Programme outputs

Total Projects Supported

At the time of writing Invest to Grow has supported 310 separate projects with a total award value of £30m. This incorporates 273 individual businesses and has contributed towards projects totalling £139m (when including match funding).

Of the 273 individual businesses that have benefited from Invest to Grow, 31 have received funding for 2 separate projects and 3 have been funded for 3 separate projects. The average intervention rate across these awards has been 21%.

Project Funding Mix and Type

Invest to Grow has awarded 154 loans and 291 grants (within 310 projects). The overall value of the loans (£16.6m) exceeds that of the grants (£13.2m), with 56% of total funding awarded being via loans. Regarding the types of projects funded, Invest to Grow has played a significant role in supporting businesses to access new or additional machinery and equipment and enable improvements to premises. This partly reflects the programme’s capital and job creation focus. The programme demonstrates an excellent loan retrieval rate of c99%, far in excess of the government’s c90% expectation.

Across its lifetime to date, 94% of Invest to Grow projects have included a grant element and 50% a loan element. When splitting total funding allocated to projects, 56% has been awarded to loans and 44% to grants. The average grant value is £45k and the average loan value is £108k.

The most common project type has focused on enabling businesses to access new or additional machinery/equipment, followed by projects which enable improvements to premises. This partly reflects the programme’s capital and job creation focus.