The investment firm founded by the universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield in the north of England, aims to take on external investors in the second half of next year to help it fund spinouts beyond series A.
The investment firm, whose shareholders include blue chip companies and pension funds, will change to a structure that allows external investors, known as limited partners, in order to boost the amount of capital it has to support the most successful spinouts in its portfolio that are seeking later stage funding.
CEO Duncan Johnson says changing Northern Gritstone’s structure means it will be able to raise capital more quickly than if it had to rely on tapping its balance sheet for more money.
“We have a massive opportunity set that we can’t fund at the moment because of how much money we want to deploy to different bits of portfolio construction,” says Johnson. “So, we’ve got ourselves regulated to give us the optionality to allow us to manage more money in different formats that suit different funders, and also gives us more firepower.”