Nick Clegg said the fund would increase opportunity across England Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is promising to create or safeguard more than 100,000 jobs in England, with an investment of £450m.
The Regional Growth Fund has provisionally accepted 50 bids for support from firms and partnerships.
They include expanding a sweet factory in Wakefield, redeveloping a former eye hospital in Manchester and building a manufacturing plant in Teesside.
Labour said the coalition had choked off money for the regions and cut jobs.
The regional Growth Fund was created last year to replace the nine Regional Development Agencies which were set up by Labour but axed by the coalition.
Mr Clegg, who is launching the fund in Manchester, said 27,000 jobs would be directly created or safeguarded with the £450m investment, with tens of thousands of others supported in associated supply chains.
“ The Tory-led government is choking off the funding needed for regions to grow and create the jobs our economy needs”
John Denham Shadow business secretary
Mr Clegg said: “I was bowled over by the quality of the bids. This money will now help create and safeguard jobs in some of the communities worst hit by the economic downturn.
“Today is a step towards rebalancing our economy away from an unhealthy over-reliance on a small number of industries and a few areas. We need to spread opportunity across the whole country, drawing on our many talents.
“I know that with the right support these businesses can work with their communities and together play their part in leading the country back into prosperity.”
The rest of the growth fund, which adds up to £1.4bn in total, will be allocated later following a second round of bids, which opened on Tuesday.
For Labour, shadow business secretary John Denham said: “By cutting funding for regional growth by two thirds the Tory-led government is choking off the funding needed for regions to grow and create the jobs our economy needs.
“The government is allocating £1.4bn over three years to projects, two thirds less than the £1.4bn a year Labour were investing through the RDAs alone.
“The desire to cut too far and too fast has caused growth to be revised down and the unemployment forecast to rise, all while government is holding back support for businesses looking for investment which will help regions to create jobs and ease reliance on the public sector.
“There are more losers than winners with today’s announcement.”
Mr Denham said Labour would have added an extra £200m to the funding announced on Tuesday through a repeat of the bankers bonus tax, as a “quick but effective way of supporting growth and creating jobs”.
The Regional Growth Fund was praised by the Engineering Employers Federation as a “welcome focus on supporting investment in research and development and backing high quality jobs in growing manufacturing sectors”.
And the Carbon Trust said it had received £1.9m from the fund, to be spent on energy efficiency projects and the creation of 3,000 jobs.
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