North East finance fund invests over £1m in local SMEs

A North East finance fund has invested over £1m in five businesses to grow in or move to County Durham.

Finance Durham, which was established by Durham County Council in 2018, is a £20m investment fund overseen by Business Durham and managed by Maven Capital Partners.

The fund is aimed at companies from a variety of sectors and aims to help businesses in the region with scaling up, creating jobs, and economic prosperity in Durham.

Since its establishment, the Finance Durham Fund has not only supported the creation of over 200 jobs, but has also helped leverage other investment from a variety of sources.

Sarah Slaven, interim managing director of Business Durham, said: “We are committed to supporting businesses across County Durham to grow and achieve their ambitions, and we know that funding can often be a challenge for businesses looking to move to the next level.”

She continued: “We encourage businesses to think about how investment could help them take the next step in their own future growth and rise to the post Covid challenges.”

Over the last 12 months, the Finance Durham Fund has made investments into honcho and Plexus Innovation in Durham; Power Roll in Sunderland; Growth Capital Ventures in Newton Aycliffe; and Dyer Engineering near Consett.

Cllr Carl Marshall, Cabinet member for economic regeneration at Durham County Council, added: “Through the support from Finance Durham, we can ensure enterprising businesses with dynamic ideas have the right means to expand, enabling them to thrive while creating and safeguarding more and better jobs.”