“Liverpool is a melting pot of creativity and a place for pioneers.”
Those were the words of Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, speaking at the busy launch of new tech accelerator Baltic Ventures last month.
Founders, CEOs and investors across the region and beyond have hailed Baltic Ventures, with the belief that this is exactly what Liverpool needs right now to support those budding pioneers.
“There’s something really special happening in Liverpool at the moment,” Claire Lewis, CEO of Baltic Ventures, tells Prolific North. “As a region, we have enormous potential on a global stage.”
Backed by £4.1m of funding from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, the new accelerator plans to support the growth of early-stage tech businesses through access to mentoring, masterclasses and networking with investors – without needing to head to London.
It’s inspired by Carl Wong, co-founder and entrepreneur behind LivingLens, and his experiences building the business out of Liverpool’s Baltic Creative until it was snapped up by tech giant Medallia in 2020.
Alongside his co-founder David Woods, the duo brought together a consortium and did a feasibility study alongside the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to figure out what the region needs to accelerate its start-up scene – and where it needs to plug the gaps.
Involved in the North’s tech ecosystem for nearly a decade as well as launching Tech North before it became Tech Nation, Lewis jumped at the opportunity to become CEO. She joins other industry heavyweights behind the accelerator, including Baltic Creative CIC and Mark Rathbone, partner at Brabners and co-founder of the LCR Angel Network.
“I’ve been through many public bidding pieces, especially in tech, and quite often you just end up with something which is not really fit for purpose where it’s like a round peg to a square hole because of the funding criteria. This was genuinely different,” says Lewis.
