Grant Peggie, Director at British Business Bank Launched by British Business Bank in 2017, the £400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) is supporting economic prosperity in the region by making commercial investments into growing companies.

Helping to create a more diverse finance market is a key objective of the British Business Bank and this increasing diversity of funding options means that smaller businesses now have more choice when considering their finance routes.

NPIF offers three types of funding to support businesses – microfinance (£25K - £100K), debt finance (£100K - £750K) and equity finance (£50K - £2m) – to make finance work more effectively for businesses, enabling them to prosper and grow.

Looking to encourage entrepreneurship, including supporting ethnic minority and female entrepreneurs, we have an increasing focus on supporting businesses in harder to reach areas across the North including Cheshire and Warrington, Cumbria and the Tees Valley.

To date, NPIF has directly invested over £138m in over 530 businesses based in the North of England, in deals that have attracted an additional £129m of investment from the private sector.

The funding has enabled businesses to scale up through expansion into new markets and investment in staff and infrastructure, but it is just the beginning of a long-term plan for the future prosperity of the North.

In its second year, EvoNorth is a key date in our diary as the event, its delegates, partners and speakers, fit seamlessly with our vision for the future of the region.

We see it as a real opportunity to join businesses from across the Northern Powerhouse to share ideas, impact and future plans with existing partners, while forging new relationships with key industry leaders.

During the event and panel discussions, we will be talking about British Business Bank’s wider aims and the programmes available to make them possible, using NPIF as an example to illustrate how our programmes come to fruition and the impact it has on business growth in the North.

The North of England is renowned for its entrepreneurial spirit and EvoNorth 2020 epitomises that.

Described as a ‘living and breathing immersive incubator for innovation, collaboration and best practice’, the event is set to be a real celebration of the best and brightest in the region.

The Northern Powerhouse 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 and the European Investment Bank.

Attend EvoNorth to find out more about the Northern Powerhouse, book your tickets below.