News

The FSE Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Simon Elliott as Investment Manager joining its team in the East of England region.

Simon has enjoyed 17 years with Barclays in East Anglia where he has served the business community for most of his career. During that time, he has built an extensive network of contacts across the area and gained wide-ranging expertise in commercial lending.

In his role at FSE, Simon will help the existing team in deploying growth and trade finance to SMEs via the East of England Regional Growth Loan Scheme and the East of England Regional Trade and Contract Finance Loan Scheme. Both schemes can offer eligible businesses funding between £50,000 and £500,000.

Simon said: “To date I have demonstrated a strong commitment to the local economy, a good understanding of doing business in this geographic area and have helped develop an excellent eco-system in the central Norwich area. I am now looking forward to taking on a new challenge where I can utilise my knowledge and collaborative approach to extend this eco-system across the greater East of England region, identifying and supporting the area’s ambitious businesses to reach their full potential.”

Allen Hall, Head of Funds, East, at The FSE Group added: “We are excited to welcome Simon to FSE and our team delivering growth funding in the East. He brings a wealth of finance experience and personal attributes that will place him in a great position to hit the ground running. Enabling the growth of the region’s SMEs to support job creation and economic growth has been at our core since our Ipswich office opened in 2009; we are delighted that Simon is now on board and helping to continue this.”

A £6.5million initiative established in 2009, the East of England Regional Loan Scheme is an evergreen fund generating continuous economic impact with the initial funds recycled to provide funding totalling over £21million to the region’s SMEs. Managed by FSE on behalf of the region’s LEPs, the scheme can provide loans for growth as well as to service short to medium-term trade and contract finance requirements.

The FSE Group is delighted to welcome Paul Wainwright as its new Head of Funds, Yorkshire. The appointment follows the announcement in December that FSE has been appointed to manage Finance Yorkshire’s two new Business Loan funds.

Paul joins FSE following a period supporting businesses across the UK as a Director of the government’s Bounce Back Loan Scheme at the British Business Bank.

Prior to this Paul enjoyed a 24-year career with Yorkshire Bank, which saw him in a number of positions across a variety of operations before becoming Head of Customer Banking for the Sheffield City Region.

In this newly established role at The FSE Group, Paul will be responsible for managing the delivery of business loans between £25,000 and £250,000 and micro-loans between £5,000 and £25,000 to SMEs across Yorkshire and the Humber.

Paul commented: “The FSE Group has been supporting ambitious, high-growth SMEs for almost 20 years and I am thrilled to be heading up their expansion into the north of England. As a community interest company, FSEs really puts its customers at the heart of what it does and I look forward to adding my own 30 years of experience to this fantastic team.”

Julie Silvester, Head of Commercial at The FSE Group, added: “With his extensive knowledge of the region and long career encompassing small business finance, Paul is a great addition to the FSE team. We look forward to working with him to provide alternative finance options to high growth SMEs that have ambitions to expand, create jobs and improve productivity across Yorkshire and the Humber.”

Alex McWhirter, Chief Executive at Finance Yorkshire said: “Paul Wainwright being selected to lead the FY Loan Funds is a great appointment. I look forward to working with Paul to successfully deliver FY’s new Loan Funds across the region.”

The micro and business loans form part of a wider, sustainable fund from Finance Yorkshire that also offers Seedcorn and Growth Fund investments. The fund is expected to invest more than £50m over the next five years. For enquiries about the Business Loan Funds, please visit and fill out the attached enquire form: https://www.thefsegroup.com/enquire/

Finance Yorkshire has appointed The FSE Group to manage two business loan investment streams.

The appointment follows Finance Yorkshire’s announcement of a new fund to support business growth across the region. Investments are available to eligible SMEs across Yorkshire and the Humber with ambitions to expand, create jobs and improve productivity.

The new fund has been structured to provide SMEs with a range of support through Seedcorn and Growth Fund (primarily equity) investments, along with large and small Business Loans.

The FSE Group will manage the two Business Loan funds. It was announced in September that Anticus Partners will manage the Seedcorn and Growth streams.

Finance Yorkshire’s new fund is expected to invest more than £50m over the next five years as it continues to realise its investment portfolio from its earlier fund.

The new fund has been created from the combined legacies successfully created by Finance Yorkshire and the former South Yorkshire Investment Fund. Finance Yorkshire’s JEREMIE and Extension Funds invested £113m in more than 500 companies in the region.

Finance Yorkshire Chief Executive, Alex McWhirter said: “We’re looking forward to working with The FSE Group to provide much-needed investment to companies with great potential but who are unable to access finance from traditional and other alternative sources.

“The FSE Group emerged as the best candidate following a competitive tendering process and they have wide-ranging experience of delivering investments that help SMEs to reach their maximum potential.”

The FSE Group CEO, Paul Marston added: “We are delighted to be appointed fund manager for these two loan funds and join Anticus Partners in providing alternative finance options to high growth SMEs across Yorkshire and the Humber. The FSE Group has been funding and supporting growth SMEs for 20 years and we look forward to building on Finance Yorkshire’s previous success.”

For enquiries about the Business Loan Funds, please email: info@finance-yorkshire.com

Ends.

Notes to Editors

About Finance Yorkshire

Finance Yorkshire’s new fund provides flexible investment packages to eligible SMEs based or moving to areas within Yorkshire and Humber with ambitions to expand, create jobs and improve productivity.

The fund provides four main products, structured to back businesses through critical stages of growth: Micro-Loans, Business Loans, Growth Fund (loans and equity) and Seedcorn.

The new, sustainable fund has been created from the legacy finance available from Finance Yorkshire’s previous support for SMEs alongside legacy finance from the former South Yorkshire Investment Fund (SYIF).

Finance Yorkshire was established in 2010 to provide gap finance through debt and equity investments to SMEs across Yorkshire and Humber.

This Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises (“JEREMIE”) fund - capitalised by grants from UK Government, European Regional Development Fund and finance from the European Investment Bank - and Extension Fund saw £113 million invested in 500 companies between 2010 and 2017.

Finance Yorkshire’s previous investments created and safeguarded more than 16,000 jobs, enabling those businesses to increase their turnover by a total of £474m and attract a further £374m from private sector sources.

For more information, please visit www.finance-yorkshire.com  or call 0300 030 6060.

Talo, a manufacturer of sustainable housing, has secured £200,000 from the Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator to help deliver new and affordable homes.

Founded in January 2017 by Anthony Greer, Bengt Magnussen and Leona Wikman, Talo delivers offsite manufactured housing which demonstrate Sustainable Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) homes, with a focus on the affordable housing sector. These houses offer several advantages over traditionally constructed homes, one of these key benefits is that they are environmentally friendly because of their carbon negative nature. While a traditionally built house may emit 10 tons of CO2in construction, the equivalent Talo built house achieves a Carbon Sink of -6 tons. The MMC system is fully developed and well established, having been used for more than 40 years in Nordic countries, and Talo has already delivered 38 homes in the UK.

In the UK there is an annual shortfall in affordable homes of 150,000 and the Government has set-out an £11.5bn 5-year affordable housing programme (AHP) with a target of 25% of affordable housing to be built using MMC. According to InnovateUK, the construction, operation, and maintenance of the built environment accounts for 45% of total UK carbon emissions (with 27% coming from domestic buildings). As the UK Government has legally binding commitments to the ‘Net Zero’ target by 2050, Talo’s MMC solution, which is better than Net Zero and takes half the time to develop and build compared to traditional building methods is primed to target this opportunity.

Anthony Greer, Director of Corporate at Talo explains: “The UK has ambitious targets to become a world leader in MMC and we look forward to supporting this drive to build affordable, sustainable housing. It is great to be working alongside James and the EM3 team with a loan that has come at a pivotal time in the housing sector. Thanks to this loan, we will be able to accelerate the delivery of key projects in the affordable housing space.”

James Edwards, Investment Manager, South East for The FSE Group, which manages the EM3 Funding Escalator on behalf of Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), commented: “We were impressed by Talo’s track record and the expertise of the senior management team. Furthermore, the company’s market leading sustainable products can help the UK deliver on its Net Zero agenda. We are delighted to be able to offer this funding and look forward to working with Anthony and the team to ensure they reach their goals for growth.”

The Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator is £10million initiative funded by Enterprise M3 LEP. The escalator, which includes an expansion loan scheme, a trade finance loan scheme and an equity growth fund, provides eligible companies with loans and equity funding between £50,000 and £300,000 for activities that will deliver high-growth and employment opportunities across the EM3 area.

For more information about the Enterprise M3 Short Term Loan Scheme please visit https://www.thefsegroup.com/fund/enterprise-m3-funding-escalator/ or contact James Edwards james.edwards@thefsegroup.com

For more information about Talo, please visit https://www.talo.co.uk/ or email hello@talo.co.uk

A Farnborough business that specialises in providing cloud-based solutions for the shipping industry has secured a £250,000 growth loan from the Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator.

The loan will enable Locus Software to create 10 new positions focussing on the delivery of customer requirements and the continued development of its software package for small to medium cargo shipping lines.

The software is built on and uses a unique technology platform called Odyssey Connect. The platform uses an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) process which supports, manages and integrates the most important parts of a marine business in one place.

For ocean carriers, the software brings together essential and complex workflows such as quotations, service contracts, bookings, equipment management, tariff management, capacity management and cost contribution to minimise the cost of using multiple systems and deliver significant business value. This guarantees that carriers, their agents, and their end-customers will all have access to the same commercial, operational and cost information via one platform.

John Squire, Founder and CEO of Locus Software, commented: “Locus’s Odyssey platform is currently the only cloud-based solution available which is specifically designed with the unique functionality required by shipping lines. This funding has come at a crucial time as we have taken on more customers and are expanding rapidly. As a business we pride ourselves on first class customer service and to do this we needed to strengthen our team of developers. The investment has allowed us to do this and our thanks to The FSE group for helping us to secure the finance from EM3.”

Simon Blackbourn, Investment Manager for The FSE Group, which manages the EM3 Funding Escalator on behalf of Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), added: “Locus software is the only robust cloud solution specifically targeted at the shipping liner industry and is already proven to the market. The business has a collaboration with INTTRA, a shipping industry booking hub originally owned by 15 of the biggest carriers which accounts for more than 30% of all global shipments. There is an extensive market opportunity for Locus to tap into and we look forward to seeing the business expand and reach out to more shipping companies.”

The Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator I & II is a combined £15million initiative funded by Enterprise M3 LEP. The escalator, consists of an expansion loan scheme, a short-term loan scheme and an equity growth fund, which provides eligible companies with loans and equity funding between £50,000 and £300,000 for activities that will deliver high-growth and employment opportunities across the EM3 area.

For more information about the Enterprise M3 Expansion Loan Scheme please visit:https://www.thefsegroup.com/fund/enterprise-m3-funding-escalator/ or contact Simon Blackbourn at simon.blackbourn@thefsegroup.com tel:  01276 608515/07436 189762

For more information about Locus Software, visit: https://www.locussoftware.com/