North of England-focused investor Northern Gritstone has closed a further £50m to support spinouts commercialising technology in the region, with “another £50m-£100m in the hopper”, UKTN can reveal.
Northern Gritstone CEO Duncan Johnson said the firm will be closing its “initial fundraise” of at least £50m at the end of June.
He said the firm is “going through the final levers” on the next tranche of funding, which will include capital from “local authority pension funds”.
Local authority pension funds are the largest contributors of capital to Northern Gritstone. It comes as the government is exploring ways to encourage more pension funds to allocate some of their cash into technology startups amid concerns over a lack of liquidity in capital markets....