Catalyst’s Inbound Investors hosts more than 60 investors from venture capital firms from the UK and Ireland seeking deals with NI companies

Catalyst’s Inbound Investors yesterday welcomed 60 investors from venture capital firms across the UK and Ireland to Belfast to showcase a range of innovative, high-potential NI companies who are seeking investment from £250k up to £5 million.

The Inbound Investors programme, run by Catalyst and supported by the British Business Bank, gives companies across Northern Ireland the opportunity to pitch to multiple notable UK investors in one day.

As a not-for-profit, Catalyst provides intelligent and highly focused sources of fund-matching for high growth-potential innovative companies. The matching process is personalised to each participating company and investor.

Ananda Impact Ventures, Mercia Asset Management, Outward VC, BGF and Concept Ventures are among the well-known investment firms who attended the event.

Kieran Dalton, Head of Scaling at Catalyst said: “In order to see tech and innovative companies in Northern Ireland, we need to tap into the wide array of funding available in the UK, Ireland and beyond. The more deals done by non-NI funders, the easier it will be to get others to take notice and invest too.

“This is why Inbound Investors is so important. It provides local companies with the opportunity to connect with investors and build meaningful relationships. Catalyst helps to maintain these funder relationships and facilitate that crucial investment by understanding what they want and don’t want and matching them to the right NI companies.

“Today’s event was a huge success and we are delighted with the results. We successfully matched 55 NI companies with suitable investors and provided a space where VCs in attendance could build relationships with budding entrepreneurs.”

Susan Nightingale from British Business Bank said: “It has been encouraging to witness the growth of this event from just 17 global investors attending in 2018 to almost 60 in 2022. The equity funding ecosystem in Northern Ireland is reasonably strong, however, it can be challenging for companies in scale-up mode to secure funding in excess of £1m.  Inbound Investors is proving successful in terms of introducing innovative smaller businesses to non-Northern Ireland investors, which are increasingly seeing Northern Ireland as a great place to do business.”

Some of the Northern Ireland companies who took part in the event included StimOxyGen, Cumulus Neuroscience, Plaswire Ltd, Automated Intelligence and Ubloqity.

Catalyst is an independent, not-for-profit organisation focused on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, supporting transformative businesses and developing Northern Ireland’s tech industry.