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.
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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.