Pinsent Masons advises Northern Gritstone on £215m fund raising

The transaction, which has led to funding commitments from a diverse investor base, will underpin Northern Gritstone’s investment programme focused on university spin-outs in the North of England. The project will see university spin-outs of science and innovation-based specialists leading to the launch of a number of start-ups across the region.
Investors include Greater Manchester Pension Fund, West Yorkshire Pension Fund, M&G, Columbia Threadneedle, Lansdowne Partners, Patron Capital, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Bruntwood as well as Andrew Law, the CEO of Caxton Associates.
A team at Pinsent Masons was led by universities partner Gayle Ditchburn and corporate partners Julian Stanier and Sunjay Malhotra.
Commenting on the deal Gayle Ditchburn said: “This is a transformational fund raising which will deliver substantial investment to university spinouts across the North aimed at delivering investment gains for the founding universities and economic growth in the region. Combining our education sector and corporate finance expertise has enabled us to support the founding universities and Northern Gritstone on this strategic project which signals a new era for the financing of higher education spin-outs in the UK.”
Northern Gritstone’s total target fund raising is £500m and is expected to begin deploying capital and making its first investments to start-ups in the coming weeks.
Northern Gritstone Chairman, Lord Jim O’Neill said: “The strong endorsement of Northern Gritstone we’ve seen from investors is testament to the huge scale of the opportunity in northern England’s world class science and innovation hubs and the spin outs they are producing. By investing in Northern Gritstone, asset managers are directly buying into the brightest prospects for Britain’s future economy.
“Today marks a significant milestone as Northern Gritstone continues to build its investor base allowing the company to deliver its philosophy of Profit with Purpose which underpins all we seek to do.”