www.advantagewm.co.uk

Advantage West Midlands is one of nine Regional Development Agencies operating in England. It is the regional leader for developing economic prosperity, working with others to develop strategies and support projects that will help transform the West Midlands’ economy.

Appropriate access to finance is key to an enterprising region. Entrepreneurs need it to start new businesses and existing businesses need it to realise opportunities for growth. While the private sector will always dominate in providing finance, there are still some market failures. It is where these occur that Advantage West Midlands can help in developing new financial products, lubricating market activities and making businesses more prepared for using external finance. Following research it became evident that there were gaps in the supply of specific types and amounts of finance in the region and that some businesses need help to improve their awareness of and access to existing forms of finance available.

We have already created a number of different initiatives to form the “Advantage” suite. These provide a range of finance from small loans to risk capital investments of up to £2m. These include the Advantage Business Angels. Alongside these are a range of awareness raising and investment readiness services.