The UK Government appointed today Hermes Private Equity and the European Investment Fund (EIF) as fund-of-fund managers for the UK Innovation Investment Fund (UKIIF)*.
In particular, the Government will invest £100m in a £200m technology fund-of-funds to be managed by the EIF, which will cover digital/ICT, life sciences and advanced manufacturing. In addition, it will also invest £50m in a £125m low-carbon and clean tech fund-of-funds to be managed by Hermes.
In this way, the Government’s initial investment of £150m has leveraged £175m in additional money, creating a £325m pool of funding.
The fund is expected to start investing in British businesses by early 2010. In the meantime, the target remains to create a 1bn 15-year fund.
*The above mentioned appointments are subject to the signing of legal agreements.
FinSMEs
09/12/2009