Manchester Tech Trust is to close down.
The charity was founded by Neil McArthur, CEO Peter Lusty and Richard Young in 2015. It aimed to connect city’s startups with advisors and investors to support economic development, running mentorship programmes and events.
McArthur founded Opal Telecom and led its merger with Carphone Warehouse to create TalkTalk in 2003 before going on to serve on the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the University of Manchester’s board of governors.
He is now founding CEO of Freedom Fibre.
“The decision to wind it down was not taken lightly, but we are proud that it has done what we set out to achieve,” said Lusty. “The tech landscape in Greater Manchester has evolved significantly since its inception, and the ecosystem is now more vibrant, interconnected, and self-sustaining than ever before.”
Lusty said the original challenge was “to unite an ecosystem that included universities, property companies, PR and media agencies, workspaces, professional services companies, Manchester and Salford cities and other GM local authorities, public sector organisations, investors, major tech employers, scaleups, startups, accelerators, incubators, tech sector cheerleaders and many more”.
He said Manchester Tech Trust has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs refine their ideas, develop sustainable business models and navigate the challenges of scaling their ventures.
The Trust curated a group of individual investors – Manchester Tech Trust Angels – and managed deal-flow and events to showcase dozens of high-quality tech startups, resulting in direct investment of over £1 million matched by similar funding from institutional investors.
“We would like to thank all the founders and entrepreneurs who shared not only their business plans with us but also their hopes and dreams. Many are already doing well, and we wish all of them every success in the future,” added Lusty.