FW Capital allocated an additional £10 million to support businesses in Tees Valley and Cumbria

FW Capital has been allocated an additional £40.6 million from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), taking its new total to £142.6 million.

The investment company was appointed in 2017 to manage NPIF – FW Capital Debt Finance to support businesses through two funds focusing on the Tees Valley and Cumbria and the North West.

The money from the British Business Bank will see FW Capital’s Tees Valley and Cumbria NPIF fund rise by £10 million to £61 million and the North West NPIF fund increase by £30.6 million to £81.6 million.

Since 2017, FW Capital has invested more than £50 million into 170 businesses across the North and created over 600 jobs. It has expanded to a team of 30 in offices across the North.

The funding is designed to drive innovation and growth and can support the needs of a broad range of sectors as businesses navigate the current challenging trading environment.

Both the NPIF – FW Capital Debt Finance funds provide loans of between £100,000 and £750,000 and offer businesses capital that can be used to adapt and grow throughout the coronavirus pandemic.  Investment can be made in new equipment, premises, staff, systems, product lines and a wide variety of other uses.

Joanne Whitfield, fund director at FW Capital North East (pictured), said: “We are very pleased to have been given this further allocation of funds, which will allow us to continue to help SMEs trade through this turbulence and work towards their ambitions for the future.

“FW Capital is a long-term growth partner with local teams across the patch ready to offer pragmatic support to our investees. This is particularly relevant given the difficulties currently facing many businesses.

“The extra allocation of funds will allow us to support more clients in this way and to continue to help create and safeguard jobs for our region.”

Grant Peggie, director at British Business Bank, added: “The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund plays a vital role in supporting the Northern economy. We have helped innovative business access the vital funding they need to grow, and FW Capital have had a huge part in the Fund’s success to date. This extra injection of capital at this challenging time will enable FW Capital to support even more of the North’s growing small businesses .”

The Northern Powerhouse 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 and the European Investment Bank.