Techcelerate Funding - Seed to Growth Capital
On 15th June 2010, the North West Development announced the appointment of fund managers to manage its £185 million venture capital fund. With so much public money available within regions, what are the options for setting up and growing high growth businesses?
In Dec 2009, Jon Bradford visited us to speak to about Difference Engine, and he later recruited a Techcelerate Member into his 13 week intensive mentoring programme, which also invests £20,000 seed funding for 8% of equity. John will return to Manchester to speak about the next round of funding and mentoring bringing two of the nine companies that went through the programme.
Supporters
Panel Discussions Chaired by
Michael Taylor - Editor North West InsiderThe charismatic no nonsense editor of North West Insider will chair the panel discussions. |
Speakers and Panelists
Jon Bradford - Difference EngineJon Bradford, the CEO, runs The Difference Engine on a day to day basis. Prior to this, he was the Investment Manager at the Design and Creative Fund for North East Finance. Jon has spent most of the last ten years working in and around start-ups; both for advisory firms and venture capital backed start-ups, including an Oxford university spin-out. Jon started his career at Arthur Andersen including a secondment to Melbourne, Australia. Having recently completed the conversion of a Northumberland barn, Jon knows far too much about sceptic tanks than he really cares for. |
|
Andy Leach - CEO, North West Business Finance (NWBF) - £185 million fundsAndy Leach, CEO of North West Business Finance, has 24 years experience in Venture and Development Capital and Private Equity investing. A chartered accountant by profession, Andy switched careers whilst in Australia, spending 6 years with a domestic Australian fund, Byvest. On returning to his North West roots in 1992, Andy joined the Manchester Office of 3i, covering a broad range of investment opportunities. From 2002 to 2004 he was with Montagu Private Equity, where he headed up Montagu Capital, a business targeting investments of a size below those focused on by the core MPE business and, in 2004, he joined the Manchester office of LDC. Whilst at LDC, Andy's had responsibility for the management of LDC's investment portfolio across the North and, in some instances, further afield |
|
Julian Viggars - EV Group - £30 million Venture CapitalJulian joined EV in 2003. Prior to joining EV, he was a Director of BioProjects International plc, an AIM-listed early stage technology fund, and an Associate Partner with accountancy firm NCL Smith & Williamson in London. Julian leads the EV Tech investment team and is responsible for EV’s technology investment activities. He has particular expertise in the healthcare and IT sectors. |
|
Paul Gower - YFM Private Equity - £45 million Development CapitalAfter graduating with a Masters Degree in Economics, Paul spent eight years at Burmah Castrol plc in a range of analytial, marketing and business development roles. Gaining a MBA after full time study at Manchester Business School, he worked within Pricewaterhouse Cooper's Business Regeneration Department prior to undertaking an interim General Manager position within the Halo Group. Paul joined YFM Venture Finance in November 2003 as an Investment Manager with the South Yorkshire Investment Fund. He has since moved to the Manchester office and works for YFM Private Equity. |
|
Karen Kindly - AXM Venture Capital - £15 million for Digital & CreativeAXM plans to open two new offices in the North West employing 4 investment managers to oversee the investment of £15 million over the next 5 years. |
Difference Engine Case Studies
Canddi - Annoymous Analytics to Real-time UsersCANDDi helps you to convert more of your website visitors into customers, increasing marketing ROI and ultimately profit. We do this by tracking real individuals over multiple visits and across everyone of a your company's online presences, from email to social media, to create a complete picture of their behaviour. CANDDi turns anonymous aggregated analytics into a rich list of targeted individuals. |
||
ScreenReach - The RealTime Audience Engagement CompanyScreenReach is the next generation in presentation and interaction technology allowing real-time delivery of media content to a mobile phone device via any digital display (TV, outdoor advertising, pc, kiosk etc) and then allowing the user to interact with that content in completely new and unique ways. ScreenReach technology allows service providers to engage and interact with their customers instantly and intelligently, to profile those customers, to evoke buying behaviour, raise brand awareness and to reward those customers for interacting with their content. |
Signups
You are not currently logged in.