The commercialisation firm will manage a total of $135m in funding, allocated through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

Mercia Technologies, a UK-listed fund manager, has won two contracts to manage an aggregate £108.5m ($135m) for the state-owned British Business Bank’s new Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund targeting entrepreneurs in northern England.

Mercia, through its subsidiary Enterprise Ventures, will manage £57.5m as an equity fund and a further £51m as a debt fund to invest in small and medium-sized enterprises in Yorkshire, the Humber and Tees Valley regions of the UK.

This is part of the £400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, which is supported financially by the European Union, including investment from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth programme 2014-20, and the European Investment Bank.

As a result of the two contracts, Mercia has increased its third-party funds under management to £336.5m.

Mark Payton, chief executive of Mercia, said: “Mercia’s strategy is to create value for its shareholders and investment clients by finding and funding innovative businesses in the UK regions, initially by investing the third party funds and subsequently by taking direct stakes in ’emerging stars’ as they successfully scale up.

“These two new funds will further strengthen Mercia’s ability to generate attractive returns for both managed fund investors and shareholders.”