Leading investors back Northern Gritstone with new £50m investment
Northern Gritstone, the groundbreaking life sciences and deeptech investment firm, has announced its latest fundraise of £50 million from leading institutional investors bringing its total permanent capital to £362 million.
£35 million of the new funding commitments come from Northern LGPS, the collective asset pool for Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire Pension Funds, with a further £15 million boost from new investors Fulcrum Asset Management and Aviva.
Northern Gritstone has also announced the appointment of Greater Manchester Pension Fund Assistant Director Paddy Dowdall to its Board as Non-Executive Director.
Active since May 2022, Northern Gritstone has already made 32 investments in early-stage businesses in the North of England, expanded its investment team and built NG Innovation Services, its venture building ‘toolkit’ offering, inter alia: talent management; growth advice; business services; and the accelerator program, NG Studios.
The company supports some of the most exciting areas of development and future job creation in deeptech and life sciences, including semiconductor design and manufacturing; novel materials; secure computing; AI; healthtech; and gene therapies.
Northern Gritstone Chair, Lord Jim O’Neill, said: “We are very grateful for this further support from investors in our journey to develop world winning businesses in the North of England originating from our University ecosystem and contributing to the future of higher value added activity and the North’s productivity”
Northern Gritstone Chief Executive, Duncan Johnson, said: “This new fundraise backed by Northern LGPS, Fulcrum and Aviva is testimony to our ability to create the world-leading businesses of tomorrow based on world-class innovation that exists in the North of England.”
Assistant Director GMPF, and Northern Gritstone Non-Executive Director, Paddy Dowdall, said: “Northern LGPS’ commitment to Northern Gritstone aligns with the UK Government’s mission to support UK innovation and growth through pension fund investing. I am delighted to join Northern Gritstone’s Board to support positive impact on local and regional growth”
Fulcrum Asset Management Executive Director David Merton said “We are delighted to form a long-term partnership with Northern Gritstone. Our venture capital strategy is built around identifying and backing leading hubs of innovation. It became clear during our due diligence that Northern Gritstone’s design and focus on spin-outs from leading universities in the North of England strongly aligns with this. We see immense potential in their ambition to cultivate a dynamic community of science and technology businesses across the North — a vision that we are proud to support.”
