Insider Media Q&A: Midlands funding outlook 2022

The East and West Midlands are "well positioned" to recover from the lingering effects of the pandemic, an investment director at Maven Capital Partners has told Insider, as the firm looks to fund innovative SMEs across the region.

Maven is a private equity and property manager with about 100 executives based across its UK office network. In 2021 the business was acquired by Mattioli Woods, a provider of specialist wealth management and financial planning services.

The firm's MEIF Maven Debt Finance product provides debt funding from £100,000 to £1.5m for SMEs across the Midlands. Investment director Jonathan Lowe believes the region is poised to bounce back from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: "Both the East and West Midlands are extremely well positioned to recover robustly from the lingering effects of the pandemic in 2022. "Much of the Midlands' appeal to investors remain intact, such as its talent pool of the 100,000 graduates which leave the region's 20-plus universities each year. Moreover, it retains its convenient connectivity to London without incurring the capital's eye-watering real estate costs.

"Outside Birmingham, it has traditionally been more difficult to find businesses with a knowledge of how to access funding sources such as the MEIF, simply due to advisers being so thin on the ground in those areas.

"That is changing, though, partly thanks to regionally focused investment teams such as Maven's East and West Midlands teams. We can therefore reasonably expect a growth in funding for firms beyond Birmingham."

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If your business is in need of finance to help unlock its growth potential, MEIF Maven Debt Finance may be able to help. Contact Maven’s local team today to find out more.