Maven invests £8.5 million in North East businesses in 2019

Maven has invested £8.5 million in nine dynamic growth businesses across the North East in 2019, driving economic prosperity, and creating over 80 jobs. Since opening offices in Newcastle and Durham in 2017, Maven has invested over £17 million in businesses across the region, providing funding packages tailored to the growth needs of local companies.

Maven has participated in investments ranging from £150,000 to £7 million in local businesses across the North East and has also successfully leveraged an additional £7 million in private sector finance last year.

Maven was appointed to manage the £20 million Finance Durham Fund in April 2017 and the £27 million NEDCF in May 2018 to provide investment capital to support the growth of innovative and ambitious businesses across a wide range of sectors and in a variety of funding scenarios.

Notable transactions in 2019 include a £7 million deal in electric vehicle specialist AVID Technology to enable the business to increase production volumes of its current product range, a £1.2 million investment into innovative employee engagement Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, Hive HR, to invest in its sales and marketing activities and create a number of new roles, and a £750,000 equity investment into innovative ecommerce platform, Aero Commerce, to invest in its sales and marketing activities and open an office in Newcastle.  

Michael Vassallo, Investment Director at Maven, said, “Maven’s North East operation has had a fantastic year investing in some outstanding businesses across the region. Since opening offices in the North East we’ve invested over £17 million and we are delighted our range of regional and client funds have made such a significant impact on the region’s economy, and that we have been a key player in supporting the creation of jobs across the North East. Reaching this key milestone in 2019 demonstrates the appetite and need for this type of growth finance and we look forward to working with more innovative, fast growing small businesses to help them achieve their growth plans in 2020.”