Foresight North West fund closes at £90m to back SMEs

The Foresight Group has announced the £90m first close of its third dedicated North West regional investment vehicle in the UK, underscoring durable appetite for SME growth in the region. The fund is targeting a £130m hard cap and will deploy £1m to £15m of flexible equity across a broad range of sectors and deal types.

Launched from Foresight’s Manchester base, the vehicle builds on a long-standing regional thesis that has seen the group invest in more than thirty North West companies since 2015, contributing to a sizeable employment uplift. To date, investee companies in the North West have created more than 2,100 jobs, a track record that the firm says helps attract new capital into the region.

The new fund’s anchor support comes from public pension funds, with Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Clwyd Pension Fund, and Merseyside Pension Fund among the first investors. While the exact sizing and allocation details are forthcoming, the backing from these regional schemes signals a broader trend of UK pension funds directing capital toward SME growth engines outside London and the Southeast.

Since its first North West vehicle launched in 2015, Foresight has maintained a steady cadence of fund-raisings, expanding its regional footprint while refining the value-added approach of working closely with management teams. The group notes that the maiden North West fund has delivered a 4x average return to investors as of mid-2025, a performance benchmark that has helped accelerate the current fundraising cycle for the new vehicle.

Foresight’s Executive Chair Claire Alvarez commented that the North West remains one of the UK’s most dynamic hubs for scale-ups, with strong deal flow across sectors. She framed the latest close as evidence of investor confidence in the region’s entrepreneurs and in Foresight’s ability to accelerate growth through strategic guidance, governance, and access to a broad network of operators. Other participants, including investment officers from the regional pension funds, stressed the importance of SMEs to local communities and the role of patient capital in sustaining long-term regional prosperity.