The UK has long been one of the world’s leading sources of intellectual property – and today’s start-ups and scale-ups in hotspots like the Leeds City Region are transforming cutting-edge research and development into high-growth companies. Every year, world-class universities in Leeds, Bradford, York and Huddersfield are producing thousands of ambitious graduates with smart ideas for innovative goods and services in new and established markets. And there is more funding available than ever before to back these businesses and create jobs and prosperity in every corner of the UK.
Panmure Gordon has opened a new office in Leeds to build relationships with high-growth potential companies and institutional clients across the North of England and increase the supply of capital to talent and innovation outside of London and the South East. In an era of uncertainty and upheaval, we want to make sure that northern entrepreneurs have access to capital to grow their businesses. We are supporting Leeds City Region Tech Climbers 2022 to showcase and celebrate the top-performing IP-rich, product-led tech businesses in this part of the world.
British inventors and designers contributed to many of the great breakthroughs of modern technology including the computer, the worldwide web and the smartphone but American entrepreneurs turned them into world-beaters, fuelled by the growth of the venture capital and private equity industries and the highly evolved financial ecosystem we see in Silicon Valley today. At last, Britain is catching up with more early stage funding, more tax reliefs for individual investors through EIS, more support for start-ups and more focus from government.
AIM has become a powerful alternative to series B and C funding rounds, offering plenty of opportunities for ambitious UK companies to access scale-up funding and plugging a gap in the market for growth capital. Blue Prism, a Warrington-based pioneer in robotic process automation, floated on AIM in 2016, raising £9.5m in new funds at a market capitalisation of £48m. In December, the software company agreed to a £1.24bn takeover offer from a US suitor. AIM is an increasingly attractive market for high-growth technology and will produce many more tech stars in the coming years.
Tech start-ups in the ‘Northern Triangle’ between Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield have raised a collective £1.3bn over the last five years, showing the growing investor appetite in the region. Panmure Gordon is bullish about the North of England and its many entrepreneurs and enterprises and is proud to be supporting the success of regional tech companies with our extensive investment banking services. We fully appreciate the importance of having a regional presence so we can be close to the start-ups and scale-ups emerging from the Leeds City Region and neighbouring towns and cities – and help them tap into the capital they need to achieve their growth ambitions.
We look forward to seeing you all at Tech Climbers 2022.
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Simon J French is head of growth capital solutions and Harvey Robinson is senior technology analyst at Panmure Gordon