New funding for business growth: find out more at Stoke-on-Trent event

Small and medium businesses across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire are invited to a special event at Stoke City’s Bet 365 Stadium on March 19 to find out about new funding to help them grow.

The British Business Bank (BBB) has launched a further wave of its £250m Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) with up to £100m of equity finance to be made available to small businesses across the Midlands.

Working with the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Enterprise Partnership and nine other LEPs across the Midlands, fund managers, and the business community, the new funding will broaden the funding options and opportunities available to local businesses.

There are four different funding options:

• Proof-of-concept, up to £750,000. Early stage equity funding for businesses looking to get their product of the ground.
• Small business loans, £25,000 to £150,000 for new or growing businesses.
• Debt finance, £100,000 to £1.5million, for businesses that can demonstrate growth potential.
• Equity finance, up to £2million, later stage funding for businesses with ambitious growth plans.

The options will be explained at a briefing event at the Bet 365 Stadium in Stoke-on-Trent on Monday March 19 from 9.30am to 11.30am, with financial experts from the British Business Bank and the various funds giving details about the new finance and how firms can apply for it.

Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP board member Paul Farmer OBE, managing director of Wade Ceramics and president of the Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, will also be among the speakers and will be looking at the business landscape across the LEP area and the opportunities for small businesses.

To find out how to attend please visit the event page here http://meif.co.uk/event/midlands-engine-investment-fund-stoke-briefing-event/

The new funding has been endorsed by Sajid Javid MP, Housing Secretary and Ministerial Champion for the Midlands Engine, who said: “The Midlands Engine already boasts over 14 per cent of the UK’s high-growth businesses and its economy is worth more than £230bn – larger than countries like Denmark.

“We want to harness its huge potential and help give small firms across the Midlands that much needed boost to grow their business.

“Ensuring every part of the UK can play to its strengths and spread prosperity is central to our Industrial Strategy, and this fund will not only generate jobs to benefit the entire Midlands but, ultimately, the British economy.”

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund will invest in equity finance through appointed Fund Managers. Midven will operate a Venture fund focusing on the West Midlands, Mercia Technologies will run a Proof of Concept and Early Stage Equity fund addressing the whole of the Midlands.

The equity funds will join the £120m of Loan funds launched in August 2017.  These are made up of Small Business Loans Funds operated in the West Midlands by BCRS Business Loans and a larger Debt Finance fund operated across the whole of the Midlands by Maven Capital Partners.

For more information on the funding available, please visit www.meif.co.uk

The Midlands Engine 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, the European Investment Bank and the British Business Bank.

 Notes: About the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF)

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, will invest in Debt Finance, Small Business Loans, Proof-of-Concept and Equity Finance funds, ranging from £25,000 to £2m, specifically to help small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need for growth and development.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is operated by British Business Financial Services Limited, wholly owned by British Business Bank, the UK’s national economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is supported by the European Regional Development Fund, the European Investment Bank, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and British Business Finance Limited, a British Business Bank group company.

The MEIF covers the following LEP areas: Black Country, Coventry & Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham & Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, The Marches, and Worcestershire in the West Midlands; and Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham & Nottinghamshire (D2N2) Greater Lincolnshire, Leicester and Leicestershire, and South-East Midlands in the East and South-East Midlands.

The project is receiving up to £78,550,000 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit gov.uk/european-growth-funding.

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK’s national economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Our remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank programmes are already supporting over £4bn of finance to more than 65,000 smaller businesses, through over 100 finance partners. They are participating in a further £6.6bn of funding to mid-cap businesses.

British Business Bank plc is a limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, it is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government which is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank operates under its own brand name through a number of subsidiaries, one of which is authorised and regulated by the FCA.

More information, including a legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries, can be found on the British Business Bank website.