Business of Yorkshire Conference: Investment in Business seminar

Panellists taking part in an Investment in Business seminar at the Business of Yorkshire Conference in Leeds were cautiously optimistic about the region’s investment landscape for the year ahead.

The panel, chaired by TheBusinessDesk.com joint managing director Alex Turner, included Natalie Boswell, regional development director at Lloyds Banking Group, Melissa Chambers, CEO and cofounder of Sitehop, John Connor, partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, Simon Cunnington, director at British Bank and NPIF II and Zandra Moore, co-founder and CEO at Panintelligence.

Cunnington said investment decisions had been delayed by uncertainty surrounding the General Election and the Budget.

However, he said there are now signs of movement, adding: “NPIF II has got off to a good start – there is an appetite for investment. I’m hopeful that demand for finance will strengthen.

“We’re looking for ambitious businesses wanting to grow and which have credible plans to achieve that. We’re very keen to broaden opportunities to female and minority founders – we want to reach beyond the usual networks.

“There’s a huge amount of innovation across the North and we want to tie funds into that.”

Boswell said: “We survey business confidence and release this information every month. At the end of October business confidence nationally was the highest it has been since 2019.

“But the Budget will have pushed back some businesses’ plans and confidence in Yorkshire is always a bit lower than the average. It’s a mixed picture but there are reasons for optimism.

“We employ 7,500 people in this region but lend disproportionately into the South – we want to rebalance that.”

Commenting on her own company’s perspective, Chambers said: “I am optimistic, I attribute our success in finding investment to how scrappy we are. We don’t take ‘no’ for an answer and we’ve got a good product that’s getting people excited.”

However, responding to a question on challenges to raising funding, she highlighted how different the investment mentality is in the UK to that of the US, warning that investors are much more risk averse in the UK.

Moore noted it is relatively easy to raise money at the pre seed stage when you are engaging with people who already know you.

“When you go out to talk to people who don’t know your business sector or your region it’s a lot harder,” she said. “We got six offers from private equity in the North, but none from London.

“We even had people asking us if there is a digital economy in the North. Having to educate people about what we have here in our region is frustrating.”

Connor advised companies hunting for new capital to think carefully about what potential investors are looking for.

“They are going to want to know your houses is in order,” he said. “So do a due diligence exercise on yourself, make sure your key customer contracts are watertight and make sure your arrangements with your co-investors are clear and written down.

“Don’t just do everything on a handshake, otherwise that will catch up with you when you try to get third party investment.

“Also, people often take advice too late. Getting investment takes 12 to 18 months to prepare for properly.”