Raising Partners take over Glasgow with Tech Investment conference

On Tuesday 10th May, we hosted our inaugural tech event ‘Raising Partners Live 2022: Funding in Focus’ at the University of Strathclyde’s Technology & Innovation Centre!

Funded by The Scottish Government’s Technology Ecosystem Fund, the event was set to be “a game-changer for the industry”, designed to empower start-up and scale-up firms operating in Scotland to access capital.

Our full-day conference focused on everything you need to know when it comes to raising investment. We heard from an array of world-class speakers, hosted practical workshops and 7 businesses even had the chance to pitch to a live investor panel.

The day started with an inspiring keynote from Ed Molyneux, Founder of FreeAgent – where he shared what he learnt about raising investment for a tech business, and his entrepreneurial journey including the top lessons learnt.

Next up, our brilliant investor panel from Fuel Ventures, Octopus Ventures, and Earth Capital shared what they wish start-ups knew when pitching to investors which provided our entrepreneurs with lots of practical advice!

This was followed by our morning workshops and first pitching session where businesses set out to impress our investor panel with a 3 minute pitch and 7 minute Q&A.

Edward Keelan, Investment Principal at Octopus Ventures described the pitches as “really high quality” and James Du Boulay, Growth Capital at Fuel Ventures said “[it was] a fantastic day with great presentations from really top quality entrepreneurs.”

After taking time out for lunch, we swiftly jumped straight back into the action! Our second round of business pitched to the investor panel and we hosted our final workshops of the day.

Julien Callede, Founder of Made.com joined Helena for a Fireside Chat where they discussed his entrepreneurial journey and the story of Made.com – an incredibly insightful and frank conversation about raising funds and what it *really* entails.

Finally, the last event of the day saw Helena take to the stage for an open and honest keynote about how she failed to fundraise, described as “powerful and enlightening.”

Attending entrepreneurs have said “the event offered an incredible amount of insight into fundraising” – we are so pleased that we were able to put on an event to aid businesses on their fundraising journeys and although raising investment is not always sunshine and rainbows, there are lots of steps you can take to make the journey a lot more smooth sailing!

Thank you to those that joined us in person and online for Raising Partners Live 2022, we hope to see you at the next one!