Welcome to the Mercia Technology Seed Fund:

The Leading Provider of Venture Capital for Early-Stage,
Technology-Based Companies Located in the West Midlands

The Mercia Technology Seed Fund is a £12.8 million venture capital fund, focused on the West Midlands and benefiting from a mixture of public- and private-sector investors. The Fund provides venture capital for early-stage technology start-ups that are located in the West Midlands. Potential investees must demonstrate their potential for rapid growth and will possess a strong proprietary position with respect to their technology, intellectual property, and products.

The Fund is managed is WM Enterprise* and based at its central Birmingham offices. WM Enterprise* is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and is a member of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA).

The Fund focuses on providing venture capital for technology-based start-ups that are located in the West Midlands and have completed the proof of concept stage, but have yet to achieve significant sales revenues. In all cases, there must be a strong and demonstrable commercial demand for the technology under development.

The Fund will typically make an initial investment offer of between £50,000 and £250,000 of venture capital, but has the capacity to follow its money at subsequent investment rounds, up to an overall limit of £1 million of venture capital per company. Later rounds of financing will usually involve syndication with other venture capital investors, often from outside of the West Midlands.

The Fund provides venture capital for technology-based companies that are located in the West Midlands and are operating across 5 key technology sectors:

• Medical & Healthcare
• Advanced Materials
• Environmental
• Information & Communication Technologies
• Transport