Find out how to strengthen your investment readiness in this interactive workshop as part of the Health Innovation Leeds Incubator series

At the Health Innovation Leeds Incubator Ignition event we asked what support you, our community of innovators, would find most useful to boost business growth.

We're delighted to share a series of workshops that reflect these needs, topics and ambitions.

Providing practical insights for early-stage, scale-ups, and established healthtech businesses, the sessions are designed to be interactive - with plenty of opportunities to connect with peers and experts across industry, academia and the NHS. Attendees will also explore real-life case studies to expand their knowledge and skills. 🧠

Preparing Your Health Innovation for Investment

📆 Thursday 17 December 2026, 9.30am - 12.30pm

📍 Location – Nexus Leeds

This is a two-hour workshop followed by networking and lunch.

ℹ️ About the event

This interactive workshop will help healthtech start-ups and scale-ups understand what investors look for when assessing opportunities to help businesses strengthen their investment readiness.

Using real-life investment scenarios, participants will work through the process with insights from three investors - Northern Gritstone, Mercia Ventures and PXN Group - exploring investment criteria, common pitfalls, and pitch deck development.

There will be an opportunity for a Q&A at the end of the session.

Speakers:

James Gibbons - Investment Director at Northern Gritstone

James is an Investment Director at Northern Gritstone, making venture capital investments into life science companies. He has a background in building, investing in and advising deeptech and lifescience startups and spinouts. His experience spans roles within the pharmaceutical industry, universities and spinning out VC backed companies.

Mattia Scalabrin - Investor at Mercia Ventures

Mattia is an Investor at Mercia Ventures, where he invests in high-growth technology companies across software, deeptech, healthcare, and industrial innovation. A trained scientist by background, Mattia is passionate about helping founders translate complex technology into scalable businesses. He works with entrepreneurs from first funding rounds through to growth and commercialisation, and enjoys sharing practical insights on fundraising, investor expectations, and building venture-backed companies.

Elizabeth Young - Investment Manager at PXN Group

Lizzy is currently an Investment Manager at PXN Group (formerly Par Equity). She previously worked at ACF Investors, a sector-agnostic UK-wide co-investment Fund. Lizzy holds a PhD in Medical Engineering from the University of Leeds, where she researched spinal cord injury via computational simulation. During her PhD, she undertook a secondment to a pre-seed digital health startup and also contributed to the Creator Fund, supporting the Northern pre-seed ecosystem for students and spinouts.

Places will be allocated on a first come first serve basis, if the workshop is full, you will be added to a waiting list and notified if a place becomes available.

Description supplied by the event organiser.