▼ Summary
– The second UK-Ireland Summit in March 2026 announced £937 million in Irish investment into the UK, creating around 850 new jobs.
– Teybridge Capital Europe, a Dublin-based fintech, pledged £4.5 million in UK investment, 30 new London jobs, and £600 million in lending to British SMEs over three years.
– Teybridge’s UK expansion is supported by its existing funding, including a major 2025 equity investment and credit line from Baghdadi Capital.
– The company had previously acquired London-based Atom CTO in 2025, rebranding it as Teybridge Tech and internalizing the development of its BRIDGE platform.
– The summit announcements, supported by Enterprise Ireland, highlight strong Irish business investment in the UK, with 60% of surveyed firms planning to increase it.
A significant new investment initiative from Ireland is set to provide a major boost to small and medium-sized businesses across the United Kingdom. Dublin-based fintech firm Teybridge Capital Europe has pledged to deploy £600 million in lending to British SMEs over the next three years. This substantial commitment was announced at the second UK-Ireland Summit, highlighting a strengthening economic partnership between the two nations. The move signals strong confidence in the UK market from Irish investors and promises to deliver vital financial support to growing companies.
The summit, held in Cork, served as the platform for unveiling a broader package of Irish investment into the UK. Teybridge’s pledge was one of fifteen such announcements from Irish companies, collectively totaling £937 million and expected to create around 850 new jobs. These commitments were formally published by the UK government and supported by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish state’s trade agency. Recent data from the agency underscores this trend, showing that a majority of Irish companies maintain a physical presence in the UK, with most planning to increase their investment there in the coming year.
For Teybridge, this public commitment represents a deliberate acceleration of its UK strategy. Founded in 2022, the company operates a proprietary digital platform called BRIDGE, which streamlines access to trade finance and working capital for business clients. The UK already constitutes a core market, representing 60% of Teybridge’s lending portfolio as of late 2025, with a focus on sectors like food and beverage, technology, and manufacturing. The new plan involves not just lending, but also a £4.5 million operational investment and the creation of 30 new jobs at its London office.
The company’s capacity for this expanded ambition was bolstered by a strategic equity investment secured in October 2025 from Baghdadi Capital, a Madrid-based family office. That deal provided an initial £50 million funding line with a potential pathway to £500 million, alongside an equity stake that gave Baghdadi a seat on Teybridge’s board. Reports at the time indicated the investment targeted a company valuation exceeding £100 million. Teybridge noted it had already facilitated approximately £500 million in lending to over 250 SMEs across Ireland, the UK, and the US since its inception.
It is important to note that the £600 million lending target announced at the summit is a forward-looking deployment goal, not a new equity raise. It reflects the company’s intention to utilize its existing and anticipated credit facilities, including those from the Baghdadi Capital agreement. This distinct pledge adds a new, publicly stated objective to the firm’s growth trajectory.
Teybridge’s UK expansion has also been advanced through acquisition. In a separate 2025 transaction, the company purchased London-based fintech Atom CTO, rebranding it as Teybridge Tech. The acquisition brought the entire development team in-house, including operations in several international locations, and allowed for the internal development of the BRIDGE platform, which Atom CTO had originally built.
The summit announcements placed Teybridge’s plans within a wider context of cross-sector Irish investment. Other notable commitments included Step Telecoms investing £25 million in a new fibre optic link for Wales, Version 1 creating about 400 tech roles in Northern Ireland, and aviation AI firm Amach committing £45 million to support UK jobs. For Teybridge, which reported having 22 employees in late 2025, adding 30 positions in London alone would constitute a major proportional increase in its workforce. While these summit pledges are forward-looking statements rather than completed deals, they collectively point to a robust pipeline of Irish capital and confidence flowing into the British economy.
(Source: The Next Web)
