Fund has facilitated £1bn of investment into Northern businesses

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) has passed a milestone, facilitating investment of more than £1bn for businesses in the North of England, through £405m of direct and £613m private sector co-investment.

Launched in 2017 by the British Business Bank, NPIF provides commercially focused finance through its microfinance, debt and equity finance funds which offer financing ranging from £25,000 to £2m, specifically to help small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need for growth and development.

So far, it has supported 1,188 companies through 1,636 investments and has also helped create over 7,900 jobs across the region.

Businesses in Yorkshire and The Humber secured £451m of direct and private sector co-investment since the Fund launched in 2017.

This includes West Yorkshire-based, IT recycling firm Zixtel, which secured a £150,000 loan from NPIF – BEF & FFE Microfinance in April 2023, to expand its recycling facilitates and safeguard jobs.  

NPIF has also successfully exited 29 investments from its equity funds.

In April 2022, NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance achieved a return from the sale of its investment into Azzure IT, a Sheffield IT services provider which was acquired by Content+Cloud, the UK arm of Nordic IT services group Advania.

The sale helped it further build upon its UK presence and its Europe-wide Microsoft Dynamics team.  

The £1bn milestone follows recent news that the British Business Bank will be launching a second Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF II), a £660m investment fund to support the growth of small and medium-sized businesses across the North of England in early 2024. The current NPIF fund will continue to invest until the end of the year. 

NPIF II is one of a series of new Nations and Regions Investment Funds being launched by the British Business Bank which will deliver a £1.6bn commitment of new funding to drive sustainable economic growth. 

Ken Cooper, managing director at British Business Bank, said: “The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund has enabled over a thousand small businesses in both traditional and new industry sectors to benefit from access to finance.

“The Fund has made an incredible impact, not only through its own investment, but in its ability to attract extra private sector co-investment, boosting regional business and creating new opportunities for local people. 

“We are seeing a growing catalogue of success stories, with businesses we invested in several years ago now realising their full potential and further increasing the financial and economic impact of NPIF funding.” 

Neil MacDonald, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, chair of NPIF SOB, said: “Reaching £1bn of investment is a significant milestone.

“But, more significant is the number and diversity of SMEs across the whole of the North that have been supported in their growth ambitions by this investment. I am sure NPIF II will build on this success.” 

NPIF 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.