Businesses in the East of England are set to land a £100m windfall.

Businesses in the East of England are set to land a £100m windfall.

The Foresight Group is looking for 20 Small and medium enterprises in the region with which to invest £5m.

The group is a London-based private equity investment manager and has launched its fifth regional fund in East Anglia highlighting the region's thriving start-up sector.

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Russell Healey, partner and head of private equity at Foresight, said: "The East of England has a large number of companies in an exciting range of sectors including life sciences, technology, media and engineering, but it has traditionally attracted relatively low levels of private equity investment."

Kris Jones, chief executive of tech accelerator Tech Velocity, said: "This is great news for the region and it looks like it can help companies who would otherwise stagnate in their ambitions.

"I'm looking forward to hearing about the nuts and bolts of how the fund will work and hope Foresight take a balanced approach to their investment plans to encompass slightly higher risk but higher growth tech companies."

Foresight claims the 20,000 small, established businesses in the East of England have good access to venture capital funding in their early stages but often struggle with the next step.

A spokesman added: "The fund will address this funding gap, and will bring not only capital but also insight and expertise."

Tim Robinson, chief operating officer at TechEast said: "This is really good news for the region because usually entrepreneurs would have to go to Cambridge or London. As I would always say to businesses make sure you do your homework and make sure you're going for the right money and the smart money for your company.

"I'm really looking forward to the launch and learning more about how it will work."

The fund will be investing in business across a range of sectors but will typically be looking at companies with a profit of £500,000 or more.

Managers for the fund, which will have its head office in Cambridge, are already looking into potential investees.

The cornerstone of the fund is the Cambridgeshire Pension Fund meaning the capital pool is already in place.

Businesses wishing to approach the fund can do so directly through the Foresight website at www.foresightgroup.eu.

Companies will need to provide a summary of their company, the financials and why they need the funding.

Alternatively managers can call the fund on 0203 667 8100.