Following the announcement of the government's Real Help for Business Programme in January, Capital for Enterprise Fund Managers has announced the final closing of the Capital for Enterprise Fund - a £75m fund of funds. Investors in the fund are the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform along with HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

The CFE Fund has already committed £30m each to Aberdeen Asset Managers Private Equity and Octopus Private Equity with which to make investments; the remaining £15m is to be managed flexibly by CfEFM as a co-investment fund, available to invest alongside established fund managers into SMEs that fit the fund's investment strategy. For co-investments the fund will provide up to 50% of capital in funding rounds of between £200,000 and £2m.

The Aberdeen and Octopus funds have been identifying and reviewing investments since mid-January and will be making new investments over the next 12 months. The focus will be on fundamentally sound businesses with existing cash flows and genuine growth potential but which are currently unable to access the funding they need. The funds will offer equity or mezzanine investment aimed at releasing and sustaining growth and can invest between £200,000 and £2 million in businesses which meet the European Union's definition of a Small to Medium Sized Enterprise.