Businesses asked to shape £160m fund

The new JEREMIE2 venture capital fund project team is asking local business people to help shape the structure and focus of the £160m fund when it opens for business from 2016.

The JEREMIE2 project team is giving all North East-based businesses and entrepreneurs the chance to complete a short survey to help them target the new funds most effectively. The survey closes on 5 December.The results will help the team design and build a business case for JEREMIE 2. The new fund will be investing from 2016 until 2020.

The survey can be found here and includes questions about which types of businesses should be targeted, what sizes, sectors and locations of business and what types of funding are required most.

JEREMIE2 deputy project director Estelle Blanks said: “The views and experiences of the business community are all important to us in putting together evidence for JEREMIE2 in the North East.

“The more responses we have, the more targeted we can be in structuring the new funds whilst taking into account funders’ requirements. That will increase their impact on individual enterprises and on the region’s longer-term growth. The survey only takes a few minutes and it could make all the difference to future prospects for your business, once JEREMIE2 begins to invest.”

The venture capital fund, which is being developed in a unique collaboration for businesses across the region by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and Tees Valley Unlimited LEP will provide funding for growing businesses in both local enterprise partnership areas.

JEREMIE2 will expand the work of the original JEREMIE fund, which has been hailed as England’s most successful regional investment fund.
Launched in 2010, JEREMIE1 has invested nearly £110m to date in 650 North East companies and secured more than £120m in investment from the private sector.

Find out more about the JEREMIE2 venture capital fund by emailing Estelle Blanks

The development costs of JEREMIE2 project are part financed by the North East European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the managing authority for the European Regional Development Fund Programme, which is one of the funds established by the European Commission to help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support local businesses and create jobs.