The Social Investment Business (SIB) has been awarded a new Government contract to manage a £10 million fund that can help social ventures prepare themselves to raise additional social investment and/or to run public services.

The Investment and Contract Readiness (ICR) Fund will be fully launched by the end of April 2012, and will focus on supporting social ventures that have the potential for high growth and delivering positive social impact.

The ICR Fund also has an important role to play in developing the social investment market as for the first time a group of high calibre investors have come together to shape the programme to maximise the likelihood of organisations attracting significant investment after they have had support.

The ICR Fund is designed to help social ventures that are not yet ‘investment ready’ or ready to win a public service contract.

Likely areas for support, include business planning, proving impact, building financial management systems and strengthening senior management teams.

The ICR Fund will help social ventures identify appropriate advisory support services that can provide expert, professional technical, financial, business or other support to social ventures.

The social venture and advisory support body can then jointly submit a bid for funding from the ICR Fund.

The ICR Fund will be led by an Investors Panel comprising some of the key players in the social investment market – including Big Issue Invest, Big Lottery Fund, Big Society Capital, Bridges Ventures, CAF Venturesome, Deutsche Bank, Esmée Fairbairn, Finance South East, NESTA, Panahpur, NatWest Bank, Social Investment Business Group, Triodos Bank – and will be chaired by Big Society Capital.

The Investors Panel will drive programme design, decision making, the selection of the social ventures who will receive the grant and define the standards of approved advisory support providers plus opportunities for other investors to be involved.

Nick Hurd MP, minister for Civil Society, said: "The Investment and Contract Readiness Fund will create a step change in the number and scale of social ventures that are investable, able to compete for public sector contracts on a level playing field, and creating social impact at a really significant level.

"The Social Investment Business has an innovative, investor centred approach to running this fund, and I look forward to seeing them put their ideas into motion.”

Jonathan Jenkins, chief executive, Social Investment Business said: “We are thrilled to be able to bring together such a high quality Investors Panel and are very heartened by the commitment we have received from the social investment market.

"This group will drive the design and delivery of this programme. As the leading social investors in the country, the Panel will be ideally placed to provide investments in the social ventures who have benefitted from this programme, and thus make them better able to deliver public service contracts.

"We do not believe that there is any group better placed to define what investment readiness looks like nor to decide which social ventures should receive investment.

"We hope this will signal a step change for the social investment market as well as bringing major benefits to social ventures seeking to respond to the new economic landscape.”

The Social Investment Business is interested in receiving registrations of interest in the Fund from:

Social ventures that would like advisors to support them expand and prepare for investments and /or getting public sector contracts.

Investment advisory support providers with a track record of supporting organisations to investment and contract readiness.

Potential investors in social ventures interested in learning more about the Fund and the pipeline of investible opportunities it intends to create.

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