Truro publisher Hungry Tomato is one of many South West businesses to benefit from the £200m South West Investment Fund, which recently passed a £2m investment milestone.  

Established in 2015, the company specialises in soft learning books for children. It has received an investment from fund manager SWIG Finance of £84,000, which will be used to purchase more stock and publish new books in 2024. 

Hungry Tomato’s mission is to engage and stimulate children’s natural curiosity with fact-packed non-fiction books, encouraging them to get creative, building projects and exploring nature away from screens. From numbers and words to art activities and code-breaking, there’s a book for it here.    

Led by Sharon and John Twiggs, who have significant experience in the publishing sector, the business currently employs five members of staff, with four new jobs expected to be created over the next 12 months.  

“This funding will help us to invest in the creative process, which includes commissioning authors, artists and editors and buying in new stock,” said Sharon. 

“Without it, we may have had to change our publication programme which would have slowed the pace of our growth, which has been carefully planned - and it would have prevented us from hiring additional staff”. 

The government-backed fund was launched in July by the British Business Bank to boost the supply of finance to small and medium-sized businesses throughout the South West. It provides loans from £25k to £2m and equity investment up to £5m to help businesses to start up, scale up or stay ahead. 

Recipients have included a specialist eyewear manufacturer in Devon, a landscape and garden design business in Bath, a Thai restaurant group in Dorset and a creative filmmaking business in Bristol. 

Applications for funding are made directly to the relevant fund managers who can be contacted via the website www.southwestinvestmentfund.co.uk