North East Funding for Growth Forum

Insider Media

The Funding for Growth Forum, which took place at the County Hotel in Newcastle, was hosted by Insider in partnership with the British Business Bank's Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II. The event sought to bring to light what the funding landscape looks like in the North East businesses and what support and advice is out there to help businesses access the right finance for growth.

Transcript

00:00Well, good morning. We're here at the County Hotel in Newcastle. The funding for Great

00:15Breakfast has ended in partnership with the British Business Bank's Northern Powerhouse

00:21Investment Funders. We've got a great line-up of speakers and we're really looking forward

00:25to it and a packed audience as well. Businesses are looking for funding for their businesses

00:30and to grow and scale. So welcome to us.

00:33So I'm with David Broome of B7 Marketing Agency. Tell us a little bit about the business, David,

00:39and why you are here. Tell us about your funding.

00:43So B7 is a marketing agency. We leverage storytelling techniques, primarily through video, to help

00:48organisations to better communicate why they exist and where they help.

00:53From a funding perspective, we weren't necessarily on the lookout for any assistance. It was

00:59one of the key people in our network who had said, actually, you're going to want to go

01:04far quicker if you access a little bit of funding. And what that's enabled us to do

01:08is spearhead our growth across the UK and also into the US. It's also allowed us to

01:13employ three new members to the team and to bring in a hell of a lot of equipment to allow

01:18us to leverage video through storytelling techniques to be able to market better.

01:23Hi. So, Simon, we just had the event. I think it was very good. Why was it so important

01:31to get some of the messages out to the audience today?

01:34Ultimately, we've got the funds, so Northern Powers Investment Fund too. We've got fund

01:39managers in place across the region. They're looking for opportunities for businesses.

01:44They're looking to grow for them to invest into. So this event is really useful to tie

01:50into some of the local businesses, to tie into the intermediary networks, the advisors,

01:55the businesses' core providers who are at the base to host the link, who have links

02:01into businesses, have clients who that they will know have been looking for investment

02:06so they can refer into our fund managers. So that's the benefit of this event. In an

02:09event like it, we can raise awareness and hopefully find some opportunity.

02:14And the fund's had some great successes already, and a couple of businesses that spoke today

02:19have received funding. Great to showcase some of them today.

02:23Yeah, really, really good to hear from the business today. A really different picture

02:28all the way from Powerall, cutting-edge solar technology, B7, a brand agency, and the way

02:37he was talking with the scars on his back from earlier funding rounds, managed to access

02:42funding through our fund manager, NEL, in the region, and turbocharges growth, essentially.

02:48So yeah, really good to hear from businesses who do access funding. Great.

02:52So Susan, you've just spoken on the panel. Did you enjoy it? And what did you get out

02:57of the event as a whole?

02:59I thought it was a really good event. It was my first experience of being part of a panel.

03:04I thought the mix of speakers was absolutely spot on. It was quite interesting to see some

03:09of the mix in the room as well from the audience, and particularly the first-timers. But hopefully,

03:15it was an opportunity to get the message out there that, you know, we've got these funds

03:19in the region. We're looking for businesses who are on that road trip. I mean, we're not

03:24scary people. We just want to understand what they're trying to achieve and hopefully be

03:28able to support them in that journey.

03:31And NEL, local business, looking at local businesses, and that's who you're wanting

03:36to invest in, and some really good success stories that you can tell us about.

03:41Yeah, we're a really good, we're a really well-established team. NEL's been around since

03:471989, so, you know, we've got a ton of experience, as I said. And we're a friendly bunch. You

03:53know, we know that it can be quite daunting, but I think it's important to mention that,

03:58you know, we're a local investment bank, we're local fund managers, and we're making decisions

04:02at a local level for businesses in the region.

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