Northstar Ventures, has made a significant investment of £440,000 into Gateway Into The Community (GITC), via the North East Social Investment Fund (NESIF) alongside grants of £37,500 from partners the County Durham Community Foundation and £40,000 from Garfield Weston Foundation. The funding provides the charity with much-needed help to purchase ‘The Den’, a beloved building in Hexham town centre. As part of a 6-year project, their team have striven to transform it into a fit for purpose hub of vital support in health and social care provision for those with learning difficulties in the West ..read more

Northstar Ventures has invested £300,000 in Polybox to support the development of its innovative AI marketing technology and to expand its team. PolyBox is an ambitious young company founded by two Newcastle University graduates, Rojin Yarhmadi and Nikolaus Benopoulos, operating in the fast-paced world of automated data analysis, reporting and AI. The total funding round of £500,000 was led by the North East Innovation Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, alongside Creative UK’s North of Tyne Culture and Creative Investment Programme and a ..read more

Northstar Ventures is seeking to appoint an Investment Manager Job title: Investment Manager Role type: Permanent Primary location: Newcastle upon Tyne Are you a recent graduate looking for a career in Venture Capital? We are looking for someone to join our Investment Team to help actively manage our portfolio and invest in new companies. Read more in the job description below. View Job Description The post We’re hiring an Investment Manager appeared first on Northstar Ventures ..read more

Microbritt, a bespoke high-precision micromanufacturing service which has unique capabilities in manufacturing products from brittle materials such as glass, silicon, polymers and ceramics, has raised £400,000 in an investment round led by the North East Innovation Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, alongside Business Investors Group and angels. Microbritt, which spun out from Newcastle University in 2021, has developed a patented process for the production of high value prototypes and complex products which are created from brittle mate ..read more

Northstar Ventures, through the North East Social Investment Fund (NESIF), has invested £300,000 into Sunderland Music Arts and Culture Trust, (‘MAC Trust’) alongside a grant of £37,500 from the County Durham Community Foundation. The funding is a key component in the organisation’s leading role in the regeneration of Sunderland and will enable the trust to start a new project, Sunderland Music City, with a number of partners in the city and the region. Sunderland Music City will establish Sunderland as a globally recognised music hub, with a particular focus on ensuring that individuals from ..read more

Northstar Ventures shares its statistics of investment into female led organisations. The UK Government’s Women-Led High-Growth Enterprise Taskforce, which aims to increase the number of women-led high-growth businesses across the UK, released its report last week. The report includes statistics on the current rate of investment into female led startups and provides recommendations to investors on how to close the gender gap in relation to investment. The Taskforce report highlights that just 18% of high-growth enterprises include one or more women on the founding team – while all-male foundin ..read more

Northstar Ventures backs the expansion of Dragonfly Insulation by investing £500,000 to support its growth and expansion into new markets.   Dragonfly Insulation, an advanced materials manufacturer, announces that it has raised £935,000 in an investment round led by the North East Innovation Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, alongside angel investors and £300,000 of grant funding from Innovate UK’s Future Economy Investor Partnership programme.  Aerogels have a number of proven high-performance characteristics, such as en ..read more

Newcells Biotech – whose laboratory models are used in drug development and reduce reliance on animal testing – has raised a further £2.35m to boost its growth and help establish itself as a global leader in its field.  The Newcastle-based company has secured funding from existing investors including the North East Venture Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia Ventures, Mercia’s own funds and Northstar Ventures. It brings the total raised by the company to date to over £12m.  Newcells’ 3D models mimic processes within the body and are used by ..read more

Circadacare has raised investment to launch its remote-monitoring solution, Heleos, for the independent living care market in Q1 2024. Circadian Lighting Limited, trading as Circadacare, announces its £1.3 million raise today in an investment round led by the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, alongside angels, with additional grants of £358,000 provided by Innovate UK through the Healthy Ageing Innovate UK (HAIA) grant and £80,000 Longitude Prize on Dementia for its ground-breaking technology. Circadacare positive ..read more

Northstar Ventures is proud to announce the launch of its first EIS fund, the Northstar EIS Growth Fund, which is now open for subscriptions. The first close of the fund is targeted for 31st March 2024, with investment then being made into a diverse portfolio of technology companies during the 2024/5 tax year. The fund will invest in the North East’s highest potential technology scale-up companies, focusing on the clean tech and healthy ageing sectors, where the region has global competitive advantage. Having operated in the north of England for nearly twenty years, Northstar Ventures’ investm ..read more