The North West team at UK-wide firm BGF has topped the £300m mark for its investments in businesses across the region - with almost £60m of that coming in the past year alone.
The investment firm said the total now stood at £311m across 34 businesses in locations including Liverpool and Manchester.
New investments included Manchester-headquartered FinTech company Planixs, international schools group Orbital Education and Joloda International, a fast-growing manufacturing firm based in Merseyside. The latter investment took BGF past its £2bn investment milestone.
Neil Inskip, head of BGF’s North West team, said: “Our investments this year and portfolio in the region shows the North West business community is truly world-class. We consistently meet entrepreneurs with global ambitions for their products, services and innovations. These are the high-potential businesses which fuel the growth economy.
“BGF’s role is to provide long-term, flexible capital to support the growth of businesses, based across the North West. We’ve continued to invest across a range of sectors from fintech to education, manufacturing and e-commerce – there’s a wealth of opportunity within the region.”
Last month, BGF announced a £10m investment in CurrentBody, a Manchester-based online retail specialist for home-use beauty devices.
BGF also provided follow-on investment to four existing portfolio businesses, including web-hosting business, Miss Group, which has since made acquisitions across Scandinavia, North America and Europe.
Coachbuilding firm Woodall Nicholson has also made a series of acquisitions this year across the UK and Germany.
And following another year of growth, Kids Planet has expanded to 44 nurseries with its first acquisition outside of the North West in March this year.
The team also expanded its headcount with the appointment of Spencer Woods and James Marshall to its investment team, as well as Joanne McTiffin, who joined BGF’s Talent Network, which works with BGF-backed companies to identify potential candidates for non-executive director and chair positions.
