What is the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund?
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. NPIF provides commercially focussed finance and is a collaboration between the British Business Bank and ten Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the North West, Yorkshire, the Humber and Tees Valley. The funds provides over £400m of investment to boost small and medium business (SME) growth in the North of England.
The funds in which NPIF invests are open to businesses with material operations, or planning to open material operations, in, Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and Tees Valley aims to provide smaller businesses with increased flexibility in accessing different types of funding and produce greater levels of investment across the Northern Powerhouse region.
More than £400 million has been set aside to distribute through:
- Microfinance: provision of small business loans (from £25,000 – £100,000)
- Debt: provision of business loans (from £100,000 – £750,000)
- Early-stage and later-stage equity: provision of equity funding (from £50,000 – £2 million)
Eligibility
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with growth potential that are setting up or operating in areas covered by the Northern Powerhouse are eligible to apply.
The participating LEPs are: Liverpool City Region, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cumbria, Cheshire and Warrington, York, North Yorkshire and East Riding, Sheffield City Region, Tees Valley Unlimited, Leeds City Region and Yorkshire and the Humber.
