Barclays has set up a new unit, which will function like a venture capital firm. The bank said the aim is to add billions of pounds to its annual revenues by 2025 by finding new areas of growth after years of restructuring. The unit, Barclays UK Ventures, will be led by Ben Davey, formerly the bank’s head of strategy. He said he wants the unit to develop at least one truly transformational new business line that will add a material contribution to the bank’s revenues over the next 5 to 7 years. The unit will make use of technologies like artificial intelligence, distributed ledgers and smart contracts, but it will have relatively unfettered mandate to consider different opportunities, Davey added. Barclays had taken stakes in companies such as messaging platform Symphony and payments processing group Form3. The new firm is likely to consider commercial partnerships with different companies and work to develop new business ideas internally.
