Yorkshire tech businesses connected with Chinese crowdfunding companies

Leeds law firm Clarion worked with ConnectChina and Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership to host a high profile trade exchange organised by ZY Crowdfunding Industrial Park, based in China.

The trade exchange brought a group of investors from Guiyang in Guizhou Province to Yorkshire to search for technology companies with projects in need of investment of up to £1m.

On 7th April, Clarion hosted the Guiyang crowdfunding roadshow. The delegation comprised about 25 senior officials with interests in crowdfunding and big data who came to learn more about the expertise that the Leeds City Region can offer. They were joined by delegates from across the region with interests in this sector.

The visit of the Guiyang delegation, led by Vice Mayor Wang, included a meeting with Lord Mayor of Leeds Councillor Judith Chapman as well as introductions to key representatives from UKTI and Leeds City Region.

The investors discussed the funding opportunity and crowdfunding platform and a number of UK companies presented their investment opportunities at the roadshow.

Steve Crow, business development director for Clarion, commented: “The Chinese delegation recognised that Leeds is second only to London in terms of its strength in financial and professional services with an increasing focus on Fintech.

“From a big data perspective, there are massive regional strengths in health informatics and, increasingly, the importance of big data in the retail, financial and built environment sectors is also being recognised.

“Having been involved in crowd funding for the last four years or so, both in terms of supporting our clients with funding and working more strategically at a government level looking at new crowd funding models, we were keen to be involved in the Chinese investors roadshow. It was another great opportunity to bring together companies looking for funding with those offering alternative sources of finance.”