Leading investors back Northern Gritstone with new £50 million fundraise

Northern Gritstone, a deep-tech and life sciences investment firm founded with the support of the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds, and Manchester, has announced its latest fundraise of £50 million from leading institutional investors, bringing its total permanent capital to £362 million.

This funding will accelerate Northern Gritstone's ambition of creating the world-class businesses of tomorrow from the science and innovation that exists today in the North of England.

£35 million of the new funding commitments come from Northern LGPS, the collective asset pool for Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire Pension Funds, with a further £15 million boost from new investors Fulcrum Asset Management and Aviva.

Northern Gritstone Chair, Lord Jim O’Neill, said: “We are very grateful for this further support  from investors in our journey to develop world winning businesses in the North of England originating from our University ecosystem and contributing to the future of higher value added activity and the North’s productivity”.

Northern Gritstone Chief Executive, Duncan Johnson, said: “This new fundraise backed by Northern LGPS, Fulcrum and Aviva is testimony to our ability to create the world-leading businesses of tomorrow based on world-class innovation that exists in the North of England".

Active since May 2022, Northern Gritstone has already made 32 investments in early-stage businesses in the North of England. The firm has also expanded its investment team and built NG Innovation Services - a venture building ‘toolkit’ which offers talent management, growth advice, business services, and the accelerator programme, NG Studios. 

The company supports some of the most exciting areas of development and future job creation in deep-tech and life sciences, including semiconductor design and manufacturing, novel materials, secure computing, AI, health-tech, and gene therapies.