Lancashire’s tech and innovation ecosystem goes online with open access Dealroom microsite

Dealroom, one of the world’s most trusted sources of startup and scaleup investor market intelligence, has partnered with Lancashire County Council (LCC) to create a bespoke microsite which focuses solely on Lancashire’s high-growth innovation and tech sectors.

 Launched at the recent LIFT technology and innovation festival in Preston, lancashire.dealroom.co captures data relating to individual Lancashire businesses as well as overarching investment trends.

 Metrics and activities mapped by the Dealroom platform include startup and scaleup funding rounds, recent mergers and exits, sector analysis, and geographical hotspot tracking.

 The microsite also features details of investors interested in early-stage Lancashire companies, local finance and funding initiatives, university support programmes, SME-focused research and development assets, and other tools and resources.              

 Lancashire.dealroom.co has been developed as an open access platform, meaning a vast majority of the data is available for anyone to browse without requiring a paid-for subscription.

 By signing up to for a free company account, Lancashire founders can also add their own business details to increase their visibility to investors.

Andy Walker, Lancashire County Council’s head of business growth, said: “Dealroom is a very powerful platform which will enhance Lancashire’s already thriving investment ecosystem.

"By adding themselves to the site, businesses can significantly increase their visibility to investors, while VCs can use it strategically to identify potential funding prospects.

 “It will also show us exactly what kind of ventures are getting backed, which sectors they are in, and how much funding they’ve secured; all of which will generate invaluable insights for everyone involved in boosting Lancashire’s deal flow.”

 One of the VCs already using the platform to discover potential investment opportunities is Praetura Ventures, a Manchester-based VC fund which funds early-stage, high-growth businesses across a wide range of sectors.

Jessica Jackson, PraeSeed lead at Praetura Ventures, said: “As a VC specialising in areas outside of London, it is important for us to have both an overview of a region’s current investment activity and the ability to drill down into specific company data.

 “Lancashire’s new Dealroom site gives us both, and will allow us to get an always-on snapshot of where the Lancashire’s growth is coming from, which firms are driving it, and who else is in that space, in an instant.

 “The fact that VCs like Praetura are featured on the site also means Lancashire businesses can find out who we are, what we do, and what sort of deals we’re interested in. It’s a win-win for founders and funders.”     

Prof Graham Baldwin, vice chancellor of the University of Lancashire, and chair of the Lancashire Innovation Board, said: “One of the key recommendations outlined in LCC’s five-year Lancashire Innovation Plan is the creation of a data observatory which gives stakeholders access to accurate and up-to-date information about the county’s innovation economy. Lancashire’s Dealroom platform is just that.

 “The functionality is intuitive, the level of detail is granular, and the filtering makes it easy to find intelligence by sector and by geography. I would therefore encourage anyone interested in getting under the skin of Lancashire’s innovation-led economic growth to explore the site.”

 With around 600 innovative and growing Lancashire businesses listed on the platform, and details of hundreds of historic investment transactions logged, lancashire.dealroom.co is already able to generate revealing insights about the county’s tech and innovation economy.  

However, the more information is added over time, the more sophisticated and forensic Dealroom’s reporting will become.

 To make the channel as accessible as possible, the Lancashire Dealroom microsite has been embedded into both the fhunded and Innovate Lancashire websites.

 It can also be found directly at lancashire.dealroom.co