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Fraser House Hub – the co-working tech space in Lancaster funded by Lancashire County Council and managed by Innovate Lancashire-has seen its new fhunded initiative grow massively over recent months. fhunded, which was launched in July, is designed to bring investors and venture capitalists from around the UK together with Lancashire tech start-ups and scale-ups looking for investment.
At a recent fhunded session, co-produced by Fraser House and Lancashire Digital Hub, and hosted in partnership with NatWest, KPMG, and Praetura Ventures, the event featured representatives from over a dozen VC funds including YFM Equity Partners, DSW Ventures, Mercia, and Solidbond.
Fhunded’s programme lead, Rory Southworth, who was recently named in the influential tech investment newsletter PreSeed Now as a key dealmaker in the north, said: “Fhunded was created to give Lancashire’s ambitious and growth-hungry tech founders a platform where they could meet VCs, angels, and institutional investors face to face to make their pitch. It also offers a space where businesses can enjoy invaluable networking opportunities, take part in practical investor readiness clinics, and access other forms of business support, all under one roof
“We’re not talking about small amounts of investment either. At the last fhunded event, I took note of how much was being asked for across the various investment-ready ventures we had in the room, and it came to over £25 million. And while some might think that kind of figure sounds optimistic, when you bear in mind Fraser House Hub members have already raised nearly £37 million in VC funding over recent years, you can see how much genuine investment potential Lancashire’s fast-growing tech scene has.”
Praetura Ventures, a major venture capital firm based in Manchester which invests in early-stage businesses across a range of high-value tech sectors, is a big supporter of FUhundED, and the investment culture which has been developed at Fraser House.
Ben Davies, Praetura Ventures’s Group Marketing Director, said: “To drive economic growth within the tech and digital sectors you need seek out those businesses who are building a product or service which is genuinely scalable and investable. To do that you need to meet the people who are behind the slide decks, elevator pitches, and growth forecasts.
“The community which has been created at Fraser House is exactly the kind of environment we look for when we want to meet ambitious founders. What’s happening in Lancaster is incredibly exciting and the Fraser House Hub have largely spearheaded this. They act as a focal point for the ecosystem and an entry point for new investors. Our team are now regularly visiting Lancaster looking for opportunities, as we do with other dynamic northern cities, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds.”
Michael Gibson, CEO from the Lancaster-based EV charging tech business Fuuse, who is a member of the Lancashire Innovation Board, said: “What people like Rory Southworth from Fraser House, and Dan Knowles from Lancashire Digital Hub, have achieved in Lancaster is fantastic for the entire county. The success of the fhunded programme, and the increasing popularity of events like the Lancashire Tech Summit, Lancashire’s Innovation Festival, and the Lancashire Digital Tech Talks series, is also more evidence of Lancashire’s thriving entrepreneurial, innovative and disruptive spirit.
“The fact that major VCs like Praetura, and tech investment tipsheets like PreSeed Now, are taking an interest in what we’re doing is further testament to Lancashire’s growing reputation as tech investment hotspot. The recent Innovation Plan I helped to launch at Fraser House earlier this year also recognises this untapped potential, and it has a set of specific actions designed to ramp up the tech and innovation investment ecosystem across the whole of Lancashire.”
ENDS
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