A SMALL regional publishing house based in Truro is becoming a global player in children’s non-fiction thanks to government funding worth £184,000.

When Hungry Tomato received its first loan of £84,000 from the South West Investment Fund (SWIF) in 2023, it had four employees and a turnover of £350,000. Today, it has 12 staff working from in its premises in the Old Bakery Studios, and a projected 2026 year-end turnover of £2-million.

A further SWIF loan of £100,000 was approved this year and invested in creating more books and growing the business, with more than 100 titles planned for release next year.

SWIF was launched by the British Business Bank – the Government’s economic development bank - in 2023, and Hungry Tomato was one of its first beneficiaries. The fund provides loans from £25,000 to £2-million and equity investment up to £5-million to help small and medium-sized businesses across the South West to start up, scale up or stay ahead.

Managing director Sharon Twiggs said: “SWIF was a lifeline for us. Banks are less likely to value intellectual property as security, but it’s worth more than anything else in our business. Without the funding, we would still have been skimming along, doing a third of the business we are now.”

Sharon and husband John were veterans of the publishing industry when they launched Hungry Tomato in 2015. Today, they employ a team of young authors and graphic designers – many recruited locally from establishments including Falmouth University and Truro College - to produce an array of educational titles.

Ranges are designed to be brightly coloured and appealing to young readers, and carefully written to ensure quality and quantity of text appropriate to each age group. Having initially focused on books for schools and educators, last year saw a new range drop: Big Questions Answered, devised to enthuse seven- to nine-year-olds about science.

Forty titles give a broad-brush introduction to specific branches of science, some familiar (AI, meteorology, seismology), others less so (selenology - relating to the moon; teuthology - the study of cephalopods including octopus and squid).

“For years, the standard syllabus has covered magnets, photosynthesis, the seasons - it’s pretty dull,” said Sharon. “We looked at university courses and found 140 individual sciences, and built the range around them.”

Off the back of this came Tomorrow’s World for ages nine-plus in collaboration with a leading Chinese publisher. The first wave covers astrodynamics, augmented reality and planetary defence, with future editions planned for neuroscience and nanotechnology. Next will come Hello for ages four to seven, starting with Hello Plant.

Having established a relationship in North America, Sharon and John are nurturing links in the Far East, with business trips to China and South Korea. “SWIF has allowed us to do all of this, and we are still pushing the envelope,” said Sharon.

Smaller SWIF loans are managed by Threemilestone-based SWIG Finance. Business manager Rachel Thomson said: “The books Hungry Tomato produce are wonderful, and I’m glad we were able to support them in their journey to make children’s books inspiring and accessible.”