Michael Moore’s Outlook on why it is time for a name change

What’s in a name? It’s over 400 years since Shakespeare posed the question in “Romeo and Juliet”. Spoiler alert – quite a lot it turns out.

Without any of the cultural significance (and hopefully none of the ramifications), we have been weighing this up over the past year at the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. Or the ‘BVCA’ as we have always been known.

To be clear, in case you have already anaesthetised memories of a pretty mad twelve months, last year there was plenty to keep us busy in the day job. Tax changes, pension capital, regulatory reform, market changes, some geopolitical comings and goings. 2025 had it all.

So, thinking about what we call ourselves at ‘the BVCA’ could only be relevant if the name was getting in the way of how we represent the industry. Or our role as the industry’s main forum in the UK. Over the course of the year we reached a broad consensus that we had arrived at precisely that point.

As that suggests, we have not exactly rushed the change. Indeed, scrolling back through our association records, this is only the second major name change in 43 years.

Back in the day it was really easy – it was the ‘venture capital’ industry, pure and simple. By 2008, however, ‘private equity’ was very definitely distinct from ‘venture’ and the association responded with its switch to the longer formal name, combining both categories of investment.

Except that the shorthand of ‘the BVCA’ stayed as the trading name of the organisation.

And this matters why? Simply put, neither the long or short name do justice to an industry which has become ever more sophisticated, and complicated within its traditional categories. Meanwhile, adjacent strategies such as ‘private credit’ have been embraced and become more and more significant to the industry we represent.

The increasing sophistication of the industry is not the only issue. In truth, if the name was only of interest to practitioners, and the wider ecosystem, then worrying about how people refer to the industry trade body would be an indulgence, no more.

But this is not just village chatter. The success of private equity, venture capital and private credit, and the phenomenal growth of the asset class in the past decade has changed the terms of trade with the outside world. Our UK statistics, highlighting the 2.5 million jobs in 13,000 businesses generating £200 billion of GDP across the country, underline the heightened visibility of everything the industry does.

And with that comes a lot more scrutiny. Making ourselves more straightforward to understand has therefore become crucial to engaging those who want to know us better. Especially if they are stakeholders who determine, or have a say, in our ‘licence to operate’. Having a clear name for the trade body which represents the industry follows logically from that premise.

So what to do? Happily, the solution to the name conundrum has not been hard to find, as it has been hiding in plain sight. ‘Private capital’ has been the term of art used by the industry for so long that I used the term in my first column here, over three years ago. And pretty well in every one since. It has long been how we describe our industry in all its wonderful variety.

And I can attest that when you speak to a policymaker about ‘private capital’ they instantly get it. In stark contrast, it is a well-established schoolboy error to start a conversation with a policymaker by saying you are there to talk about ‘private equity, venture capital and private credit’. The tutorial which follows invariably tests the will to live of everyone present.

On the other hand, the idea of ‘private capital’ is simple and easy to grasp. It is a neat portmanteau term, embracing the complexities of the different sectors within the industry. Importantly, it is synonymous with the principles of high growth, long-term, active ownership which unite venture capital, private equity and private credit. It works within the industry and with external stakeholders alike.

To be clear, we have been careful to test those assumptions over the past few months, not least with the venture capital community, and to ensure we listened to all parts of the industry. The consensus was clear, and made official at our AGM, where we adopted ‘UK Private Capital’ as our new name.

It may have taken a while, but thankfully it turned out to be a rather more straightforward process than the Montagues and Capulets experienced in Verona all those years ago.

Michael Moore
Chief Executive, UK Private Capital

This article was originally published on 11 February 2026 on the Private Equity News website here.