The Finance Durham Fund, which is managed by Maven Capital Partners, has backed ten SMEs in County Durham with a total of £3.4m since its inception two years ago.
Durham County Council founded the £20m fund in May 2017 and appointed Maven to manage investments across a range of sectors and in a variety of funding scenarios.
Maven has completed investments ranging from £40,000 to £2.7m and has successfully leveraged an additional £5.2m in private sector debt finance.
Notable transactions include a £1m investment in NETPark-based water technology business G2O, a £1.95m investment in engineering business Dyer Engineering, and a £850,000 investment in reverse auction marketplace honcho.
Maven has also established an "Access to Finance" programme, which provides business clinics and workshops to help entrepreneurs develop business structure and strategy.
Michael Vassallo, investment director at Maven, said: "We are delighted that the fund has reached such a significant milestone and that we have been able to support so many jobs across the County.
"Many of our transactions are fantastic examples of investors in the North East working together to provide local businesses with substantial funding packages to enable them to grow globally.
"At Maven, we understand the importance of proactively providing local support, our investment team has considerable in-depth knowledge of the local SME market, allied to our national resource, we are well-equipped to deliver comprehensive investor readiness training tailored to the individual growth needs of businesses based in County Durham."
Sarah Slaven, business development director, added: "It is great to look back on the range of companies and projects that have benefited from the Finance Durham fund over the last two years and are already creating jobs and investing further in the County.
"The Fund is a key part of the wider package that Business Durham has available to make County Durham an attractive place to do business. We look forward to continuing to work with these companies and those who receive funding from the fund in the future."