Vital investment

Technology firms KeTech and Vamosa are the first to benefit from a government-backed fund providing investment to innovative small businesses.

In Nottingham, business secretary Lord Mandelson announced that £2m from the Capital for Enterprise Fund will be awarded to local firm KeTech.

KeTech will receive the equity funding from Octopus Investments, which manages £30m of the total £75m.

Founded in 1998, KeTech provides communication software and services to the rail industry.

It also produces specialist detection systems for use in defence and emergency services markets, together with a range of building-management systems.

The firm has more than doubled its turnover to £16m since 2006 and it employs more than 100 people at six UK sites.

A further £1m investment is being made in Glasgow-based Vamosa, which specialises in the emerging area of Enterprise Content Governance (ECoG), supplying its software to businesses and the public sector.

Maven Capital Partners, which also manages £30m of the £75m fund, will invest £1m in the company, which was founded in 1999 and has 36 employees.

Ensuring innovative British businesses can access risk capital is one of the key commitments from the government’s industrial strategy, New Industry New Jobs.

The £75m Capital for Enterprise Fund was created to help viable small and medium-sized businesses with genuine growth potential that would otherwise be unable to secure investment.