At our 1-day PLATFORM Conference in Newcastle upon Tyne on Tuesday (28th April), we’ve got 12 different funders & investors attending who are actively looking for businesses to put money into.
We’ve also got a funding & investment panel discussion with Neil Stephenson (Angel Investor, Stephenson Ventures limited / Stephenson Capital Limited), James Katirai (Head of Investments, NEL Fund Managers Limited), Rebecca Minchella (Investment Manager, Maven Capital Partners) & Ciaron Gallagher (Entrepreneur, Angel Investor & Co-Founder, Unity Angels) sharing what they are looking for from a business.
This will be just after a fireside chat with Lee Hartley (CEO, Castrius Capital Partners Ltd & Founder, Fairstone Group) who will be sharing how he built one of the UK’s biggest wealth management companies & the new £10bn investment fund he is pulling together for businesses based in the North East of England!
It’s often said that businesses in the North East & Teesside don’t know where to find the funding or investment they need or understand how to get it.
Our PLATFORM events are here to fix that & we’re confident that some of you will get the funding or investment you need, if you attend on Tuesday. (It often happens at our events).
Here’s angel investor, Non-Executive Director & business growth adviser Neil Stephenson sharing why PLATFORM is his ‘go to event’ for deal flow…
Get 50% grant funding from NBSL for a business growth project!
NBSL, in partnership with The North East Combined Authority, has announced the launch of the next phase of the North of Tyne Business Support Fund (NoTBSF).
This grant programme is designed to help local businesses access high quality external expertise to deliver business improvement projects.
Grant Offer
NoTBSF will provide up to 50% funding for projects that cost between £3,000 and £8,000 (VAT costs cannot be funded).
Eligibility Criteria
Businesses must:
- Be based in Newcastle, North Tyneside or Northumberland i.e. the business pays its business rates to one of the Councils in those three areas
- Be Trading i.e. making sales
- Be an SME – employing fewer than 250 staff
- Be planning to grow i.e. creating new jobs or safeguarding existing jobs.
- Not have received more than £315,000 of combined State Aid under the Minimum Financial Assistance (MFA), Services of Public Economic Interest Assistance (SPEIA) or Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allowances.
Projects must:
- Support business growth i.e. help to create and/or safeguard jobs
- Take no longer than 3 months to complete
- Be completed, and the Grant claimed, by November 2026 at the very latest
Interested & got a project in mind?
We (Stellar Business Events) are a registered provider with NBSL which means you can pay us (me & Neil Stephenson) to do some business development / marketing / sales activity, mentoring / coaching or investment readiness work with you & get 50% of the money back from NBSL.
The total cost of the project just has to be a minimum of £3,000 & you need to get approval for the project from NBSL before it begins.
If you’d like to discuss what we could do together, please book a video call with me at https://meetings.hubspot.com/plancaster for a time when we are both available.
Further information about the funding & process can be found on the NBSL site at https://growwithnbsl.org.uk/notbsf-overview/
PLEASE NOTE: Applications will be assessed for eligibility from the 5th May 2026 but you can apply now to be among the first to take advantage of the new offer!
Thanks for reading & I hope you will make the most of these opportunities!
Paul Lancaster
Founder, Event Producer & Growth Consultant
PLATFORM | UK Startup & Scaleup Week | Stellar Business Events
ps For quick & low-cost ways to raise your profile & grow your business, check out our ‘Grow Your Business‘ page & our ‘5 Star Focus‘ mentoring / coaching programme.