First tranche of LIFT 26 finance and investment speakers announced
Following its sold-out debut in Preston last year, LIFT – Lancashire’s annual innovation and technology festival – will take place on June 11th at Burnley Football Club’s Turf Moor stadium.
With the Fhunded team responsible for the ‘F’ of LIFT (which stands for ‘finance’), we’re delighted to announce some of the investors, exited founders, and early-stage finance experts, who will be taking part:
Hazel Savage, a prominent angel investor with a background in music technology – including working for Shazam, Pandora, and Universal Music – who founded the AI music startup Musiio (which was sold to SoundCloud in 2022)
Alex Heerema, an investment manager at venture capitalists Ascension (one of the UK’s most active early-stage VC firms), who is responsible for sourcing and evaluating tech opportunities across Ascension’s sector-agnostic funds
Jane Theaker, a consultant from SpinXperts, who has extensive experience in healthcare and pharma commercialisation, life science R&D spinouts, and other innovation-led investment opportunities
James Butcher, a serial entrepreneur with a background in retail and manufacturing tech (who is also one of Lancashire’s most active Fhunded Angels early-stage investors)
Sarah Barber, managing partner at early-stage capital investment firm Jenson Funding Partners which has invested over £26 million in more than 140 businesses since being founded in 2012
Toby Biollo, an investment director from HSBC Innovation Banking (HSBC’s specialist division which supports high-growth businesses in the tech and innovation space), who has also worked for global investment bank TD Securities, and Lloyds Banking Group
And if that wasn’t enough, it has just been confirmed that the host of this year’s LIFT festival will be Jonny Clark.
CEO of Capital Enterprise, the UK’s leading not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping startups, Jonny is himself a distinguished angel investor, a founding member of the Baltic Ventures accelerator, and the man who helped bring the global tech investment conference Slush’D to the North West in 2024.
In addition, Fhunded’s own VC investment consultant, Kiran Mehta, will be hosting a LIFT investor fireside chat (and if you’re not familiar with Kiran’s candid observations regarding founders and finance, you can read some of his most recent insights here).
With many more LIFT speakers still to be announced for the full one-day festival, tickets are already selling. If you’re quick, you might still be able to get one at the bargain early-bird price of just £19.50 (which also includes lunch, parking and booking fee), but you can only get them via Skiddle here.
To keep up to date with all things LIFT 26, we also recommend you follow Innovate Lancashire on LinkedIn.
