Everything you need to know about the Business Investment Fund

The Business Investment Fund (BIF) has been created to support established small and medium businesses in Queensland. The Fund's objective is to help these businesses innovate, realise their potential, and promote job creation in the state.

The BIF forms part of the Backing Queensland Business Investment Fund, which was announced as part of the Queensland State Government's COVID-19 and Fiscal Economic Review.

Investment criteria

The Fund will primarily consider co-investment opportunities alongside a third party. The primary objective is to promote job growth, increase access to growth-stage capital in Queensland, and generate successful returns through investment in innovative SME's.

BIF will target businesses:

  • With a proven product/offering and an established market presence
  • Approaching profitability over the investment period
  • Seeking investment between $2.5 and $10 million
  • With a current or planned Queensland-based presence
  • With significant growth potential and job creation opportunities.

Investment process

Businesses interested in taking part will undergo a robust engagement, screening and due diligence process to ensure their business aligns with BIF's goals, targets and capabilities.

BIF will take a simple, six-step approach consisting of:

  1. Getting in touch with the business
  2. A preliminary review of the investment opportunity
  3. Evaluation of investment opportunity
  4. Investment approval by the Investment Committee
  5. Legal review including preparation of transaction documents
  6. Execution of investment once due diligence is completed.

Required documents

If you are interested in applying for an investment opportunity through the BIF, you will need to provide:

  • Investment sum (between $2.5m and $10m)
  • Revenue over the past 12 months
  • Number of employees (Queensland based and total employees)
  • An overview of your business and innovative product/service
  • How you will use the equity funds.

HELP ME APPLY

If you are interested in applying for the BIF or want to discuss the Fund in more detail, please contact your local BDO adviser.