The Business Investment for Growth (BIG) project has been confirmed for a second instalment.

Following on from the success of BIG1, which ran from 2012-2015, the Cornwall Development Company has been awarded a £4.387 million from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to manage the BIG2 project over a three-year period (2016-2018).

It is designed to support co-investments in high growth or potential high-growth businesses based in Cornwall and is aimed at providing gap finance to enable projects to proceed that otherwise would not go ahead.

Its principal objectives are to support 200 businesses through grant investments, creating 360 jobs and levering in private sector match funding of £4.4 million.

The level of investment will range from £2.5k up to a maximum of £75k. The anticipated average investment will be around £18k, representing a maximum 45% contribution to an applicant’s proposal.

Programme manager, Brent Treloar, said: “The team at CDC have worked extremely hard to win this new opportunity to invest direct into Cornish businesses and we are all very pleased to take forward the investment work started under BIG1 into what should be an exciting few years.”

The website is now live and interested parties can read more and download the initial expression of interest by clicking here.

Funding will officially open on May 1.