News: Funding finalised for South Yorkshire businesses

Finance Yorkshire has officially finalised the regional £90million fund for business growth.

The venture capital and loan fund can now commence investing in businesses across the Yorkshire and Humber after receiving the £45m from the European Investment Bank.

Finance Yorkshire had already secured £45m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Yorkshire Forward but, as part of the deal, needed the European Investment Bank to match the funding to secure the full £90m for Yorkshire’s businesses.

Fund Managers have been dealing with hundreds of enquiries and applications from companies in order to speed up the administration process once the finance was in place. They have also been helping to spread the word of Finance Yorkshire to Yorkshire's businesses and intermediaries.

The Fund will be invested over the four years to 2014. From that point, Finance Yorkshire expects the realisation of successful investment to help create an evergreen legacy fund of around £50m by 2019. This will be added to the expected legacy funds created by SYIF and PIF, the two similar funds in Yorkshire, which are now fully invested.

In total, it is estimated that the Fund will help to create or safeguard almost 6,000 jobs and create £602m of gross value added for Yorkshire's economy.

Minister for Business Mark Prisk, said: "The Finance Yorkshire fund is an important tool to support business growth and help drive economic growth in the region.

"It is one of the Government's key priorities to ensure that this Fund and all other national and regional provision will in future become part of a strong, single and coherent offer of finance and investment for dynamic and developing businesses."

James Newman, Chairman of Finance Yorkshire, said: "The confirmation of the European Investment Bank funding is terrific news for Yorkshire and the Humber and a significant boost for the local economy.

"At a time when finance and credit availability are being tightened, to have £90 million available to support business growth and development is a real shot in the arm for many small and medium sized enterprises.

"We have received hundreds of applications from businesses during the last few weeks, but we continue to urge more companies, who are looking for finance to grow and develop to get in touch with us. We look forward to announcing our first investments very soon."

Finance Yorkshire will be looking to provide seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2m to help small and medium businesses meet the gaps in funding they need for growth and development.

Finance Yorkshire website

Images: finance-yorkshire.com