Member Article

Business fund manager expands with new Teesside operation

A North East business fund manager is expanding its services across the region to enable more small, growing companies to access finance.

Newcastle-based Rivers Capital has opened an office in Middlesbrough to make expanding companies on Teesside more aware of the Microloan Fund and the extra finance it has to distribute to eligible firms.

Around £4 million of the £6.5 million Microloan Fund has been invested in 338 companies across the region, leaving a further £2.5 million to invest before the end of next year.

The fund typically provides loans of £1,000 to £25k and works exclusively with businesses that have struggled to secure mainstream finance.

The Microloan Fund is one of a seven-strong suite of funds that make up the £142.5 million Finance for Business North East (FFBNE) programme, which was launched in 2010 by North East Finance to boost business growth, create jobs and oil the wheels of the local economy.

Rivers also manages the £7.5 million FFBNE Angel Fund, a specialist early-stage seed fund that invests in new and established small companies with growth potential.

Rivers has assisted more than 400 North East companies via investments from the Angel and Microloan funds.

Co-founder and director at Rivers Capital, Jonathan Gold, said: “We have received a growing number of enquiries from companies in the Tees Valley, in places such as Middlesbrough, Stockton and Redcar & Cleveland.

“While we have retained our Newcastle headquarters, we felt that it was appropriate to open an office in Teesside to further improve our service offering to clients in that part of the region.”

“The Microloan Fund is ideal for companies that require additional capital to grow their business but have been unable to secure finance from high street banks.

“It has already helped dozens of companies but there is still plenty of cash left to invest in firms that are looking to expand their operations.”