The British Business Bank (BBB) has launched a £210m fund to support the growth of small and medium-sized businesses in the South East of England.

The South East Investment Fund is part of the BBB’s plan to deliver targeted finance across every UK nation and region outside of London.

The vehicle will provide loans of between £25,000 and £2m as well as equity investments of up to £5m to help small and medium-sized businesses start, scale and grow, the UK government’s development bank said.

The BBB revealed that the latest investment fund will be followed by a forthcoming East of England Investment Fund later this month.

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“The South East of England is home to some of the UK’s most innovative technological and scientific businesses, and this fund will ensure that businesses have local access to the finance they need to grow, scale and expand,” said David Hourican, incoming interim chief executive of the British Business Bank.

The BBB has appointed FSE Group and Maven Capital Partners to manage the fund, with the former overseeing the debt finance element and the latter running equity investments.

The South East Investment Fund will cover Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Sussex, Surrey and Kent, the BBB said.

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The region is home to 17 per cent of the UK’s university spinout businesses, behind only London, yet it received just five per cent of the UK’s total equity investment by value last year, the bank added.

The fund has already made its first investment, providing a £250,000 loan to Basingstoke-based technology company Process Vision to support its international expansion, the BBB added.

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