Northern Gristone and Parkwalk have launched a Northern Universities Venture Fund as they hunt for the first trillion-dollar business to come out of the UK.
The new fund is an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund offering investors access to “early-stage IP-rich” science and deeptech investment opportunities from the Universities of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield.
“The North’s universities are home to some of the most exciting science and technology coming out of the UK. This collaboration with Parkwalk is an opportunity for investors to support what are potentially the next generation of global companies and to support regional growth to the benefit of the UK,” explained Lord Jim O’Neill, Chair of Northern Gritstone.
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It will be managed by Parkwalk Advisors, which has over £500m of assets under management, and will target investment across sectors including quantum computing, AI, engineering biology, semiconductors, healthtech and clean technology.
“I am convinced that the UK’s first trillion-dollar business will emerge from investing into UK university science and technology,” said Duncan Johnson, CEO of Northern Gritstone.
“The launch of Parkwalk’s Northern Universities Venture Fund is a way to bring untapped innovation from the North of England to a broader investor base.”
Northern Gritstone recently announced further fundraising of £50m from institutional investors including Aviva and Fulcrum Asset Management. That takes its total capital commitment to £362m.
“This collaboration brings together two of the UK’s leading forces in university commercialisation,” added Moray Wright, CEO of Parkwalk Advisors.
“Parkwalk’s expertise in venture capital and deep tech, combined with Northern Gritstone’s unrivalled university partnerships, means we can offer investors access to an exceptional and underexploited pipeline of innovation,”
