The Government
has today launched a new Enterprise Capital Fund that will invest
at least £40m in high-growth potential small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.
The new fund – Notion Capital – is the eleventh, and largest,
Enterprise Capital Fund and £62.9m has already been committed to
it from the first funding round. This includes substantial
commitments from private investors, the Government and the
European Investment Fund (EIF). The Notion Capital fund will
target emerging, high-growth cloud computing and
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies.
Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk said:
“It is absolutely vital that ambitious small firms can access the
finance they need to expand and grow, and this new Enterprise
Capital Fund will provide at least £40m of funding to viable UK
high-tech businesses.
“Notion Capital is the largest Enterprise Capital Fund to date
and will help a significant number of firms to grow and create
jobs, boosting our economy.”
Enterprise Capital Funds were established to address a market
weakness in the provision of equity finance to SMEs. Government
money is used alongside private sector funds to establish overall
funds that target investments in SMEs of up to £2m.
Rory Earley, CEO of Capital for Enterprise Limited said:
“We have been very impressed by the ability of the Notion Capital
team to bring to bear their extensive entrepreneurial and
operational experience to enhance the businesses in which they
invest.
“We are delighted that the team has reached first close with
£62.9m in investor commitments. This result demonstrates the
strength of the Enterprise Capital Fund programme and in
particular the attractiveness of the Notion Capital fund.”
John Holloway, Director Transaction and Relationship Management
at the European Investment Fund said:
“A key aim of EIF is to support emerging fund managers in their
development towards established market participants. With a first
closing at £62.9m, EIF is not alone in recognising the merits of
Notion Capital’s strategy underpinned by their demonstrated
ability to create value in their target market”.
Notion Capital has a pan-European focus and will invest at least
£40m in the UK, which means that the total investment guaranteed
for UK companies is higher than for any previous Enterprise
Capital Fund.
The Government has committed a total of £200m to the Enterprise
Capital Fund programme in the four years up until 2014/15, and
further funds will be announced in due course.
Notes to editors:
Notion Capital brings together a team of five experienced and
successful entrepreneurs from the information technology sector.
The team first established Notion Capital Partners as an FSA
regulated organisation in 2008 following the sale of their former
business MessageLabs, an email security company.
Notion Capital will target investment into internet-based
services, which covers a range of areas including cloud computing
and Software as a Service (SaaS), as well as other business models
which utilise the internet in their service offering.
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