On Rainmakers – venture capital insights from David Levine

On our Rainmakers platform this week, we return to a common theme, just what is that places need to thrive as a vibrant, prosperous, tech and financial ecosystem.

On that checklist will be references to secret sauces and how a place can replicate all the good things about Silicon Valley, the birthplace of California’s many tech successes.

There will be a need for a stream of good ideas, spin outs from universities, a pool of willing talent, a big tech presence, anchor corporates who provide a stream of well trained business brains, a culture of risk taking and ideas, and most obviously of all, the provision of funds. Afterall, you can’t have a thriving ecosystem without the investors who want to back good, investable, sustainable ideas in businesses run by good people.

But arguably you need a few characters too. Not something you could easily describe, but the enablers, the fixers and introducers.

As someone once said – the art of good business is being a good middleman, putting people together.

Someone, in fact like David Levine, who we interview here.

Since returning to frontline business journalism in 2022, regular coffees with David have been an essential part of keeping an ear to the ground of deal stories (my currency) and building a better understanding of new ideas and businesses (very much his).

He’s a fully fledged polymath, someone who’s difficult to pigeonhole, something you imagine he quite likes. He’s also well liked, especially by the tech businesses who he’s introduced into opportunities, either through his own venture Glenluna Ventures, or through Manchester Angels, a loose association of successful tech founders who have the appetite to re-invest money and wisdom into start-ups and scale-ups.

He’s got a few tech investments ongoing; he’s recently closed two deals in Copenhagen, he’s also working on a project in Israel has “got stuff throughout the UK” as he puts it, as well as “one or two” in the US. “And again, he says, “that’s about finding the right investor with the right type of investments at the right time.”

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Since launching in the North in March, Rainmakers has been well received, building a vibrant community who enjoy more detailed and lively approach to key issues affecting the regional M&A market