Barclays Bank is launching a new £500 million fund for SMEs. The fund is part of the bank’s commitment to support the government’s Northern Powerhouse initiative. The initiative’s aim is to inject investment into businesses with favourable terms for, helping them to grow and create new jobs.

So if you are based in the South, as most businesses are – then you don’t qualify.  And if you are in financial services, you don’t qualify either.  But you might have some customers in the Northern area who do.

The Barclays fund is for established SME Northern businesses with ambitious growth plans; start-ups with high growth potential; companies with early-stage equity funding and businesses focusing on innovation, R&D and technology in manufacturing, transport and logistics companies.