North West secures further £23m to back tech SMEs

The British Business Bank has allocated an additional £23.7m from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund to Maven Capital Partners which manages the fund’s investments in the region.

Maven was first awarded the Northern Powerhouse Investment mandate for equity investments in the North West in 2017, and since then has invested £33m into 49 small and medium businesses, which it said has created 382 jobs.

Investments include a £500,000 investment into legal software Summize, based in Greater Manchester, £1m into Merseyside-based YR Free Labs, an investment of £1.6m into Lancaster-based Relative Insight and £300,000 into Cheshire-based Intilery.

The fund recently saw its first full exit from Cheshire-based ITS Technology Group, which installs full fibre networks.

Ryan Bevington, NPIF fund manager at Maven, said: “From a standing start around three years ago Maven has invested in almost 50 North West-based growth SMEs, and this type of early stage equity finance is critical to ensuring the successful companies and employers of tomorrow have the necessary funding, support and advice to fulfil their potential.

“We are proud of the team we have built and their hard work during a successful first three years, and look forward to seeing the additional funding invested into more ambitious high growth companies across the Northern Powerhouse region.”

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.