Trust launched to boost tech sector

A NOT-for-profit trust has been launched to help budding entrepreneurs launch companies in the technology sector in Greater Manchester.

TalkTalk founder Dr Neil McArthur is behind the Manchester Tech Trust which  he got off the ground alongside its chief executive Peter Lusty at a ‘Silicone Valley Comes to the UK’ event at Manchester University.

The Trust is to help companies in the ‘sub £2m’ zone, where start-ups struggle to access funds because at that level finance is highly regulated.

McArthur and Lusty and their business contacts around the city region are now a mission to help put tech businesses with bright ideas in front of angel investors or private equity firms.

The idea for the Trust cropped up two years ago after McArthur was asked to look at SME funding in Manchester.

“We looked at the under £2m sector, where the challenges were, and out of that piece of  work it became obvious that the city wasn’t communicating  very well to businesses on the finance front,” he said.

“Manchester didn’t have a very high profile in the tech enterprise sector, so we were asked to expand our work and start looking at it as a tech enterprise and very quickly Peter joined me because the scale of the job became quite large.

“We ended up interviewing 60 organisations, from incubators, accelerators, property providers and universities. We did the whole nine yards.

“We talked to anybody, particularly around Manchester, who had a view on technology and enterprise in the city and then we went off to London and had a good look at what had been going on there.”

McArthur and Lusty delivered a set of recommendations to a peer review group which has now resulted in the foundation of the Trust.

“Our principal job is to communicate and get Manchester’s profile much higher, because at the moment its reality is above its hype” added McArthur. “It’s a hidden secret Manchester, truly.”

Lusty said that simultaneous with launch, the Trust was now providing an online resource including practical directories about where to get finance, which went live yesterday.

He said: “You can go into it, and say what type of company you are, what stage you’re at and how much money you’re looking for. And it will sift through some 35 or so different companies who we know lend at that level – the sub £2m level. And we want to build that out to provide more practical resources.

“The other thing we can as well for companies who are looking to grow and to raise capital, or indeed need advice, is we’ve got a very good network – partly because of the people we know already and because of the work we’ve been doing.

“There are a lot of people in Manchester in the business community who are very willing to get involved with start-up companies.

“There ares lots of really good projects around the city but at the moment we feel they would be in a stronger position if they were pulled together into a single voice.

“That’s what we’re trying to do. We are the front door to knock on for people and we can also help investors find their way around Manchester. We can introduce them to people.”