New £75m fund to target growing Northern Ireland companies

A new £75 million (€87.5 million) investment fund managed by Northern Ireland’s Whiterock is to target growing companies in the North, addressing a gap in the local market for growth funding.

The Growth Capital Fund, which was launched by Whiterock, will primarily focus on companies in Northern Ireland across a range of sectors, with investments of between £1 million and £5 million. However, it could back companies anywhere in the UK that have a Northern Ireland focus.

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It aims to invest in about 15 to 20 companies over the next five years, taking a minority shareholding, and offering the possibility of follow-on funding to support the scaling-up companies in sectors such as digital, ICT and creative, fintech and financial services, life and health sciences, agritech and advanced manufacturing and engineering.

This is Whiterock’s first equity fund, with the company previously providing debt funding to more than 150 SMEs based in Northern Ireland. The new growth capital comes from British Business Bank, which invested £45 million, along with unnamed private investors.

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“Whiterock has been actively supporting local businesses for over a decade and our well-established team has a proven track record of deploying funds in the market,” said Whiterock chief executive Paul Millar.

“While funding options have improved for companies, independent research has found there is still a clear equity gap in Northern Ireland when it comes to locally based private equity investors, particularly in the £1 million to £5 million investment range.”

The former chief financial officer of Newry-based technology company First Derivatives, Graham Ferguson, has joined Whiterock as investment director, working alongside David McCurley and Paul Millar.

The fund will also be bolstered by the appointment of several external consultants and sector experts to provide technical knowledge and experience.

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