The North East Fund is a suite of venture capital and loan funds established to invest in regional businesses across North East England. The programme is delivered through five separate funds managed by independent FCA regulated fund managers.
The seed round was led by the North East Venture Fund and investor Jenny Campbell to support regional deployment and hiring.
"I’d struggled to find the right investors and was ready to give up on the idea, but Mercia showed strong support and then the opportunity to go on Dragons’ Den came up. The reaction from the programme has been brilliant and demonstrated that there was a real appetite for the solution across the UK. With the backing of Mercia and Jenny Campbell, I am now ready to start deploying into live locations over the coming months."
The funding round was led by Mercia to support product development and team expansion.
"There are over 400,000 substations in the UK and most are still accessed via old-fashioned keys which are easily lost, stolen or not returned. CentraLock offers a step change in security for the utilities industry. Not only does it help prevent unauthorized access, but it also helps safeguard maintenance staff who often work alone on sites in remote locations. We believe there could be a huge potential market worldwide."
