EMIS Group and Call Credit join aql at the Yorkshire Post Business Club forum

On Thursday 24th of November, aql hosted the Yorkshire Post Business Club at the Salem Church headquarters, a forum attended by business leaders from across Yorkshire.

Senior industry figures Chris Spencer, CEO of EMIS Group, and Bob Munro, the newly appointed CFO of Call Credit joined aql’s CEO and founder, Dr Adam Beaumont to debate the challenges and opportunities facing the technology sector in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Post’s business editor, Bernard Ginns, chaired the debate. The speakers told the audience the stories of their business and emphasized that Yorkshire needs to promote the strengths of its technology sector if it wants to attract the attention of major investors.

The chief executive of the clinical software provider EMIS Group said there is a North-South divide in access to finance for tech businesses.

“If you want to talk to venture capitalists or private equity, you need to go to London. They equally haven’t heard about Leeds. They are talking about things on an entirely different scale.”

“When I was interviewing for this job, a number of times people said to me, ‘you do realise it is in Leeds?’ That was among the investment community. There is a weight of capital out there which is not being directed to the North. When you go outside the UK, there is a huge weight of capital which has never heard of Leeds.”

Dr Adam Beaumont said the region is home to a wide range of capabilities and expertise but “we don’t shout loud enough”. He added that Leeds needs to develop stronger conduits to central Government. He has partnered with Government agency Tech City UK to launch North Invest, a platform for reinvigorating the angel investor community in the North.

Read the complete Yorkshire Post article at this link.