The Greater Manchester Loan Fund (GMLF), managed by Maven Capital Partners, has made an investment in ethernet connectivity and cloud services business Vaioni.
The deal represents the first investment made by the GMLF since it was established by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) in August 2013. Baker Tilly Corporate Finance acted as lead advisor to Vaioni on the investment.
AGMA, which comprises of the 10 local authorities in the Greater Manchester area, says access to finance continues to be one of the key challenges facing SMEs in pursuing their business plans and maximising growth potential. With the current economic climate making it harder for companies to borrow, the GMLF was set up to provide flexible finance solutions for promising businesses in order to encourage growth while creating and safeguarding jobs. Maven, which has a track record of managing similar funds on behalf of the UK and Scottish Governments, was appointed as manager of the fund and will provide loans ranging from GBP100,000 to GBP500,000 to eligible companies, with the potential for follow-on funding up to GBP750,000.
Salford based Vaioni provides a range of high performance and resilient connectivity and cloud-based services through its products Ethernet Exchange and The One Platform, to businesses across the UK, Europe and South Africa. The market for ethernet connectivity and cloud-based services has seen substantial growth in recent years as businesses demand more bandwidth and more reliable connectivity services.
Established in 2001, Vaioni has built up a diverse and a geographically widespread customer base with high retention rates. In recent years the business has won a number of new high value clients and has generated organic growth. The GBP500,000 investment from the GMLF will help support Vaioni’s growth strategy, whilst allowing it to increase its workforce by at least 100 per cent.
Andy Thomas, investment director at Maven, says: “Vaioni has developed a highly competitive and innovative proposition and is well placed to expand in this growing sector. The management team have worked hard to establish the company, and we hope our funding will help them fulfil their ambitions for the business. Greater Manchester already has an excellent reputation in the digital sector, and Vaioni are at the cutting edge of this. We’re delighted to complete our first deal for the Greater Manchester Loan Fund and we look forward to working closely with Sachin and the team.”
Gary Houghton, Baker Tilly Corporate Finance partner in Manchester, says: “This funding from the Greater Manchester Loan Fund will enable Vaioni to expand its sales team and pursue new revenue streams. This is a great example of a new mezzanine fund entering the market place to address the funding gap for fast growing SMEs.”
Sachin Vaish, managing director at Vaioni, says: “This is a really exciting time for Vaioni. We have been successfully growing over the past five years with no investment since its humble beginning. This funding, as well as the opportunity to work alongside Maven, will provide the stepping stone to take the business to a new level and helps put Greater Manchester on the map as a leader in the digital sector.”
