A pair of Tyneside motorsports fans who met in a queue for the bar sealed a £200,000 investment for their new tech startup.
Tom Bunten and Nikhil Patel had never met each other before going to a networking event for the Ignite Accelerator at By The River Brew Company last year. During the key social event for the tech industry they found themselves standing in the same circle of people with angel investor Kevin Beales, introducing themselves and talking about their startup plans.
Now the duo’s startup, called Grid Finder, has raised £200,000 to develop the platform which helps racers find racing and helps esport community managers manage their race calendars, results and standings, communication and much more. The investment comes from an angel syndicate led by Mr Beales.
Read more: go here for more North East business news
Mr Bunten and Mr Patel – both huge motorsport fans with a love of esports and online racing – recognised that the sim racing market was growing quickly but was fragmented. Grid Finder is being built to bring communities together and lower the barrier to entry for ambitious racers and community managers.
Mr Beales said: “From our first casual meeting at the Ignite event, I was impressed by what Tom had achieved in such a short period, the scale of opportunity globally and his vision. When shared with other angel investors, they felt the same and we were keen to support Tom and Nikhil.”
Gateshead contractor Tolent won the £40m contract to create one of the region's most prestigious housing schemes, which is set to transform Sunderland’s riverside.
Sunderland City Council has signed a deal that will see Tolent build 135 modern homes that will form the new Vaux neighbourhood at Riverside Sunderland, the first of 1,000 homes planned for the area as part of plans to double the number of people living in the city centre.
The multimillion-pound project will see Tolent build the sustainable houses using modern methods of construction, renewable energy and smart technology, to reduce the carbon footprint of the development. The homes will stand alongside The Beam and City Hall as one of four new communities to take shape at Riverside, and work is expected to start within weeks.
Paul Webster, chief executive officer of Tolent, said: “Vaux neighbourhood is an amazing project that showcases the strides being taken in Sunderland to modernise the city centre. The world-class houses being built will provide a community fit for the future and an archetype for sustainable housing."
Growing North East hospitality group Blackrose Pubs announced plans to carry out six refurbishments across its estate after making its latest acquisition in Newcastle.
Gosforth based Blackrose has already completed investments totalling £1.5m so far this year. Now the company has added The Lochside in Benton to its portfolio.
The deal forms part of its strategy to invest in community pubs, refurbishing them to a high standard to breathe new life into local areas, as well as marking the start of a strategic acquisition programme at Blackrose. The venue will now stay closed for six weeks while a team carries out a significant makeover.
Managing director Daren Knipe said: “The Lochside joining Blackrose is a great step forward for the business and the beginning of the pipeline for our acquisition programme.
“This is the first of many acquisitions for Blackrose and we are excited to invest in the local community as well as the hospitality sector after a difficult two years. This pub has always been a target for us and it’s well overdue an investment which will be a welcome addition to all in the local community again.”
Gateshead motor retailer Vertu snapped up an online wiper blade business based in the West Midlands as part of moves to add new services and revenue streams to the business.
The Team Valley based business, which has a network of 160 sales and aftersales outlets under the Bristol Street Motors, Vertu Motors and Macklin Motors banners, has acquired Wiper Blades Ltd, based in Kidderminster for a cash consideration of £3.5m.
Wiper Blades is a leading e-commerce business specialising in the online sale of car wiper blades and other associated products through operating websites.
Vertu said the acquisition is in line with its strategy to develop ancillary businesses, to add revenue and profit streams that complement the core business, while also adding digital capabilities and reach.
Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors, said: “Our e-commerce parts business is performing strongly and the addition of Wiper Blades will be accretive both financially and strategically to that part of the group. The acquisition is in line with our strategy to develop ancillary businesses which complement the core business and enrich our digital capabilities to continue to provide technology leading edge service to our customers.”
Global insurance group Gallagher snapped up a Teesside firm as part of moves to build its regional presence.
The New York Stock Exchange listed firm, which has its head office in Illinois, has swooped for Stockton based Erimus Group Limited in an undisclosed deal. Gallagher said that as a result of the deal, its combined operations create one of the largest insurance brokers in the North East.
Founded in 1986, Erimus is a retail insurance broker with a large regional commercial client base, with around 2,500 clients. The Bowesfield Park based firm employs around 40 people, and the acquisition of Erimus adds further quality and scale to Gallagher’s operations in the North East, building on its existing presence on Newcastle Quayside where it also has around 40 employees supporting local and national businesses with risk management needs.
North East gift card provider MBL Solutions was sold to new owners in a deal worth up to £3.5m.
The Seaham-based business been sold to Liverpool’s Appreciate Group by its former parent company Redu Group for an initial sum of £1.65m, with a further £1.8m deferred for 12 months dependent on certain criteria.
Appreciate Group is home of Love2shop, Park Christmas Savings, highstreetvouchers.com and Appreciate Business Services and it plans to leverage MBL’s market-leading digital platform to advance its technology and enhance products and services within the gift card sector.
MBL employs seven people and specialises in gift card processing and management services for retailer. It also offers a digital gift card mall for B2C and B2B customers to purchase gift cards directly from a catalogue of over 160 high-street retailers.
Gary Hunter, chief executive officer at Redu Group added: “The acquisition of MBL solutions by Appreciate Group will allow the bespoke technology built in house to be used to its full potential and help Appreciate reach its strategic goals faster. They inherit a great team and a enviable client list as part of the transaction.”
A Northumberland rare cancer research startup has closed a £340,000 seed funding round which will help the business to move to the next phase of its development.
RareCan, based in Hexham, champions the view that those with rare forms of cancer should have the same opportunities in treatments and research as those with more common forms. The organisation brings patients together, helping them make their data available to researchers, to help speed up the effective development of treatments and diagnostics.
Developers behind the largest logistics and manufacturing scheme in the region have sealed a £75m funding deal to pave the way for new industrial space.
Citrus Durham is spearheading the Integra 61 development near Durham, a mixed-use scheme with the potential to create more than 4,000 jobs over the next 10 years through industrial space, 300 new homes, a 70-bed hotel, vehicle dealerships, leisure space and a number of trade and retail units.
Now the firm has announced it has secured the significant sum to bring forward the speculative development of around 650,000 sq ft of new industrial space, to be known as Connect.
The funding has come from capital partner Sunrise Real Estate, a developer and asset manager specialising in logistics properties in Europe and the UK, and Avison Young and Colliers acted for Citrus Durham on the funding.
Electronics firm Filtronic is toasting a new £350,000 deal with a computing company.
The firm, which makes telecoms components for a range of sectors from its bases in NETPark, Sedgefield, County Durham, Yeadon in Leeds and Maryland, USA, is set to design, develop and supply microwave filters and diplexers.
The new contract was awarded to Filtronic because of its long-established experience of designing compact, high-performance filter and diplexer modules.
