Mercia Fund Managers has been awarded a £23.0m Proof-of-Concept and Early Stage Equity Fund.
Part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, a collaboration between the British Business Bank and ten Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the West Midlands and East and South East Midlands, the fund will be deployed across Mercia’s heartland of the Midlands, will be investing in rounds of up to £750k with additional funding potentially coming from Mercia’s EIS Funds into early-stage and growth companies.
An established finance provider in the Midlands, Mercia has already invested circa £50.0m across the region and has a portfolio of over 36 active equity investments in the region.
This is now the third new fund management contract which the British Business Bank has awarded Mercia in the past 12 months as it follows two Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund contracts, which the Group secured in February 2017.
The Midlands Engine Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020, the European Investment Bank and the British Business Bank.
It will also invest in equity finance through:
Midven Ltd will operate a Venture fund focusing on the West Midlands
Foresight Group LLP, will run a similar fund focused on the East & South-East Midlands
Led by Dr Mark Payton, CEO, Mercia Fund Managers provides both equity and debt finance to small businesses based in the UK regions. The Group has more than 300 businesses in its portfolio, a record including 11 IPOs and manages in excess of £350.0m of third party funds, including Mercia EIS Funds.
FinSMEs
23/02/2018