The Capital for Enterprise (CfE) fund has invested £2m in business process outsourcing provider Documetric.
The deal was led by venture capital firm Maven Capital Partners, a joint manager of the £75m CfE fund, a Government backed initiative launched earlier this year to help small businesses that are struggling to secure funding because of the credit crunch.
Documetric, which specialises in payment processing and transactional services, will use the investment to continue its growth and development plans. The firm’s revenues have increased from £2m to £11m since it was established in 2007.
Richard Arden, finance director at Documetric, said: "This investment will facilitate further organic growth by Documetric and is an attractive alternative to private equity; the efficient delivery of our outsourcing services is key to generating significant savings to our clients and we have a significant pipeline that has partly been driven by clients looking to rapidly cut costs in their operations."
The CfE fund consists of £75m of equity, made up of £50m of taxpayers’ money and an additional £25m from retail banks Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and RBS. The purpose of the fund is to provide equity of between £200,000 and £2m to small- and medium-sized British companies with viable business models and growth potential in need of long term capital.
Maven Capital Partners and another VC firm, Octopus Investments, each manage £30m of the find. A further £15m is to be invested directly by government subsidiary Capital for Enterprise on a co-investment basis.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009