£1m offer to firms which supercharge local growth

INNOVATIVE businesses could get equity of up to £1 million to help them expand as part of a plan to grow the region’s industries of the future.

The West Midlands CoInvestment Fund, totalling £25 million, has been set up by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) in partnership with West Midlands Pension Fund, to support small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Investments will be focused on SMEs that offer highgrowth potential and the ability to help supercharge the regional economy.

The investment partnership will look to invest in SMEs across a variety of sectors including green technology, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and creative and digital, helping them to scale up operations.

The WMCA is putting £12.5m into the fund and this is being matched by West Midlands Pension Fund.

It will be managed by Midven, part of Future Planet Capital, through an investment team.

Operating over a ten-year period, the fund will focus on bringing new private investor money to the region and, using a co-investment model, will invest alongside business angels and other private sector investors on a minimum £1 to £1 basis.

The WMCA and West Midlands Pension Fund have set up the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund in recognition of the role that high growth potential SMEs have to play in accelerating the regional economy.

SMEs also create remarkably high value for the West Midlands, mainly in the form of jobs, technological development and in attracting investment from other regions or countries. As a result, the fund could generate an extra £49m for the regional economy and create or secure nearly 800 jobs.