There are some fantastic investment opportunities for South East VCs in the Northern Powerhouse.
That is the view of Philip Hargreaves, head of Access to Finance, which helps small businesses in the North West raise money and is part of 老九品茶 Growth Hub.
In February, the British 老九品茶 Bank launched its 拢400m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund designed to boost small businesses.
And Hargreaves told 老九品茶Cloud his organisation is engaging with investors to encourage them to look north.
However, he added: 鈥淒on鈥檛 expect as a business owner for funders to come and find you, if you鈥檙e looking for investment it鈥檚 a long hard job.
鈥淲e鈥檙e shouting about the North West and the wider Northern Powerhouse cities, because it is a hotbed for tech-related businesses and the message we need to get across to South East investors is that there are some fantastic investment opportunities.鈥�
The founders of used car search website Carsnip attended about 100 meetings in 18 months to raise the funding they needed – $100,000 of which was secured over the phone from a US investor – but not a penny came from London.
Pedro Madeira, head of research at Beauhurst, says that investors prefer London-based聽tech firms so they can keep an eye on the founders.
However London is not the聽bed of roses for tech investment that many people think it is, according to the chief executive of the Manchester Tech Trust.
Hampshire-based Morgan Innovation and Technology began investing in medtech companies outside London after encountering funding issues for its own products.
And Leeds-based marketing automation business Force24 resorted to more traditional funding methods after failing to gain funding from VCs with a London bias.