Bridges Ventures invests in tyre reprocessing

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Bridges Ventures has agreed a £6m investment in Credential Environment Ltd., a tyre reprocessing business. Credential is an integrated tyre collection and processing business and ranks as the UK's market leader in retail tyre collections. It has invested ina a plant to produce tyre chips for landfill engineering, fuel for cement kilns and for use as carpet underlay. It also invested in Tyregenics Ltd in 2006, the only cryogenic tyre recycling faciltiy in Northern Eruope. Tyregenics produces fine rubber crumb and steel from used tyres.

The initial. investment of £4m in Credential will be followed by a further £2m at a later stage and will come from Bridges' first and second funds, Bridges CDV Fund I and CDV Fund II. Investors in the latter include banks, pension funds and charities such as Comic Relief - as well as private equity companies including 3i. Bridges Ventures, a venture capital company with a social mission,  was founded by Sir Ronald Cohen, co-founder and former chairman of Apax partners, Tom Singh of retail chain New Look, and 3i. It invests up to £10m per company in the most deprived 25% of areas in the UK, at early and expansion stages, as well as management buy-outs and property backed businesses.