Member Article

North East businesses look to scale up at Entrepreneurs of the North

Eleven of the region’s businesses took part in Entrepreneurs of the North this week, a London-based event designed to match growing Northern firms with capital investment heavyweights.

Organised by Innovation SuperNetwork North East England, the delegation met a panel of 75 London-based investors who were actively seeking new companies to invest in.

The SuperNetwork, as part of FinanceCamp, is a programme dedicated to helping businesses access the money they need to grow.

At this week’s event, firms from the region met investors ranged from angels interested in early stage ideas through to very large international funds, with representation from Asian and US-based funds also present.

Simon Green, Executive Director at Innovation SuperNetwork, said: “We work every day with exciting North East businesses, from tech startups to established manufacturers, who have enormous ambition and potential but struggle to raise the funding they need.

“While there is access to a range of funding at early stages there is a lack of options for that crucial next stage.

“This event was all about broadening the options available to high-potential entrepreneurs to allow them to effectively grow and scale their businesses by accessing the critical mass of investment that is accumulated in the capital.

Will Dracup, CEO of Biosignatures in Newcastle attended the event with the aim of securing £2m to complete the development and commercialisation of the company’s first product, a blood test for prostate cancer.

He said: “This funding is absolutely essential to us. The company needs funding to complete product development and get to market. Clinicians want these tests and adequate funding will deliver them faster.

“This event was very important to us because there is less and less investor presence in the North, particularly large venture capital and private equity funders.

“The pre-event support we were given meant we felt confident and well prepared and we got a lot of interest from the audience. It was a great experience and we will be following up the promising connections we made.”

Simon added: “We’re really looking forward to hearing about successful deals in the coming months and hope we’ve succeeded in convincing investors it’s worth their while continuing a relationship with us so we can introduce them to more exciting businesses at FinanceCamp and VentureFest.”

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