About This Fund
NPIF II – Praetura Equity Finance is a venture capital fund managed by Praetura Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II), a £660 million government-backed programme launched in March 2024 by the British Business Bank. Praetura Ventures was selected through a competitive tender process to manage the North West England equity mandate — the largest single equity allocation within NPIF II at £100 million — covering Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria, and Merseyside. The fund was designed to address the persistent gap in early-stage equity access across the North West, building on the original NPIF programme's legacy of catalysing private venture investment in Northern England from 2017 onward.
The fund provides equity investments of up to £5 million per company, targeting businesses with demonstrated high-growth potential across all sectors, with priority focus on deep tech, life sciences, health technology, software, and digital innovation. Praetura Ventures combines deep local market expertise with an intensive ownership model, providing portfolio companies with direct access to operational support teams, strategic co-investment networks, and the broader Praetura platform encompassing private equity, debt finance, and fund-of-funds strategies. The fund explicitly promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion, with mandates to actively support underrepresented founders and widen access to venture capital across Northern networks that have historically been underserved.
Launched in Spring 2024, NPIF II – Praetura Equity Finance is already actively deploying capital across the North West. Praetura Ventures manages over £260 million in AUM across its platform and has confirmed portfolio investments under the mandate, including in companies such as Audiebant and CloudGuard. The wider NPIF II programme has facilitated over £275 million in total investment to Northern businesses across all regions within its first two years. The fund operates on an approximately five-year investment period backed by the British Business Bank and HM Government, and is expected to support hundreds of high-growth businesses across the North West through to approximately 2029.