Digital Tech: When is it a worthwhile investment?

Jack joined Potter Clarkson as a trainee patent attorney in 2018 and is now a Chartered and European Patent Attorney.  With a background in Chemical Engineering and industrial experience in the automotive sector, Jack advises clients across a broad range of technical fields, including surgical robotics and renewable energy systems.  In 2022, Jack relocated to Manchester and has spent the last year integrating into Manchester’s Tech Startup Ecosystem.  The majority of his clients are now start-ups and SMEs, with Jack acting as their ‘go to’ for all IP-related queries stretching well beyond the prosecution of patent applications.

Jason is a partner at Potter Clarkson with 15 years of experience in intellectual property.  As a Chartered and European Patent Attorney, Jason works across a wide spectrum of industrial design and engineering subject matter, using his broad technical expertise and IP consultancy skills to advise clients on all phases of their business from production to end product to commercialisation.  His clients range from start-ups seeking investment to SMEs needing a trusted IP advisor to multinationals requiring all-encompassing IP strategy and management.

Emma-Louise Fusari is the Founder of In-House Health. A Nurse of 21 years, Emma has acquired a vast wealth of knowledge and experience in the health sector, mainly through running chronic disease management clinics and delivering public health promotion and screening programmes.

Emma founded In-House Health to bridge the gap between traditional occupational health services and fluffy wellbeing initiatives for digital tech SMEs. Through delivering clinically led, evidence-based and data-infomred solutions she enables organisations to make a measurable impact on their people, performance and profits so that they can sustain a high-performing culture for innovation and growth and prevent long-term health conditions.

Recently Emma was recognised as a Northern Gamechanger and won TalkTalk’s Tech for Good Award at the Northwest Women in Tech Awards!

William has been in the Growth Credit space for over a decade, and was part of the founding team that launched Barclays Venture Debt back in 2013. Deals he executed there included Shazam, which later sold to Apple.  William also led the UK Tech team for HSBC, and following this launched and led the Growth Capital offering for Shawbrook.  William joined Palatine at the start of 2023 to launch the Growth Credit Fund, a unique credit strategy that supports VC backed B2B growth businesses across the regions in the UK.

Manoj has been building tech startups and related ventures since 2004 with many failures and two Exits.  Northern Tech Awards and edocr.com were acquired by GP Bullhound and Accusoft, Inc respectively.  Manoj built Manchester’s Tech Startup Ecosystem from 2006 to 2013 by bringing investors and tech founders together through 100 tech events.  Today, Manoj runs Techcelerate (trusted tech founder community), Deal Lite (intelligence on UK venture-backed tech companies and investors who back them) and SkilledUp Life (skilled volunteers for tech startups).

Mark joined Puma in 2023 and is responsible for heading up operations in Manchester and expanding Puma Private Equity’s presence across the North.  After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant at PwC, Mark moved into corporate finance advisory, before joining a single-family office, where he spent more than ten years spearheading the investment activity and operations.  In 2018 he joined the newly established Manchester-based VC-house Praetura Ventures as Director of Investments.  He was part of the senior leadership team that grew the business to over £125 million AUM and invested in more than 30 fast-growth, early-stage businesses.  At Puma, Mark focuses on providing growth capital of between £2m-£10m into scale up companies across a range of sectors.

Sam is a senior partner in Cowgills and leads the corporate finance team. In addition, Sam heads up the Manchester office and leads the Technology, Media, and Telecoms (TMT) sector team.  Sam is a senior deal adviser having completed in excess of 100 deals, with extensive experience of completing deals, both as an advisor and as an investor.  His primary focus lies within the technology, media, telecoms, and consulting sectors.  In addition to his role M&A, Sam also provides strategic guidance to shareholders.  He understands the intricacies of value creation and business growth, positioning himself as a strategic partner, often working with clients over many years ahead of a transaction.  Cowgills is recognised by their peers as a market leader in lower mid-market advisory, through winning several industry awards.

Jess manages NatWest’s Entrepreneur Accelerator in Manchester, a funded programme that empowers UK entrepreneurs to grow their business to the next level. Jess has supported a number of founders through their investment journey, from supporting them to develop their pitch decks to a high standard to connecting them with key partners within the eco-system. As an advocate for inclusive entrepreneurship, Jess is involved with a number of initiatives designed to build the confidence of diverse founders to drive their business forward, including the TiE UK North Women’s Advisory Board and more recently, Meta’s She Means Business programme.

Claire leads on sales and partnerships at IN4 Group, an award-winning skills, innovation and business growth services provider that drives prosperity throughout the UK through educational enrichment and economic empowerment. Claire’s role at IN4 Group includes the development of strategic and commercial relationships with enterprise businesses across key verticals such as CyberFirst, collaborating with the likes of IBM and KPMG to deliver engaging and inspirational cyber education to Schools and Colleges in the North West, and HOST, the Home of Skills and Technology – MediaCity’s dedicated innovation hub, where Vodafone has launched a UK-first with its Edge & Innovation Lab to showcase Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) technology. Claire has also led on partnerships with key businesses through accelerator programmes such as IN4 Access, HOST 50 and FreelanceHER 100.