A West Midlands venture capital fund dedicated to supporting creative firms has reached its investment targets six months early.
The Advantage Creative Fund (ACF) said it would not be able release any more funds, even though its initial five-year contract does not end until December.
ACF said it had reached its targets early due to a high volume of applications already in the pipeline.
Chairman Peter Tomlinson said: “It is a great tribute to the team at ACF that we are going to be fully invested six months early.
“Their professionalism and skill at recognizing the great potential within the creative industries in the West Midlands and where the talent lies has been fantastic.”
ACF was established in 2003 and is sponsored by Advantage West Midlands, the European Regional Development Fund and Arts Council England. It was the first of its kind in the UK.
As part of its remit it had to invest in 56 companies releasing a total of £5 million.
Mr Tomlinson said the aim was that ACF would become self-sustaining, but made a plea to its sponsors to continue support the initiative with second-round funding.
He said: “Our success rate will mean the Fund will eventually be self sustaining and allow us to continue to invest in new creative enterprises using the returns from the investments we have made in the last five years.
"However, it is vital that ACF continues to receive funding from its sponsors to allow for the superb work already achieved to be taken forward and for more companies to receive our backing and expertise now.
“The only sad thing about reaching our targets early is that we have a sizeable number of fantastic applications with robust business plans on the table and until the next stage of funding is released we are unable to help them.”
