New £670m venture capital firm PXN Group backing Northern founders 'ready to make bold bet on Yorkshire'

PXN Group will focus on supporting businesses in the North of the UK and be capable of providing equity investments from £200,000 to £8 million, across multiple sectors and growth stages.

Dave Foreman, founder of Praetura Ventures who is to become CEO of PXN Group, said Yorkshire will be a particular area of focus for the combined business.

"By putting the two businesses together, we’ve got a very strong presence in Scotland and Manchester and one of the most exciting things we are looking to work on as soon as the merger is approved is expanding into Leeds and really beginning to work in the Yorkshire region,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

"We see that as a real growth opportunity for the combined business.

"With the scale and financial firepower the merger gives us, we can take a bigger, bolder bet on Yorkshire by putting more boots on the ground and making a bigger deployment of funds in the area.”

He said the combined company will have 58 workers, with around half based in Manchester, one-third in Edinburgh and the rest split between Leeds and London.

Mr Foreman said: "Yorkshire is where we will see the team expand more than anywhere else.

"I think that team will probably double relatively quickly if we can land some more funds focused on that area.

"Yorkshire is a real opportunity for us and we are of the belief we need some more boots on the ground in the region.

"To really try and influence a region and maximise opportunities we need a critical mass of people who are able to go and win those relationships with either founders or ecosystem partners or whatever it might be. There’s an element of really putting your money where your mouth is.

"Yorkshire is a real growth opportunity for PXN and we will be investing accordingly."

He said PXN is ultimately aiming to grow to having £2bn worth of assets under managements and believes it can do so by supporting promising businesses based in the North of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

"We are very much focused on the North. In the short and medium term, the focus is really on the north of the UK before we really travel outside of that geography,” he said.

"There are a lot of opportunities to work on without having to go elsewhere.

"Every VC is looking for an edge where they have a competitive advantage.

"We have that in backing companies in regions that contribute about 20 per cent of GDP and have about 20 per cent of companies but only three per cent of VCs working here. We see that as our real edge.”

"Our ambition is to become the largest venture-led alternative investment firm outside of London. That means getting to a couple of billion assets under management and we are £670m right now.

"Clearly the first target is to get to £1bn and we can see how that is achieveable in the next couple of years at current growth rates.

"Another ambition is to become the VC of choice for Northern founders. We want to be on the cap table of every breakout business in the UK. As a guiding principle ethos, if there is a company that goes onto become the next Skyscanner, or MyProtein or AO, we want to be backing the people who are building the next generation of businesses.

"We hopefully can create something that makes a difference for the corner of the world we live in and in 20, 30 or 40 years time is still playing a part in creating the local ecosystem.

"All northern founders are being overlooked to some extent. Sixty per cent of venture funding goes to founders in London and about 10 per cent goes to founders in the North. It is a shortfall of about £9bn per annum. That puts into focus the scale of the opportunity.

"If you believe northern founders can build consequential global or national companies out of the region, there is an opportunity.”

New name explained

PXN Group’s name is a “nod to the North”, says Dave Foreman.

The ‘P’ stands for both ‘Par and Praetura’, with the ‘XN’ element representing ‘times the North’.

“We want to really combine the skills of the two businesses,” he said. “It is about the opportunity to growing the combined business more quickly than either one of us could do on our own.​​​​​​ It is a merger of equals."

Paul Munn, founder of Par Equity who will be Executive Chair of PXN Group, added: “We’ve always believed the North can produce globally significant companies - but it needs the right capital and support.

"PXN Group is built in the North, for the North, and this merger gives us the scale to do more of what we do best: back the most ambitious founders and help them build category-leading businesses.”

Par Equity launched a Leeds office in 2023, with its investments including Leeds-based Little Journey and Teesside-headquartered Nova Pangea Technologies. Praetura Ventures has backed high-growth businesses such as Modern Milkman, Street Group and AccessPay.