Mercia has expanded its Sheffield team with the appointment of Chris Borrett as Investment Director.
In his new role Chris will be providing Sheffield businesses with equity investment from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), working alongside other colleagues offering debt and other types of equity funding.
Originally from Yorkshire, Chris has a masters degree in Physics and started his professional career in data science before moving into management consulting with Accenture and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He moved to Sydney, Australia in 2015 where he worked in the incubation and investment arm of BCG, building, launching and funding a number of businesses across the Asia-Pacific region. He went on to run one of the ‘graduate’ companies, Flip Insurance, before his recent return to Yorkshire. He is a long time start-up mentor and has been involved in the climate impact group Leaders For Climate Action.
Chris said: “It’s a really exciting time to be in South Yorkshire. The region has so much potential, with skilled graduates coming out of universities and thriving start-up communities developing important new technologies. The challenes facing the world right now provide fantastic opportunities for the region’s entrepreneurs, especially within advanced manufacturing, infrastructure, cleantech and health.
“As someone passionate about science and technology and having built a number of start-ups, I am looking forward to working with the next generation of game-changing businesses.”
Will Clark, MD of Mercia’s regional venture funds, said: “Sheffield is rapidly emerging as one of the North’s leading tech hubs and we believe that Mercia and NPIF have played a part in that.
We are excited to welcome Chris to this newly-created role. His experience in international consulting and start-ups and his depth of knowledge will benefit our existing portfolio businesses which are seeking to expand outside of the UK, and those high-energy teams looking to raise equity investment and develop their product marketing strategies.
“Chris will supplement our existing team, helping us to keep up the good work and support even more businesses throughout 2023.”
Sean Hutchinson, Senior Manager at British Business Bank, said: “South Yorkshire is gaining a formidable reputation in bringing together business with high growth potential, with experienced equity investors. Chris will be able to use his expertise to elevate the investment landscape even further around Sheffield and bring much needed NPIF funding to businesses across the region. I look forward to working closely with Chris as he engages with the region’s entrapreneurs.”
The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.