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Meet the investors
07 December 2011
Big hitters in the investment world visited the Tees Valley to take part in an event designed to drive growth by giving SMEs an opportunity to meet investors.
North East Finance (NEF), which manages the region's £125 million Finance for Business North East Fund, hosted a ‘Meet the Investor' event at Teesside University's Queen's Campus.
The event, which attracted around 100 guests, was hosted by NEF in partnership with North East Access to Finance and the Endeavour Partnership.
NEF is looking to increase the number of investments being made into business ventures across the Tees Valley and held the event to give SMEs and business intermediaries an opportunity to impress investors with their ideas and find out what they look for in an investment.
Guests were able to speak with representatives from the fund managers looking after the seven funds in the Finance for Business North East portfolio as well as members of the NEF board - who hold key positions within the British Venture Capital Association.
Andrew Mitchell, chief executive of NEF, said: "The Finance for Business fund has been actively investing for well over a year now and, while we've made many excellent investments in Tees Valley businesses such as Femeda, CCE and Solvert and we're keen to make more."
Femeda, CCE and Audacious are recent beneficiaries of investment from the Finance for Business Fund. Femeda is developing groundbreaking health products, CCE is creating technology that will improve fuel efficiency and cut emissions in power plants, and Audacious is an exciting digital business with strong prospects. These businesses will be attending the event to offer an insight from the investee perspective.
Andrew added: "We want to build the pipeline of deals we have here in the Tees Valley to really drive economic growth and encourage businesses, whether starting out or already well established, to reach their potential.
"This can hopefully help to encourage the development of a diverse local economy in Tees Valley, alongside more traditional industries. There are some fantastic emerging sectors around biomass, Digital City and Boho and we need to reach out to people in these sectors.
"The event was designed to give people unparalleled access to some of the leading investors in the country. It was an opportunity for them to learn what makes them tick, what they look for in a deal and how to attract investment. In the long-term, this can only help to drive deal making here."
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