British Business Bank increases FW Capital’s funding capabilities to £142m

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

It was appointed in 2017 to manage NPIF-FW Capital Debt Finance to support businesses through two funds focusing on the North West and the Tees Valley & Cumbria.

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

Since 2017, FW Capital has invested more than £50m into 170 businesses across the North and created in excess of 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.

Gary Guest, fund director at FW Capital North West, said: “Since 2017, hundreds of jobs have been created through NPIF-FW Capital Debt Finance.

“The positive feedback from British Business Bank about our support for SMEs has been welcomed and this additional allocation of funding is testament to its confidence in our provision.

“With this extra allocation of funds we can continue to help Northern businesses achieve their commercial objectives by making sure they can access the finance they need to grow at a time when the demand for funding is greater than it has ever been.”

Joanne Whitfield, fund director at FW Capital North East, 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.”

Grant Peggie, director at British Business Bank, said: “The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund plays a vital role in supporting the Northern economy.

“We have helped innovative businesses 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 to support even more of the North’s growing small businesses.”

Operating from the British Business Bank’s Sheffield head office, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund provides a mix of debt and equity funding ranging from £25,000 to £2m.

It works alongside 10 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), the combined authorities and Growth Hubs, as well as local accountants, fund managers and banks, to support Northern-based SMEs at all stages of their development.

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.