A £30m fund that helps ambitious companies in Kent, Medway and the rest of the region has “come of age” by completing its 21st investment - in a Kent firm.

Future Route, an award-winning company that uses trailblazing software and clusters of data from numerous sources to predict consumer behaviour, is on course for a multi-million pound future after becoming the South East Growth Fund’s latest project.

The fund, which opened last October, has pumped £250,000 into the company, some of the £1.25m already injected into four Kent firms--more than any other part of the region. The three others are the Navigator Group in Maidstone, Footprint Exhibitions, Ashford, and Press Red, Tunbridge Wells.

Derek King, the fund’s Maidstone-born principal, said: “When we started out, people suggested that we might struggle to find good investment prospects in Kent, but we have actually found the opposite to be true.

“Small businesses seem to be thriving in the county and we have invested more in Kent than in any other county in the South East.”

Future Route of Tunbridge Wells was a runner-up in this year’s Kent Business Awards.

Headed by Stephen Cole, the entrepreneur behind one of the successes of the DotCom boom, Streets OnLine, Future Route provides so-called Predictive Analytics software and services that identify hidden data patterns in large databases and use this data to learn and predict future customer behaviour. Clients include Bluewater and Eurotunnel.

The fund worked alongside K@talyst Ventures, a private investor network, which has also pumped cash into the firm.

Mr King, said: “Having Future Route become our 21st investment is quite apt. The company displays all the credentials that we look for in an investment - great products that meet a defined customer need, exciting growth prospects and an exceptional management team.

“It also highlights our willingness to invest alongside private investors, which cannot be said about all venture capital funds. The company has wonderful potential and we are pleased to be playing a part in helping to fulfil that.”

Mr Cole said: “It’s been a pleasure to work with the South East Growth Fund and K@talyst Ventures because they understand technology companies like us.

“With their backing, we are now poised to achieve our aim of being the focus for highly talented people in the relatively new area of machine learning and grow the company into the leading Predictive Analytics company in Europe”

The fund was set up to overcome the financial obstacles facing firms wanting to grow. Pioneered by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), it is backed by the DTI, European Investment Fund, Barclays Bank, NMB Heller and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Fund invests up to £250,000 with a possible further follow on investment up to £500,000.