Powering Sunderland’s renaissance: Northstar Ventures

Sunderland is a city on the move.

Once renowned for bustling shipyards and cradle-to-grave pitmen, landmark investment and invention are today replacing its sepiatoned past with a vivid technicolour future.

From Nissan’s record-breaking car manufacturing plant to a thriving digital ecosystem, a cultural sector renaissance and a momentous £450 million film and television production hub, Sunderland is evolving at pace.

And adding further thrust to its momentum is Northstar Ventures, which is launching the Venture Sunderland Fund, a venture capital fund dedicated to catalysing growth across the city’s start-up and scale-up business landscape.

The fund presently has £15 million to invest, but Northstar Ventures has ambitions to increase that sum over the next year, to deepen the fund’s impact and enable other investors to take advantage of the significant returns it is targeting.

For high net worth investors, this includes the opportunity to take advantage of the generous tax benefits of the Enterprise Investment Scheme.

Focused on nurturing a new cluster of highgrowth companies operating in industries such as advanced manufacturing, sustainability, technology and the creative sector, it will act as a springboard for ambitious businesses, driving closer collaboration between regional stakeholders to help firms grow internationally while bolstering the city’s economy and jobs market.

The fund will build on Sunderland’s existing industrial strengths, notably its status as a leader of the green revolution, where Port of Sunderland’s support for the creation of the North Sea-based Dogger Bank Wind Farm is matched by Nissan’s £1 billion EV36Zero project, alongside AESC that is bolstering electric vehicle battery production on Wearside.

It will also add impetus to a creative sector buoyed by the National Esports Performance Campus, which is hothousing the competitive video gamers of tomorrow, and the imminent arrival of FulwellCain Studios’ 8450-job Crown Works Studios, which will see Sunderland share a stage with some of the world’s largest film and television productions.

Furthermore, it will support digital transformation plans to make Sunderland a smart city, and build on the work of the Education Partnership North East-led Housing Innovation and Construction Skills Academy, which promises to harness the next generation of workers with the skills needed to create the greener properties of the future when it opens in 2025.

Alasdair Greig, Northstar Ventures director, says: “Venture capital is a crucial ingredient for driving growth and prosperity in Sunderland.

“It will help accelerate the growth of start-up and scale-up businesses and generate the high quality jobs needed to transform our economy, providing local people with new career paths, higher income potential and the chance to be part of innovative and dynamic global industries.

“The exciting and diverse opportunities the Venture Sunderland Fund will provide will benefit not only Sunderland but the whole of the North East.

“Sunderland is founded on game-changing ideas, knowledge to put them into practice and a capacity for sheer hard work – three of the qualities we seek in the teams we back.

“We look forward to working with this innovative business community as it drives the city forward.”

Naomi Allen Seales, Northstar Ventures investment manager, adds: “Sunderland is a city close to our hearts.

“Innovation and industry, culture and creativity are all part of the picture, bringing a vibrancy to one of the jewels in the North East’s crown.

“The city is transforming and, here at Northstar Ventures, we are proud to play our part in that process.”

Having operated in the North East for more than 20 years, Northstar Ventures is a prosperity driver.

Its £100 million-plus investments into regional start-ups, spin-outs and more established businesses – across areas such as clean technology and healthy ageing – have helped catalyse great job and wealth creation across the region.

Its investment track record includes a number of high-value exits, which were added to earlier this year when Houghton-le-Spring construction sector management software firm Clixifix was bought by Norway’s SmartCraft ASA.

The deal, which has created SmartCraft’s UK headquarters, secured substantial investment into Wearside, with the company committing to recruitment and product development in the region.

The Venture Sunderland Fund has been designed to build on this success.

 

Pictured, left to right: Naomi Allen Seales, investment manager; Tom O’Neill, investment manager; Ian Richards, director; Alex Buchan, investment director; and Alasdair Greig, director.

www.northstarventures.co.uk

LinkedIn: Northstar Ventures UK