Enterprise Ventures, which manages The North West Fund for Venture Capital, has promoted two members of its team to jointly head The Fund.
Will Clark will work with The Fund’s investments in Merseyside, while Doug Stellman will be responsible for investments in other areas of the North West. Both have worked in the team for the past three years and will replace Richard Young, who has recently left Enterprise Ventures to join the British Venture Capital Association.
Will, who is based in Liverpool, has been working with growth and venture capital-backed companies in the region since 1989 and during that time has been involved in more than 100 transactions. Before joining Enterprise Ventures, he was in Ernst & Young’s corporate finance team in Liverpool and then a Director with 3i in the North West.
Doug, who is based in Manchester, has over 20 years’ experience as a venture capitalist and specialises in technology businesses, including university and industrial spin-outs across a wide range of sectors.
The £30m North West Fund for Venture Capital was established in 2010 and runs until the end of 2015. So far £24.02m has been invested and a further £9.5m raised in additional funding.
Jonathan Diggines, Chief Executive of Enterprise Ventures, said: “Will and Doug have extensive experience and an in-depth knowledge of the region. During the three years that they have spent working on this particular fund, they have completed 35 deals between them. They are ideally qualified to take over as joint fund managers.”
The North West Fund for Venture Capital is part of the £155m North West Fund, which provides funding for SMEs in the region and is financed jointly by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank.