The Investment Fund for Wales hits £10m investment milestone as it celebrates one year anniversary
Press release
£130m British Business Bank backed Investment Fund for Wales hits £10m including investments from Caerphilly to Deeside and Swansea to Bangor.
This week the £130m Investment Fund for Wales (IFW) reached its first major milestone after hitting £10m in investment and lending into Welsh smaller businesses. The announcement comes one year on from the launch of the IFW in November 2023.
Among the Welsh businesses to benefit from the Investment Fund for Wales, include a £650,000 equity investment into Caerphilly based ‘hard adventure’ travel firm, EverTrek, a growing online travel brand catering to the £1.7bn hard adventure segment of the £10.7bn UK adventure tourism market; and a £850,000 equity investment into another Caerphilly based firm, drone development specialists and service providers, Drone Evolution.
Debt deals include a £500,000 investment into leading contract scaffolders Palmers Scaffolding based in Deeside, and a £100,000 debt finance deal with Economy Energy Group, a renewable energy provider based at Swansea Enterprise Park, both via FW Capital, and a £100,000 investment into Bangor based Snowdon Timber Products via BCRS.
The Bank’s Investment Fund for Wales is the first solely UK government-backed investment fund for smaller businesses in Wales and is helping to increase the supply and diversity of early-stage finance by providing options to firms that might otherwise not receive investment. Funding is designed to help businesses with activities including expansion, product or service innovation, new processes, skills development, and capital equipment.
Three fund managers were appointed to manage the fund. BCRS Business Loans manages the smaller loans part of the fund (£25,000 to £100,000), FW Capital is responsible for larger loans (£100,000 to £2 million) and Foresight manages equity deals (up to £5 million).
When we launched the Investment Fund for Wales a year ago this week, our ambition was to help address the challenges of access to finance across the Welsh SME landscape and provide the opportunity for innovative and ambitious businesses to thrive and meet their full potential.
This £10m milestone, and first anniversary of the Investment Fund for Wales, shows how the fund is building momentum, enabling us to highlight some of the investments in Welsh businesses made to date. We continue to look to the future though to see how best the Fund can work for Welsh smaller businesses, and contribute to the ongoing sustainable success of the Welsh economy.
- Mark Sterritt Investment Director, British Business Bank
Further Information
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Notes to editors
About the Investment Fund for Wales
Operated by the British Business Bank, the Investment Fund for Wales (IFW) provides a mix of debt and equity funding. IFW will offer a range of commercial finance options with smaller loans from £25k to £100k, debt finance from £100k to £2m and equity investment up to £5 million. It works alongside the various support and funding organisations from Welsh Government as well as local intermediaries such as accountants, fund managers and banks, to support Wales’ smaller businesses at all stages of their development.
The funds in which the IFW invests are open to businesses with material operations, or planning to open material operations, in all areas of Wales, including but not limited to North Eastern Wales, North Western Wales, Mid Wales, South West Wales and South East Wales.
Supported by Nations and Regions Investments Limited, a subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, the Bank is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. Neither Nations and Regions Investments Limited nor British Business Bank plc are authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
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