Maven Capital Partners has been appointed to manage two separate fund entities as part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (“MEIF”) initiative.
MEIF – Maven Debt Finance will make available two funding options for regional businesses, with £50m in the West Midlands and £40m in the East & South East Midlands.
The MEIF project is supported financially by the EU using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank. It’s also supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as well as ten Local Enterprise Partnerships across the region’s geography.
MEIF – Maven Debt Finance is part of the wider £250million MEIF package operated by the British Business Bank, £120million of which is now available to support growing SMEs. The fund is focused on providing finance to high-potential businesses located across both the West Midlands and the East & South East Midlands regions, where it can offer funding of between £100,000 and £1.5 million to each SME.
The fund will invest across the ten Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas: Black Country, Coventry & Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham & Solihull, The Marches, Stoke & Staffordshire and Worcestershire in the West Midlands; and Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham & Nottinghamshire (D2N2), Greater Lincolnshire, Leicester & Leicestershire and South East Midlands in the East & South East Midlands.
Chief Commercial Officer at the British Business Bank Patrick Magee said: “The Midlands Engine Investment Fund will build relationships with the region’s diverse small business community, through its appointed fund managers and its own relationship managers. MEIF will play a pivotal role in plugging the gaps currently present in the funding landscape, seeking to ensure that all businesses have access to the finance they need to grow. Maven will have an instrumental role in the successful allocation of the fund, and we’re looking forward to working with the team to mobilise fast-growth businesses across the region.”
Maven partner Andrew Ferguson said: “Maven has many years’ experience of investing in and supporting SMEs across the Midlands. We are one of the UK’s most experienced and active private equity fund managers, and are delighted to be working with the British Business Bank to deliver the objectives of the MEIF. The Midlands has a deserved reputation as being a key driver in UK economic growth and producing innovative smaller businesses, and there remains a clear need for this type of funding to help high-growth Midlands SMEs fulfil their potential. Our MEIF Debt Fund team is very much looking forward to working in partnership alongside Midlands SMEs.”
