Mercia invested £14.3million in North West businesses in 2018, up from £9.0million the previous year, highlighting its role as one of the UK’s most active investors and a key source of funding for regional SMEs.
Mercia made investments in 24 companies in the region during the year, including Manchester-based tech firms Pimberly, ParkCloud and Shaping Cloud, the Lancashire games firm Soccer Manager and muffin plant machinery firm Baldwin Engineering Holdings, and Lancashire Waste Recycling. The group, which manages Lancashire Rosebud Finance and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, employs 27 staff in the North West and has offices in Manchester and Preston.
During the year the group increased its third party funds under management from £350.0million to over £400.0million at 31 December. Growing by around 30 per cent a year, Mercia now has over 80 employees in eight locations nationwide and partnerships with 19 regional universities including Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores.According to recent reports from Beauhurst, Mercia is one of the top four investors in university spinout businesses and one of the UK’s top four most active venture capitalists specifically focused on innovation.
Mercia has built a reputation as a supportive investor. In a recent survey amongst its portfolio companies, 84% of respondents said they were likely to recommend Mercia to other entrepreneurs, with 75% having already done so.
Mark Payton, Chief Executive of Mercia Technologies PLC, said: “Regional cities such as Manchester, Preston, Sheffield, Newcastle, Birmingham and Edinburgh are increasingly important technology hubs, however venture capital remains heavily focused on London. Mercia has offices in all of these locations and as these latest figures show, it is addressing this shortfall by sourcing and backing exceptional businesses across the UK’s regions. Building on a successful 2018, I expect Mercia to continue to scale its activities into 2019.”
