Liverpool’s £20m Local Business Fund

Liverpool is known for its successful businesses, from chemical services to retail giants. The new Liverpool City Region £20m local business fund will see more growth as the city lays out its ambitious plans for the future.

The fund focuses on providing support through equity investment in early-stage businesses across the region. By doing this, Liverpool is hoping it will have a larger impact on the region as a whole, providing more better-quality jobs alongside a boost to the city’s business growth.

Steve Rotherham, Liverpool City Region Mayor commented, “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy – accounting for 99% of all businesses in the region. They’re essential, not only to our current success, but to our long-term prosperity. But despite lots of businesses starting-up in our region, we need to more to help them to scale up and thrive… Over the last few years, we’ve delivered an unprecedented £200m package of support to help our business community survive and recover through the pandemic.  Since I was elected Mayor, I’ve been working to establish our area as an innovation engine – one of the most attractive, supportive environments to launch and grow a business in.”

The fund will be broken down into the following:

·       £10 million will be invested by the Combined Authority in a new Liverpool City Region Seed Fund.

·       £5 million will be invested in the Merseyside Special Investment fund.

·       £5 million is expected to be contributed through private investors to boost the fund to at least £20 million, if not more.

However, the fund it not only to boost the quality of jobs and growth in the city economy, but it also plans to drive research and development at nearly twice the national rate.

This isn’t surprising, as it was previously announced that Liverpool is planning to reinvest 5% of their Research and Development by 2030, which is twice the expected rate of the UKs government.

Rotherham continued, “This latest funding is the next step on that journey. I want this £20m fund to be a catalyst for businesses in the region to kick on and succeed – creating more jobs for local people and helping our economy to grow in the process.”

The fund is a positive step forwards for the region and reinforces the city’s plans which were laid only at the start of the year. With the multitude of successes Liverpool is facing, investors and alike should be excited for the future of the city region.