Greater Manchester Investment Fund passes £100m milestone

The fund has helped create and safeguard more than 6,000 jobs and supported over 100 local businesses since it was established.

Investments have been made in all types of businesses ranging from engineering and manufacturing to digital and software, creating and safeguarding more than 6,000 jobs across Greater Manchester – a figure expected to rise through fund recycling as existing loans are repaid and reinvested in new projects.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “This is a remarkable milestone for the Greater Manchester Investment Fund. The fund is an ambitious initiative for our city-region; it is another example of how we do things differently here. Business and industry have always been at the heart of Greater Manchester and as Mayor I feel it is important to help develop newer sectors, such as digital, as well as to nurture our industrial skills.

“This could not have been have been achieved without the hard work of the late Cllr Kieran Quinn. He dedicated himself to improving Greater Manchester and through his diligence firms across our city-region are increasingly looking to the Combined Authority to support their growth plans.

“We will continue to help firms grow and thrive through initiatives like the Greater Manchester Investment Fund, which in turn will help to create jobs and opportunities for people across the city-region.”

Moixa, one of the UK’s leading smart battery companies, was supported by the fund in 2017 to grow its operations and the investment enabled the establishment of an office function in Salford. The company has gone on to partner up with Itochu, a Japanese Fortune 500 company, allowing Moixa to expand into the Japanese battery market.

Simon Daniel, Moixa CEO, said: “Greater Manchester provides an excellent location and talent pool to support Moixa’s nationwide solar battery customer operations and opportunities to work with local suppliers and regional housing to save energy cost and carbon. It will also help us grow support for international customers such as Itochu using our GridShare software to manage batteries.”

Apadmi, a mobile technology group based in Manchester received support from the fund. Apadmi develops apps for organisations including the BBC, Argos, The Guardian, United Utilities and the Co-operative Group.  The company used the investment to expand their workforce to meet their increasing workload.

Apadmi Ventures CEO, Howard Simms, explained: “Manchester feels like the most exciting place to be in tech at the moment. The ideas, businesses, talent and investment in the city seem to be growing each day. We’re thrilled to be playing our part in that growth. GMCA funding gave us the ability to run faster, doing what we do well. In essence it removed the brakes.”

The investment fund has also supported Culimeta, a textile manufacturer who were considering taking their business outside of Greater Manchester after struggling to find affordable space to expand their business. The funding provided Culimeta with money to redevelop a four-storey mill, leading to the creation of more than 140 new jobs.

“Without this funding and GMCA support we wouldn't have been able to expand and grow,” said Brendan McCormack, director of Culimeta.