Partner’s enterprise software and cybersecurity fund.

Previous investments from Evolution funds included Quantexa, which raised £51m in 2020, and Panaseer, which raised £21.1m in 2021.

“With wide adoption and advancement of [cybersecurity], we have seen it evolve over the last twenty years as attack surfaces have expanded to become a key application across all sectors as businesses aim to protect themselves, their customers, and their product,” said Robert Greenwood, investment director of funds at British Patient Capital.

“This investment demonstrates the UK’s role in leading cybersecurity innovation and demonstrating its expertise within this valuable technology.”

Evolution Equity Partners has secured a total of $1.1bn for its third fund. The group will make investments ranging from $20m to $150m.

Richard Seewald, founder and managing partner of Evolution Equity Partners, added: “Cybersecurity is mission critical to the safety of UK-based enterprise, government and consumers and with the current environment demonstrating the importance of next-generation technology that defends and protects our society and way of life.

“We look forward to working with best-of-breed entrepreneurs and building European champions.”