The Bright Futures Social Investment Tax Relief Fund makes first investment, as Social Finance announced that it has raised £1.5m from more than 40 UK tax payers.

The Bright Futures Fund has made its first investment into Ability Tec, a Bolton-based social enterprise. The fund, which was launched in 2015, is the UK’s first nationwide SITR fund. It has a particular focus on those that are working to improve the lives of children, young people and other vulnerable groups throughout the UK.

The fund is managed by Kin Capital, with Social Finance acting as an independent social investment intermediary.

The Bright Futures Fund has raised £1.5m from more than 40 UK tax payers, with the ultimate ambition to lend around £300,000 to up to a dozen firms. It is now calling for investment requests.

Annika Tverin, a director of Social Finance, said: “We will consider all sorts of enterprises from pretty much any field. Manufacturing and business services enterprises as well as companies whose social impact agenda is more obvious.

“The only restrictions come in the conditions set by the government as part of the SITR framework. This means we have to target social enterprises, charities, and companies which supply services with high impact to local communities.”

The loans are unsecured, in line with the SITR stipulations, and may be structured as debt or equity. The fund requires recipient social enterprises to have income streams sufficient to give a reasonable expectation on returns. For enterprises, the interest rate is likely to be between 5 and 10 percent

 Abiliity Tec, which was formed in September 2012, provides contract electrical manufacturing services to more than 15 clients, with the end products being gadgets such as taxi-fare meters and iPad chargers. It has a mission to employ people with disabilities.

The refinancing from the Bright Futures Fund will enable the company to grow by taking on additional staff and replacing some of its existing higher cost financing.

Oli Randell, Ability Tec’s founder and managing director, said: “With the cost savings and additional working capital from the Bright Futures Fund’s investment, Ability Tec will be able to hire an operations director and additional production staff. This will allow me to focus on managing existing client relationships, finding new clients and building the structure of the business.”

More information on the Bright Futures Fund can be found here.