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Meet the Investors is a series of events helping UK tech SMEs navigate scale-up finance. Each event connects SMEs with investors and experts to share insights, funding tips, and networking opportunities.
Other events in the series:
We are delighted to host our Meet the Investors: Birmingham event as part of UK Tech Week.
In October 2024, techUK published its UK Tech SMEs: Driving Economic Growth and Innovation report, highlighting the importance of SMEs to the UK economy and the challenges they face in achieving their growth ambitions.
Meet the Investors: Birmingham will look to address one of the key challenges identified in the report – access to scale-up finance. Through keynotes addresses and a panel discussion, you will hear from a number of investors who work in and around the West Midlands area, and have the opportunity to ask them questions.
Date and Time: 18 March, 15:00-18:00
Cost: Free
Location: Birmingham
If you are a tech SME looking to raise investment to scale your business, come along and hear from investors as they discuss the finance ecosystem in the West Midlands and top tips for accessing scale-up finance.
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15.00 - 15.05 |
Introduction |
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15.05 - 15.10 |
Overview of the regional context and the importance of the tech scale-up ecosystem
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15.10 - 15.15 |
Overview of the business finance landscape and opportunities and challenges for tech scale-ups
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15.15 - 15.25 |
Scaling female-founded business
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| 15.25 - 15.35 |
Scale-up story
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| 15.35 - 15.45 | Q&A |
| 15.45 - 15.50 | Break |
| 15.50 - 16.10 |
In conversation with . . .
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| 16.10 - 17.00 |
Panel discussion
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| 17.00 - 18.00 | Networking and Drinks |
Ed is Head of SME Engagement and is responsible for shaping techUK’s proposition to our SMEs across the country, ensuring our policy work, market access activity and services benefit the SME community.
Prior to working at techUK, Ed worked in the at the Department for International Trade, engaging with a variety of businesses, particularly SMEs, to understand the benefits of Free Trade Agreements and act as case studies in press and social media. Ed has also worked in policy and public affairs within the voluntary sector, namely the Alzheimer’s Society and the Men’s Health Forum.
Ed holds a MA in International Relations from Leiden University, and in his spare time enjoys spending time with his son, travelling, and visiting historical sites.
This report illustrates the critical impact of tech SMEs across the nations and regions. techUK has combined quantitative data from Beauhurst with interviews from tech SMEs to provide both the current macroeconomic picture of tech SMEs, but also the economic and social impact made by individual tech SMEs.
Tara Attfield-Tomes sits at the heart of the West Midlands ecosystem, as an advisor and consultant in female entrepreneurship. She has a passion for mobilising female founders to drive change and generate wealth for women.
A founder herself, she runs The 51% Club, a thriving community to help female founders scale beyond their wildest dreams. With over 700 members across the West Midlands and Warwickshire, the community delivers events and resources to support women-led ventures, including a fully-funded 12-week growth programme and The Fortuna Fellowship, a first-of-its-kind accelerator that includes the opportunity to pitch for a share of £2 million investment.
She also runs multi-award-winning EAST VILLAGE., a PR agency for female-serving brands that supports early stage to Series A ventures with their founder profiling, media positioning, and market growth.
Tara is co-chair of The Lifted Project, a Treasury-backed initiative to increase the flow of capital to regional, high growth female founders. She also founded and chairs TechWM’s Women in Tech Group.
Through these projects and her advisory work, Tara advocates for policy change and initiatives that create a more equitable landscape for female entrepreneurs but, most importantly, ensures that wealth generation for women remains top of the agenda.
Steve is Co-Chief Executive of Rigby Group plc, a technology-focused multi-generational family business, built in the West Midlands and currently celebrating its 50th year. It is a top ten UK wholly family-owned business, with a turnover of almost £4 billion and employing 9,000 people.
During his 30+ year career contributing to the growth of the Group, Steve has owned and built an array of successful companies. Steve sits on the boards of SCC, Rigby Technology Investments, Regional & City Airports, Rigby Real Estate, the Eden Hotel Collection, Nuvias Unified Communications, CloudClevr, Infinigate and Rigby Group.
Outside of Rigby Group, Steve is a regular media commentator and private business champion. He contributed to the creation of One to Win, the groundbreaking competition launched last year in the West Midlands to support the region’s tech entrepreneurs. He is Chair of the Rigby Foundation, and the UK’s Private Business Commission, launched to investigate how to help more companies maximise their growth potential within the UK. In April 2025 he will become Chair of Family Business UK (FBUK). www.steverigby.com
Tracy is a Senior Manager for the UK Network covering the West Midlands. The UK Network seeks to enhance business finance ecosystems across the UK so smaller businesses, wherever they are, can grow and prosper. It also helps the Bank develop a deeper understanding of small business finance markets in all parts of the UK so that, ultimately, the Bank can improve its support to smaller businesses everywhere.
Tracy joined the British Business Bank from BCRS Business Loans, where she focused on supporting SME’s providing funding solutions as a business development manager as well as engaging with local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and other Key Business Introducers.
Prior to that, Tracy built her career in Personal and Business banking spending 10 years with Barclays covering the West Midlands area.
Ashlene Smith is the Innovation & Scale-Up Manager at the West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), an organisation dedicated to driving economic growth in the region by attracting investment, supporting businesses, and promoting the West Midlands as a prime location for trade and tourism. As part of the Inward Investment team, Ashlene plays a pivotal role in supporting businesses across key priority sectors of Advanced Manufacturing, Creative and Digital Technologies, Life Sciences, Low Carbon, and Professional Services. She leads the development and delivery of the Global Growth Programme, WMGC’s flagship UK market entry support package designed to accelerate business expansion for international companies looking to establish and scale in the region.
With a strong background in programme management, Ashlene works closely with local authorities, universities, and key private sector partners to cultivate and champion the West Midlands’ innovation and scale-up ecosystem. Passionate about fostering business growth, she is committed to ensuring that companies entering the region have the strategic support, networks, and resources they need to thrive in one of the UK’s most dynamic business environments.
Tony is the Chief Executive and one of the founding directors of Civiteq (formerly Socitm Advisory) a leading management consultancy with a focus on supporting public sector organisations to transform their services through investment in technology.
After a long career in the public sector, both directly as a COO and as a strategic consultant and advisor, where he led multiple large-scale transformation programmes, Tony founded the advisory practice of the Society of Innovation, Technology and Modernisation (Socitm) as a Joint Venture company, growing the company from scratch to over 100 FTE consultants within 5 years.
In 2023, after significant interest from a range of external investors, Civteq took investment from BGF to enable the company to restructure and reposition itself for the next step on its growth journey.
I began my career at Lloyds Banking Group during the 2009 financial crisis. This challenging environment provided invaluable insights into the resilience of businesses, the interplay of debt and equity, and the critical importance of strong management in navigating economic uncertainty. I gained extensive experience working with mid-market companies across various sectors, from software and oil & gas to manufacturing and consumer goods, understanding their unique growth strategies and the factors that drive their success.
Driven by a passion for supporting innovative companies, I joined Mercia Ventures in 2009. Here, I've had the privilege of partnering with exceptional founders at the seed stage, helping them build and scale the next generation of high-growth businesses. My portfolio includes successful exits like Genba, as well as high-growth companies such as WorkBuzz and Corrosion Radar, who have both gone on to raise Series A rounds to continue to drive exciting growth.
Based in Birmingham, I focus on seed and early-stage investments across a diverse range of sectors, seeking to identify and support companies with the potential to disrupt industries and create significant value. I look for a combination of ambition, humility, and tenacity in the founders I back.
