Back to Investors
NP

Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II

Government

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II covers the North of England, providing commercial finance options and equity investments to help small and medium businesses start up or scale.

Portfolio

3

companies

AUM

£660M

under management


Portfolio companies

Audiebant

Audiebant

Audiebant delivers mass safety communication technology for critical incidents and emergencies.

CP

CCI Photonics

CCI Photonics develops rapid diagnostic devices for infectious diseases.

C

Cytix

Cytix provides real-time security testing that integrates with software development.


Team

LU

Lizzy Upton

Senior Investment Manager


Recent investments

£1.0M

The funding round was backed by Praetura Ventures through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.

"This partnership represents more than capital. Praetura brings deep strategic expertise, a strong network, and a shared belief in our mission – to save lives and improve safety through intelligent communication. Their investment is a powerful endorsement of the scale of what the whole team at Audiebant have built, and the global opportunity that lies ahead. With installations now underway in both Europe and North America, and a distributor network spanning dozens of countries, this is a pivotal time for Audiebant. The backing from Praetura will allow us to continue building momentum at speed and scale."
— Josh Dean, Chief Executive
Seed
£450K

The funding was backed by investors including Lyva Labs and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.

"This funding allows us to take critical steps in validating and refining our technology. With the support of our partners, we are working to bring a practical solution to healthcare challenges. The collaboration between Lancaster University and Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust laid the foundation for this innovation."
— Carlos Alejandro Meza Ramirez, CEO
Seed
£1.6M

The round was co-led by the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II and Praetura Equity Finance, with backing from Auriga and SFC Capital.

"Automated scanning technologies have transformed the way we identify and remediate most vulnerabilities. However, companies still need to rely on manual penetration testing for certain classes of vulnerability that automated tools can’t detect. This area of the market has remained largely a stagnant and annual process, meaning a proportion of vulnerabilities are left to be detected just once a year. Cytix is here to change that using the latest AI models to bring all testing forward and create targeted testing at scale."
— Ben Armstrong, Co-founder and CEO