Scottish Enterprise is to streamline three of its five Scottish Investment Bank branded funds into two from the beginning of next month in a move that it says will simplify the system for applicants, increase flexibility and reduce barriers to investment.
The Scottish Seed Fund - which was aimed at recent start-ups - will be amalgamated with the Scottish Venture Fund (SVF) and the Scottish Co-Investment Fund (SCF) from the beginning of next month, when both the SVF and the SCF will be relaunched.
The Scottish Loan Fund and Scottish Renewable Energy Investment Fund will be unaffected by the changes with the Scottish Investment Bank continuing to deliver the renewable energy fund and continuing as the main investor in the privately-managed loan fund.
A spokeswoman for Scottish Enterprise said that the end of the current European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programming period had given the enterprise agency the opportunity to review the operation of all its funds in the light of customer feedback.
Over the next three years, the spokeswoman said, Scottish Enterprise plans to invest up to £75 million through the relaunched SVF and SCF and that this would support between 160 and 200 high-growth potential companies throughout Scotland.
The spokeswoman added that, over the next ten years, Scottish Enterprise expects both funds to create 1,800 full-time equivalent jobs and an additional economic impact of up to £600m.
The SCF, the first of the SIB's funds, was founded in 2003 with an initial capital of £60m with the aim of providing investment for early stage companies. A further £67m, some of it from the ERDF, was injected into the fund in 2007. The other four funds were added between 2006 and 2012.
Since its launch in 2003, the SIB has invested £188m in 340 Scottish companies and this has leveraged in a further £425m of private sector investment as well as £96m of ERDF investment.
The SIB claims that as a direct result of its funds the number of angel investors active in the Scottish market have grown from two in 2003 to over 20.
The 13 priority sectors that the SIB invests in are: life sciences; energy; the creative industries; financial services; food & drink; enabling technologies; renewable energy; chemical services; tourism; construction; aerospace, defence & marine; forest & timber technologies and textiles.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article