The Growth Company and Bruntwood SciTech team up to deliver groundbreaking early-stage northern investor showcase
By Bruntwood SciTech
The Growth Company, powered by its early-stage investment arm GC Angels, and Bruntwood SciTech have successfully brought together over 150 investors, founders and key ecosystem partners from across the UK at their flagship ‘Early-Stage Northern Showcase - Investor x Founder’ event.
Held at Sister’s Renold Innovation Hub, the event welcomed more than 75 pre-vetted early-stage businesses from across the North of England and over 50 investors from across the UK, marking a historic moment for the region’s early-stage investment community. 30 of the businesses present were among the first cohort of GC Angels’ Underrepresented Accelerator Programme - Venture Forward - delivered on behalf of Innovate UK
Designed to connect investors from outside the North with regional investors and ambitious Northern businesses, the event focused on building long-term relationships, ensuring early-stage and scale-up businesses can access the capital needed to continue expanding at pace. Each business is undergoing an active pre-seed or seed fundraising round, covering high-growth sectors including EdTech, ClimateTech, MedTech, BioTech, FinTech, PropTech and advanced manufacturing.
Beginning with an investor-only lunch supported by NatWest, a panel discussion chaired by the Head of GC Angels, Marc Shirman, focused on challenges and opportunities for the Northern investment ecosystem. Panelists included prominent VC investors from both London and the regions including;
Kevin Chong: General Partner - Outward VC
Steven Price: Investment Director - Clean Growth Fund
Hannah Hussein: Investment Director – Big Issue Invest
Daniel Walker: Senior Investment Manager – Foresight Group
Following this, the main event, hosted by the CEO of Climb UK, Gordon Bateman, took a unique approach with reverse pitches, where investors pitched themselves to the high-growth businesses in the room. Not only did this help new to the region investors establish themselves among the business community, it also helped to make access to finance more accessible, with open dialogue and clear information helping founders to better understand the process of securing finance. Investors who took part in the reverse pitches included:
Mateusz Portka: Investment Manager – Oxford Technology
Ben Davies: Marketing Director – PXN Group
James Reston: Investment Associate – DSW Ventures
Harrison Faull: Principal – Aligned Syndicate
Haadi Shaikh: Investment Manager – Creative UK Investments
Kevin Chong: General Partner - Outward VC
Ted Tavendale: Investment Executive - Puma Growth Partners
Zayn Sulaman: Investment Executive - Solid Bong
Alongside networking and pitching opportunities, the showcase brought together some of the region's key stakeholders, including:
Emily Nott: Head of Inclusive Innovation Programmes – Innovate UK
Samuel Remi-Akinwale: CEO - Young Manchester
Chritopher Kenna: CEO – Media Stream AI
The event was brought to a close with a final panel chaired by Gordon Bateman which centered around regional variations to investment strategy. The investors on the final panel were:
John McNamara: Investor – British Design Fund
Dan Dudley: Investment Director – Solid Bond
Brad Scott: Investment Manager – Maven CP
Brad Jones: Principal – ThatRound
Matthew Boreman: Investment Manager – ACF Investors
Marc Shirman, GC Head of Equity Investment, said: “Investors from outside our region already know about the potential the North holds. Helping them navigate our local landscape by sharing opportunities and building relationships with investors on the ground is key to unlocking cooperative co-investment so we can support high potential early-stage businesses across the region. That’s why this event was such an important enabler for the Northern ecosystem, bringing together some of our region’s most ambitious early stage investors and startups with investors from across the UK, allowing them to network and build crucial relationships.
“We’ve seen how impactful this can be through the first cohort of our Venture Forward programme, in partnership with Innovate UK, providing accelerated support and investment to underrepresented founders from across the North. We started in Greater Manchester, next with our second cohort to be delivered in Yorkshire later this month, we will continue our commitment to finding growth potential in the North and backing startup ambitions at the earliest investment stage.”
Hannah Churchman, Bruntwood SciTech’s Head of Innovation in Manchester, said: "We showcased 75 of the North’s best early-stage businesses to a range of UK-wide investors with a combined £30bn under management. It was key for us that this was more than just a networking event; it was about showing the investment community that if they want to find the UK’s next world-changing business, they need to be looking right here.Today was a huge first step.
“At Bruntwood SciTech, we are committed to providing the specialist environments and the access to finance, support and connections that businesses need to succeed. Today’s showcase at Sister was a testament to the strength of the Northern ecosystem when we work collaboratively.
“Recent evidence submitted to Parliament by the Startup Coalition highlights that nearly 70% of all VC funding in the UK is still deployed into London and the South East. We want to change that to enable incredible talent to innovate and grow regardless of where they are."
Dr. Karim Bahou, Head of Innovation at Sister, added: "Welcoming the Early-Stage Northern Showcase to the Renold Innovation Hub perfectly captures what Sister is all about: creating a world-class platform where disruptive ideas meet the capital they need to scale. As a joint venture between The University of Manchester and Bruntwood SciTech, we are building an ecosystem rooted in the belief that innovation thrives on collaboration.
"By hosting 150 of the UK's most forward-thinking investors and founders in one space - and providing a platform for some of our very own Sister-based founders to pitch on the day - we demonstrated that Sister is not only an innovation gateway into the city, but a catalyst for economic growth across the North. This event marked a significant milestone in our mission to transform the historic heart of Manchester’s innovation into a district which acts as a global hub, where the world’s most valuable ideas become reality."
This latest event builds on the work GC Angels has been doing in convening early stage businesses across the region, having launched its Venture Forward programme, in partnership with Innovate UK, in Autumn 2025. Having closed the first cohort in Manchester, it is already gearing up for the second phase, set to begin in February in Leeds. You can find out more about the programme here: https://gcangels.uk/venture-forward