Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

“With the private sector vacating early-stage funding after the dot.com era and the government now shifting its focus to more developed businesses, the UK is facing a potential dearth of investment in this area,” said NESTA chief executive, Jonathan Kestenbaum.

“Our fund is designed to plug this gap both directly and by demonstrating the viability of early-stage investment to third parties.”

It will look to invest up to £10m each year, offering individual start-ups seed money of up to £250,000 and investing £500,000 per company over the course of its development.

In addition to financial input, companies will receive ongoing mentoring and business support from NESTA to maximise the potential of the business and attract further rounds of funding.

NESTA has a portfolio of some 50 companies based around the UK – including a dozen in the East of England such as Light Blue Optics, BlueGnome and Probe Scientific – and has one of the largest pools of mentors in the country.