YNY Equity Hub
Download: The Business Sign-Up Guide / The Investor Sign-Up Guide.
The YNY Equity Platform is hosted by the York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub.
We know finding the right financing can be a challenge for many SMEs and start-ups in our area, and is often a key barrier to growth within our region. The YNY Equity Hub has been designed to address this barrier, offering a user-friendly portal where businesses can effectively present their investment opportunities and highlight their growth potential to investors nationwide.
Our goal is to help businesses secure the essential capital they need to grow and reach a stage where accessing traditional finance and equity becomes much easier. The platform is aimed at businesses already located in York and North Yorkshire or looking to relocate here.
Are you ready for investment?
Download our free cashflow forecast and business plan templates now.
You can also download the relevant pitch deck template; Pre-Seed Pitch Deck or SME Pitch Deck.
Learn more about making your business investment-ready
Across Part 1 & 2, these resources provide a well-rounded guide to running your business, from tax to resilience.
Jo Tomlinson is a qualified Management Accountant, certified QuickBooks Advanced ProAdvisor, Making Tax Digital ProAdvisor and 1 of only 11 Certified QuickBooks Trainers’ that work on behalf of QuickBooks, training accountants across the UK.
Part 1 covers:
🌍 Pricing for Maximum Profit
🌍 Owning a Business: an introduction to what you need to know
🌍 Financial Management – do you know your numbers?
🌍 What is a Tax Deductible Expense?
🌍 Associated Companies
🌍 VAT registration and the rules of VAT
Part 2 covers:
🌎 Risk and Resilience in Your Business
🌎 Making Tax Digital
🌎 Accessing Capital for Growth
🌎 Forecasting
🌎 How much is your Business Worth
🌎 Selling some or all of the shares
🌎 Shared ownership
🌎 Profitability
🌎 Project Evaluation
🌎 Tax planning – Directors Loans and Dividends
🌎 Cash flow v Profit and loss
For each of the subjects, we have a webinar recording and companion blog available.
Is your IP portfolio ready to impress investors or is it holding you back?
For early-stage businesses, intellectual property is often the most valuable asset on the table. Yet many founders underestimate how closely investors scrutinize IP during due diligence. Delivered by experienced Patent Attorney Melvyn Ansell, this session will explore how to turn your IP into a powerful lever for funding, valuation, and long-term growth.
From unclear ownership and weak protections to misaligned strategies and disorganized documentation, Melvyn will unpack the red flags that raise eyebrows and how to fix them. He will walk through 10 actionable strategies to build a clean, aligned, and defensible IP portfolio that inspires investor confidence.
Whether you are preparing for your first funding round or planning your next, this session will help you transform IP due diligence from a legal hurdle into a strategic advantage.
Watch the Intellectual Property (IP) specialist Secerna‘s webinar designed to support early-stage businesses. You will learn why IP matters to investors, the most common pitfalls that derail funding rounds, and how to avoid them.
YNY Equity Hub – FAQs
- Already located in York & North Yorkshire, or looking to relocate here.
- Needing to raise equity investment for the next stage of their growth, minimum £100,000.
- Need to be investment-ready – Download our free cashflow forecast and business plan templates.
- Trading, or ready to go to market.
- Submit your application.
Once received, a member of our team will carefully review it. - We’ll follow up with you.
If everything is in place, we’ll guide you through the final steps before your application goes live to investors. - If the YNY Equity Hub isn’t the right fit,
we’ll recommend alternative resources that better suit your needs.
Following the launch, we’re curating a portfolio of high-potential businesses that will be showcased to investors across the UK.
Please note that applying does not guarantee acceptance onto the platform, nor can we promise that investment will be secured once listed.
The York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub, part of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA), is hosting the York and North Yorkshire Equity Platform (the ”Platform”) in furtherance of its economic development function. The Platform is offered as a resource to both investors and businesses seeking investment free of charge and the YNYCA is not providing the Platform in the course of business.
YNYCA do not offer investment advice to the individual businesses seeking investment nor any financial institution that registers on the platform that wants to review information provided by the individual businesses. The use of the platform of a potential investor or business seeking investment is not and should not be considered a recommendation or endorsement by YNYCA. We strongly advise businesses seeking investment that you seek independent advice from an appropriate, qualified advisor.
YNYCA take no responsibility for the information/forecasts/opinions/drawings/statements or any form of communication provided by the businesses be this through face-to-face pitches, through the Platform or any other form of communication and this information is the sole responsibility of the business concerned.
Curious if equity investment is the right fit for your business? Visit Equity Financing: what it is, how it works, and where to find it | British Business Bank to learn more.
If you’re based in South Yorkshire, you can access the South Yorkshire Equity Platform, here.
Mayor Launches £2.5million Great Ideas Fund
Great Ideas, a new £2.5million programme as part of the Mayor’s Business Innovation Fund, will give businesses the ability to tap into expert advice and grants worth up to £60,000. The initiative will support businesses of all sizes to develop their new ideas for a product or service. It will also support businesses to take a developed idea to the next stage. Businesses with the most investment-ready proposals will take their ideas to a panel of experts from the region.
Business Basics - Forecasting
Although we don’t have a crystal ball, so forecasts are fundamentally informed guesses, businesses need to use them to make informed business decisions and develop business strategies.
York and North Yorkshire farms urged to apply for sustainability funding
Farms and businesses that have had an energy audit can now apply for funding up to £49,950 to help decarbonise their businesses. York and North Yorkshire’s Business Sustainability Programme will help farms and businesses implement changes that have been recommended by the local authority or Grow Yorkshire decarbonisation support programme or one which has been done by a suitable private sector organisation.
YNY Equity Hub Launches to Drive Business Growth in York and North Yorkshire
A new digital platform, the YNY Equity Hub, has launched to boost investment in businesses across York and North Yorkshire by connecting local enterprises with prospective investors from across the UK. Designed to tackle one of the region’s key barriers to growth, the YNY Equity Hub offers a streamlined, user-friendly portal where SMEs and start-ups can showcase their investment opportunities and growth potential.
Profitability
Profit is a measure of a business’s income relative to its expenses. In other words, an organisation’s ability to generate revenue by using resources that it has available, such as people, materials and equipment. Unless you are running a charitable organisation, profit is generally the primary goal of a company. As well as providing income for the owners of a business, profits allow for investment and growth. Whilst revenue growth is generally a positive indicator, we need to understand profitability if a business is to be successful.
Meet your High Street Coordinator: Vibrant and Sustainable High Street Fund
If you’re unsure whether your project idea is a good fit for the Vibrant and Sustainable High Streets fund, have any questions or simply need support, please get in touch with your local High Street Coordinator to discuss your proposal.
Digital Adoption Grant - Apply Now
The Digital Inclusion Capital Grant aims to support businesses to adopt new technologies and resources, in order to increase innovation and productivity. The fund opened for applications on Monday 16 June 2025 and will close at 5pm on Monday 14 July 2025.
YNY Equity Hub: Are you investor ready?
Soon we'll be launching the YNY Equity Hub - take a look at the available resources to ensure you're investor ready. The platform will offer a user-friendly portal where businesses can effectively present their investment opportunities and highlight their growth potential to investors nationwide.
£1.9 million to be invested in making York and North Yorkshire businesses more sustainable
Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith is investing £1.9m of UKSPF funds to help decarbonise businesses in the region.
Successful Applicants Announced For Phase One of Mayor’s High Street Fund
The Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, David Skaith, has announced the successful applicants from Phase One of the Vibrant and Sustainable High Street Fund.
A record 299,419 returns filed in the first week of the new tax year
Self Assessment customers can submit their tax return for the 2024 to 2025 tax year between 6 April 2025, the first day of the new tax year, and the deadline on 31 January 2026.
Innovation Supper - Funding Opportunity
York Business School, Patch York and the Growth Hub are delighted to bring you our first ever Innovation Supper. The basic idea is that we provide some supper, and charge a small entry fee, we then invite local community projects to pitch for the proceeds and hold a vote to select the winner - It’s that simple!
Business Basics Series: Webinar Recordings & Blogs
These resources provide a guide to key subjects such as tax, pricing and all things numbers. Jo Tomlinson is a qualified Management Accountant, certified QuickBooks Advanced ProAdvisor, Making Tax Digital ProAdvisor and 1 of only 11 Certified QuickBooks Trainers’ that work on behalf of QuickBooks, training accountants across the UK.
2022 Seminar Recordings
We have recently hosted a programme of in-person seminars and other events, some of which were professionally recorded and can now be viewed on our website.
Seminar Recording : Access to finance: Funding growth
This workshop will provide guidance on cost based pricing, calculating your costs before deciding an appropriate margin, as well as covering market based pricing asking questions such as: What value do you add? What are you worth? How do you position yourself?
Seminar Recording : Access to finance: Funding growth
This seminar recording with GAP coaching will provide you with a summary of all the commercial funding options available to businesses, with details on how to make your business more attractive to funders.
Featured Webinar Playlist: Finance
A free playlist of webinars focused on finance, including business basics such as forecasting cash flow and setting prices, as well as ways to fund your growth