• Winning Pitch

  Led · Debt Financing · May 2014

  Winning Pitch delivers coaching and business growth support through a team of direct employees and a nationwide network of over 200 experienced business coaches. Founded in 2005 by John Leach and based in Salford, the company has additional offices in Liverpool, Leeds, Gateshead and Cardiff. It serves private clients and holds multiple public sector business support contracts in England and Wales. Winning Pitch is a lead partner in delivering GrowthAccelerator and manages the government's Growth Vouchers scheme in the North West. The company secured a £2.5m investment from two funds managed by Enterprise Ventures to expand its UK team and develop a new Skills for Growth division. The deal comprises a £1.5m investment by the Enterprise Ventures Growth Fund and a £1m investment from The North West Fund for Mezzanine.

• ChargePoint Technology

  Led · Equity · Oct 2013

  ChargePointTechnology is a Speke, Liverpool-based manufacturer supplying precision containment valves to large pharmaceutical and chemical businesses. Its core product, the ChargePoint valve, provides an accurate means of transferring powders between vessels and was originally developed in 1996 with GlaxoSmithKline. The valves are used by major pharmaceutical manufacturers globally and are increasingly adopted in chemical, bio-pharmaceutical, food manufacturing and consumer goods. Customers include GSK, Pfizer, Henkel, DuPont, INEOS, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Sanofi Aventis. The company employs 45 staff at its Speke manufacturing facility and plans to use the new financing to recruit over 15 additional skilled employees. It also intends to develop new high-tech products for export.

• Biofortuna

  Participated · Equity · Aug 2013

  Biofortuna, launched in 2008 and led by CEO Dr Simon Douglas, is a Wirral, UK-based diagnostics company. It has developed a proprietary freeze-dried technology to stabilize molecular diagnostic products, replacing tests that are currently stored and transported frozen and requiring careful thawing and mixing before use. The company sells its own range of stabilized products, SSPGo, and has partnered with Abbott Molecular as the global exclusive distributor for these kits. Biofortuna raised £1.3m in funding, with backers including Enterprise Ventures, the Foresight Group (UK), Catapult Venture Managers, the Merseyside Special Investment Fund, private investors and management. The company intends to use the funds to expand manufacturing capability to support its custom service clients and to launch its SSPGo HLA product range in the USA. Prior financings noted in the article include a £1.1m raise in May 2010 and a £2.1m raise in April 2012. Biofortuna develops novel in‑vitro molecular diagnostic (IVD) products for the transplantation and pharmacogenetic markets, including a line of SSPGo™ HLA genotyping kits. The company uses specialist freeze‑drying technology to stabilize kit components so they can be shipped by post, stored at room temperature and used with pre‑mixed reagents; the user only needs to add a DNA sample. To date Biofortuna has 17 SSPGo™ HLA genotyping kits targeted at transplantation, disease‑association and companion diagnostic markets. The company plans to use new capital to gain regulatory approval in the USA, expand its product line and penetrate new markets. Biofortuna is hiring and is led by CEO Simon Douglas. It was established in 2008 and is based in Bromborough, UK. Biofortuna develops innovative genotyping and antibody screening diagnostics for applications including organ transplantation, blood banking, disease identification, microbiology and pharmacogenomics. The company plans to use new funding to launch its first diagnostic genotyping products and to continue development of its future product pipeline. Biofortuna was formed in 2008 and previously secured an R&D grant from the Northwest Development Agency and funding from the Liverpool Seed Fund. In 2009 the company signed sales and distribution agreements for European and North African markets and received regulatory approvals on its first product range. The management team is led by CEO Mike Bunce and Directors David Charvill and Ben Passey. Following the recent round, David Whitcombe (a member of the founding team of DXS, which was sold to Qiagen in 2009) will join the team.

• Xeros

  Participated · Equity · Mar 2013

  Xeros Limited develops laundry systems that clean clothes with very little water using special polymer beads. Its solution is a washing machine that uses up to 80% less water, 50% less energy and 50% less detergent than conventional machines. Led by CEO Bill Westwater, the company offers a commercial laundry cleaning system and is completing development of a household system intended to replace conventional washing machines. The company plans to use new funding to accelerate roll-out of its commercial system and to finish the household product. Xeros is based in Rotherham, UK.

• TyresOnTheDrive.com

  Participated · Equity · Feb 2013

  TyresOnTheDrive.com operates a mobile tyre-fitting system that allows customers to book professional tyre services at home or at work through an online platform developed in-house. The company’s consumer services include mobile tyre fitting, puncture repair and winter-tyre fitting, while its corporate proposition covers tyre checks and fleet and trade enquiries. Its service is currently available in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Oxford. Established in 2011 and led by Chairman Robert Gorrie, the business has an experienced management team. Financially, the company secured up to £8m in equity funding. Backers in the round include strategic investor Halfords and existing shareholders MMC Ventures and True Capital. As part of the transaction, TyresOnTheDrive.com and Halfords signed an operating agreement to collaborate on initiatives to enhance services and products. TyresOnTheDrive.com is a Holmes Chapel, UK-based mobile tyre-fitting service that lets customers buy tyres online or via mobile and have them fitted at a location of their choice by trained technicians. Established in 2011 by Dominic Clark (Managing Director) and Ric Clarke (CTO), the company currently covers the North West and the West Midlands. It employs over 40 staff and operates a fleet of 21 vehicles. TyresOnTheDrive.com raised £1.5m in venture capital funding and intends to use the funds to expand its fleet of tyre-fitting vans and technicians across the UK. The company plans to expand its operations into Yorkshire and across the South and London in the next months. Tyres on the Drive operates an online mobile tyre-fitting service allowing customers to book and have tyres fitted at their chosen location. The company is based in Holmes Chapel and currently covers the North West and parts of the West Midlands. It was set up 18 months earlier by Dominic Clark, the managing director and a former senior manager with Michelin. The business employs 18 staff and operates a fleet of 12 vans. The company raised £640k in funding and will use the capital to expand coverage into Yorkshire and the Midlands with new depots in Wakefield and Birmingham. Prior to this round it had raised £340k from The North West Fund for Venture Capital (managed by Enterprise Ventures) and additional funding from Clark. Tyres on the Drive provides an online booking service that dispatches a mechanic to fit tyres on customers' driveways. The company was established in May 2011 by Dominic Clark, a former senior manager with Michelin. It is based in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, and already trades across Cheshire, Wirral and Greater Manchester. The service lets customers enter their car registration on the website and book a convenient time for fitting. The company has agreements in place with all the major tyre suppliers. It intends to use the recent funding to expand into new geographic markets.

No current team members are available.