Fund Management Services for North East Early Stage Equity Fund

The North East Fund seeks to appoint a professional, FCA authorised fund management organisation to deliver an early stage venture capital fund in the North East of England. The fund will address the persistent market gap in the provision of relatively small amounts of finance to early-stage and innovative SMEs in the North East of England.

In so doing, it will help to unlock regional growth, build confidence in the SME business base and ensure the region is a great place to start-up and scale a business. The Fund has the working title of "Early Stage Equity Fund" but its final name will be agreed with the appointed fund manager.

TNEFL expects to make an initial commitment of investment capital to the Fund of £35m, which will be invested over an Initial Investment Period of c.5 years - equating to an average annual investment by the Fund of £7m during its first five years of operation. This quantum of investment, and the Fund's investment policy detailed below, is consistent with and will address the funding gaps identified by a market evaluation exercise which was undertaken during the first half of 2024.

In a significant development compared to previous regional investment funds, the profile of this Fund has been developed with a view to facilitating a more 'patient capital' approach to investment - by making provision for the initial 5 year investment period to be followed by further periods of new (and follow-on) investments which can potentially extend to a further 10 years. This period of up to 15 years in which the Fund can make both new and portfolio investments will be followed by a Realisation Period of up to 10 years, giving a potential contract duration of 25 years in total.

This will enable the manager to provide support over a longer period than previous funds, which should be beneficial for the Fund's investee companies and should also help to maximise the financial returns to the Fund. Those returns, and potentially other sources of capital which may be available to TNEFL (for example, from the regional legacy funds overseen by NEA2F) will be used to facilitate the extension of the Fund's investment activity after the initial investment capital commitment of £35m is fully invested.

The extension of investment activity in the Further Investment Periods will be effected by TNEFL providing annual commitments of additional investment capital to the Fund which are expected to be, on average, between £3m and £6m. The actual quantum of each annual additional capital commitment will be notified by TNEFL to the manager as far in advance of the start of each one-year Further Investment Period as is possible, to enable the manager to make plans for its utilisation.

The procurement process was conducted in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended), using the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation as detailed in Regulation 29 of those Regulations. The Purpose of the procurement was to procure the services of a single FCA regulated fund manager.

The contract has an initial duration of 10 years but can be extended by up to a further 15 years, to 25 years in total. The contract value stated in this Contract Award Notice is based on the initial 10 year period and the actual amount paid during that period may vary depending on the overall quantum of capital ultimately committed to the fund and on the profile of exits from, and impairments to, portfolio companies.