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British Business Bank’s Help to Grow programme and MSIF announce the launch of a £15m North West Business Growth Fund

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The British Business Bank, the UK’s national economic development bank, has announced a new £15 million fund in partnership with MSIF, the Liverpool based loan and equity provider. The fund is available to help SMEs looking to grow as part of the Bank’s ‘Help to Grow’ programme.

The £15 million North West Business Growth Fund is the first investment fund under the Bank’s Help to Grow programme, and will support established businesses who are seeking development capital.

The North West Business Growth Fund will be delivered by MSIF and will invest in companies in the Liverpool City Region and across the wider North West and North Wales, supporting high growth SMEs with loans of between £250,000 and £1,000,000.

MSIF has been supporting businesses in the Liverpool City Region with investments since 1994. In that time it has supported more than 2,000 businesses, invested over £166 million, created/safeguarded almost 15,000 jobs and brought in more than £300 million investment from private sector leverage on the back of its investments.

Over its 23 years of service MSIF has received numerous accolades such as Fund of the Year in 2008 and Venture Capital Team of the Year in 2014. MSIF CEO, Lisa Greenhalgh, was also recently awarded the Business Leader Award at the 2017 Merseyside Women of The Year Awards.

Under the Bank’s Help to Grow programme, high growth SMEs across most sectors can access finance for: capital expenditure; supporting the development of new products and processes; investing in research and innovation; and general working capital.

Geoff Whiteland, British Business Bank’s Director for Help to Grow, said:  “The British Business Bank is committed to ensuring that smaller businesses across the UK are able to access the finance they need to grow and succeed. We are therefore delighted to be announcing the first fund investment of our Help to Grow programme. The North West Business Growth Fund will enable additional capital to be invested in promising smaller businesses in Liverpool and the surrounding regions, helping support their growth ambitions.”

Lisa Greenhalgh, CEO of MSIF, said: “We are excited to be launching this new £15 million fund jointly funded by MSIF and the British Business Bank to enhance our full product offering. We are delighted to be able to further support SMEs across the Liverpool City Region, and also the wider geography of the North West and North Wales.

“MSIF are still fully committed to supporting SMEs and the North West Business Growth Fund expands our portfolio of funds under management, ensuring we can help businesses with almost any funding requirement.”

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For further information please contact:

MSIF

Sydney Keighrey, Marketing Executive, +44 7940 139 619, Sydney.Keighrey@msif.co.uk

British Business Bank

Eleanor Deeley, MHP Communications, +44 20 3128 8184, bbb@mhpc.com

Scott Shearer, British Business Bank, Scott.Shearer@british-business-bank.co.uk

 

About MSIF

MSIF provides funding of up to £2million to SMEs in the Liverpool City Region and surrounding areas.

Set up in 1994 to promote economic growth in the region by addressing the funding gap, MSIF has since invested funds totalling over £166million in over 2,000 businesses. This funding has created and preserved around 15,000 jobs and brought in more than £300million investment from private sector leverage on the back of its investments.

www.msif.co.uk

About British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK’s national economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank is currently supporting over 59,000 businesses, working through over 100 finance partners. Its programmes support over £3.4bn of finance to UK smaller businesses and participate in a further £5.8 billion of finance to UK small mid-cap businesses.

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses. It has published the Business Finance Guide (in partnership with the ICAEW, and a further 21 business and finance organisations). This guide impartially sets out the range finance options available to businesses – from start-ups to SMEs and growing mid-sized companies. Take the interactive journey at www.thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk/bbb or download/print a copy.

British Business Bank plc is a limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Foundry House, 3 Millsands, Sheffield, S3 8NH.

As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, it is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government which is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank operates under its own brand name through a number of subsidiaries, one of which is authorised and regulated by the FCA.

British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.