British Business Bank South West Investment Fund passes 150 million milestone
Summary
The British Business Bank’s South West Investment Fund has driven more than £150m into over 280 new and growing businesses across the region during its first three years. Since launching in July 2023, the fund has directly invested £75m in 283 South West businesses and attracted a further £82m of private sector investment, taking the total value of funding to £157m.
Details
The fund covers Gloucestershire, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Somerset, Bristol, Dorset and Wiltshire, with finance delivered through appointed fund managers SWIG Finance, FW Capital, The FSE Group and Maven Capital Partners.
The bank’s priorities include supporting promising businesses in Industrial Strategy sectors to scale and remain in the UK, making finance markets work better for smaller businesses and unlocking the potential in people and places. It will also seek to attract substantially more institutional capital into growing UK companies.
The bank is also expanding support in the West of England through a new £8.5m innovation cluster, helping drive more equity investment into businesses operating in the eight priority Industrial Strategy sectors.
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The South West Investment Fund contributes to those aims by addressing regional gaps in access to finance, supporting innovation and helping businesses secure the investment they need to grow and create jobs.
It has backed South West businesses across a broad range of sectors and at every stage of growth, from early-stage companies seeking their first external investment to established firms raising finance to expand, launch new products or enter new markets.
South West businesses backed by the fund include: – Luxury bed manufacturer The Cotswold Bed Company in Cheltenham which supplies customers worldwide – Female-founded biotech company Mykor in Bristol, making bio-based insulation and building systems – Cleantech company Luthmore in Chippenham, which has developed a zero-emission battery-enabled electric combi boiler – Female-founded sustainable period and bladder care brand Grace & Green in Bristol – YesRef sports-tech platform in Chippenham, making it easier for grass-roots clubs to book sports officials – Lime chartered accountants, serving clients across the South West Keira Shepperson, senior director at the British Business Bank , said: “In just three years, the South West Investment Fund has facilitated more than £150m into over 280 businesses, demonstrating the strength of entrepreneurial ambition in the region and the appetite among private investors to support it.
By connecting capital with opportunity we continue to make markets work better for smaller businesses in the South West.
Report source: Punchline Gloucester