BGF opens office in Newcastle

BGF has set up a North East base in Newcastle as it continues to scale its operations. Located in Waterloo Square, the office will serve as a base to build even closer connections to growing businesses and advisors in the region.

In the last four weeks, BGF has announced investments totalling £16.5m in a further two North East based companies. Sunderland-based SaleCycle, a behavioural marketing technology company, recently received £11.5m investment from BGF to support international expansion and the opening of offices in New York and Japan. Meanwhile, Alnwick-based Arcinova, a life sciences business, will use BGF’s investment to drive continued innovation and international expansion, having previously received funding from Innovate UK as part of the Government’s push to increase overall spending on R&D in the UK.

These recent deals reflect BGF’s growing momentum in the North East and bring total investment in the region to close to £70m. BGF has accelerated its coverage of the UK and opened five of its 14 offices in the past nine months – Belfast, Cardiff, Dublin and Nottingham and now Newcastle. Richard Taylor and Barry Jackson will cover the Newcastle office for BGF, supported by the wider Northern team.

Stephen Welton, CEO, BGF said: “More than 70 percent of our investments are outside London. We have always believed that if you get outside of the capital, set up in cities around the country and empower strong local teams to have relevant conversations with local businesses – you will see results.

“We have already invested in a number of fantastically exciting companies in the North East since 2011, across different stages and sectors. We’re delighted to be setting up a base here, which signals our intent to make more investments and help more companies reach their potential. There is no doubt that proximity makes a difference.”

Barry Jackson, BGF added: “BGF provides long-term investments as a minority, non-controlling partner to entrepreneurs and company owners. We are in the business of identifying promising companies and helping them to grow, to be more successful and to achieve their ambitions at home and abroad. We are very much looking forward to contributing even further to the North East business community from our new base.”

BGF invests exclusively in small and mid-sized firms headquartered in the UK and Ireland, helping them to grow through a combination of capital and support, and is the most active growth investor globally. Earlier this year, BGF became the first investor to be honoured for innovation in the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.