Almost £60m has so far been invested of the £400m fund which launched in 2017.

Investment has been provided across its 10 local enterprise partnership areas.

The British Business Bank is working in partnership with the European Regional Development Fund, the European Investment Bank and the UK government.

Ken Cooper, managing director at British Business Bank, said: “We are seeing good quality investments into growth companies that will have a real impact on jobs and productivity in the North.

•   NPIF invests over £50m in SMEs
•   Engineering company secures £300,000 investment
•   NPIF provides £31m to northern SMEs

“Building on the success of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, the British Business Bank has now been formally tasked with a specific new objective, to address historic regional disparities in the availability of funding. 

“Having already built on the successful model used here to develop funds in the Midlands – through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund – we launched a fund for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in June.

“It has been a busy first half of 2018 and we look forward to keeping up those energy levels as the fund builds into its second year.”

Among those investments is Newtec – a medical device company – which has received £500,000 of funding through the NPIF.

The funding will be used to launch a new medical product for surgeons, with funds provided by NPIF – Maven Equity Finance.

Rob Carson, CEO at Newtec, said: “We are extremely pleased to have received funding from NPIF – Maven Equity Finance.

“Newtec is now well resourced to accelerate the development of its innovative vascular devices, including FloGuardian, a novel device for controlling scar tissue formation (intimal hyperplasia) in vascular surgery to improve outcomes for vascular grafts.”