Two North East businesses raise investment thanks to…

Two North East businesses raise investment thanks to regional angel network

Two North East businesses have benefited from a slice of £4m investment into businesses through the collaboration of three angel networks.

Newcastle Angel Hub, NorthInvest and the Women Angels of the North Syndicate have worked together to secure equity investment for growth through a series of joint pitch events. Many of the deals also leveraged further investment through Innovate UK programmes including the Regional Angel Investment Accelerator.

In the North East, Innovation SuperNetwork has provided specialist Access to Finance support for two businesses who have secured a total of £540,000. Newcastle based tech firm Rapid Fluidics, founded in 2020, initially secured investment following ‘The Big Pitch’ at VentureFest NorthEast in March, which was followed by further investment after pitching at a joint Newcastle Angel Hub and NorthInvest pitch event.

In total, Rapid Fluidics has secured £340,000 in private investment and match-funding with an Innovate UK Smart Grant. The company is using the investment to improving productivity through refined materials, production automation and additional operational support.

Paul Marshall, CEO of Rapid Fluidics, said: “The support we have received from the Northern angel networks has been incredible and we feel very lucky to have been able to gain investment to grow our business and move forward with our plans. I’m now raising another round to allow us to scale-up to support an expanding customer base and prepare for increasing manufacturing requirements and because of the networks and contacts I have made as a result of the pitching events these organisations deliver, I feel confident we will achieve our target.”

Durham-based business Audemic, has raised £200,000 after benefitting from specialist support via the Innovation SuperNetwork’s Access to Finance programme and then pitching at a joint event. Investors responded enthusiastically to the business, which is developing an app for academics, researchers, allowing them to listen to academic articles, take notes easily and organise their knowledge. Audemic is using the investment for product development and the building of their own technology.

Jordan Dargue, head of access to finance at the Innovation SuperNetwork and Women Angels of the North Syndicate founder, said: “These recent deals are a perfect example of how angel networks can collaborate to help Northern entrepreneurs access investment.”

Helen Oldham, founding board director of NorthInvest, said: “To see how the partnership between NorthInvest, Newcastle Angel Hub and The Women Angels of the North syndicate is helping businesses across the North access finance from private investment and public funds is fantastic.”

The Angel networks closed out deals for six other Northern businesses; Agile Life Sciences, Chu Lo Drinks, Holly Health, NatterHub, Surgery Hero (formerly Sapien Health) and Veo.