The Finance for Business North East Technology Fund has made a £500, 000 investment in Route Monkey, a provider of software for vehicle operators.

The Finance for Business North East Technology Fund has made a £500, 000 investment in Route Monkey, a provider of software for vehicle operators.

Over the past six years the company has been developing a scheduling system for electric vehicles and the investment will mainly fund the expansion of the company into the electric vehicle market.

As well as securing the investment, Route Monkey has also set up a partnership with electric car manufacturers, Smith Electric Vehicles, to supply them with the new technology.

The investment from the fund, which is managed by the IP Group, will also go towards global expansion for the company and building a new office in Gateshead, complimenting the base in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Route Monkey chief executive Colin Ferguson says, ‘I am confident that with this support from IP Group, we can take Route Monkey to another level. We are looking to export and expand into new areas internationally and are
able to look at doing that with a much more aggressive strategy than before.’

The Finance for Business North East is a £125 million government-backed venture capital fund created by regional development agency One North East that will support 850 small and medium-sized businesses in North East
England over the next five years. As well as One North East, the European Investment Bank and the European Regional Development Fund are committing millions of pound each into the fund.

The North East Technology Fund is a £25 million sub-fund that is dedicated to investing in technology businesses that are based in, or are willing to relocate to the north east of England.

As Route Monkey is now set to grow, it plans to recruit more software developers and add further sales resources to its team, creating new jobs in the Newcastle region.