Developed in collaboration with Haatch, a UK-based venture capital firm that specialises in backing early-stage innovative businesses, LVIN strengthens opportunities for founders to secure investment and support during the critical pre-seed and seed stages of growth.
LVIN has been created to bring together credible, Loughborough-linked ventures seeking investment with investors affiliated with Loughborough University, including alumni, who are interested in backing emerging businesses.
The Network builds on Loughborough’s strong track record of supporting founders through a variety of programmes providing access to valuable expertise, mentoring and professional networks designed to help transform new ideas into successful businesses which secure investment, create jobs and generate impact.
LVIN provides a new route for founders to access the capital needed to accelerate this development and future growth, and a new and exciting way for alumni to engage with the University.
Addressing the early-stage funding gap
Innovative startups and spinouts typically struggle to secure investment in their earliest stages, despite having strong growth potential and the ability to bring new products and services to market. This funding gap can slow development and limit opportunities for businesses to scale. LVIN was established to address this challenge by attracting and leveraging investment from outside the University. By unlocking early-stage funding, the Network will help founders to validate their product, enter into new markets, and scale their solutions quickly and effectively, while strengthening Loughborough’s position as a leading institution for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Supporting innovation across the Loughborough community
With Loughborough already supporting a wide range of businesses through its entrepreneurial and innovation programmes, LVIN is a natural extension of the University’s work. It solves the last mile challenge of securing funding for high growth startups. Among the ventures emerging from the University’s ecosystem are BidScript, which uses artificial intelligence to help organisations improve bids and tenders for public and private sector contracts; https://www.motimefamily.com/, a physiotherapy-focused product supporting children with learning and movement disabilities; and https://www.adclear.ai/, an alumni-founded company whose AI-powered financial promotions (FinProm) compliance platform is trusted by many of the UK’s leading banks and fintechs, including Lloyds Banking Group. In creating stronger links between investors and innovative founders, LVIN will help to attract additional investment into the wider Loughborough ecosystem.
How the Network works
Investors can apply to join LVIN and receive a curated selection of investment opportunities on a quarterly basis. Opportunities are identified and forwarded by an expert Nominatingons Panel, whose remit is to ensure that the ventures presented to members have been critically assessed and are investible. A range of opportunities will be put forward, reflecting the diverse nature of the startups and spinouts emerging from Loughborough’s ecosystem. Members then indicate which opportunities they are interested in. When sufficient interest is expressed, investors are invited to deploy funds through Haatch, an FCA-regulated alternative fund manager specialising in pre-seed and seed-stage investment. Haatch then manages deployed funds and provides investors with update on the performance of their investment portfolio through an intuitive platform.
A collaborative University initiative
The launch of LVIN reflects successful collaboration across multiple areas of the University. The initiative has been developed through close partnership between Student Services, the Research and Innovation Office (RIO) and Philanthropy, Alumni and Supporter Engagement (PASE), with additional support from the Finance, Legal and Marketing teams.
By connecting investors with ambitious founders and innovative businesses, LVIN aims to become an opportunity for entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of their businesses and strengthen the University's reputation as a hub for innovation-led investment. For alumni and supporters, LVIN offers direct engagement with innovative, Loughborough-linked businesses at an early stage of their growth journey. Members can also use their professional expertise and networks to support emerging founders, helping shape the next generation of entrepreneurial success stories connected to the University.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Nick Jennings said:
“The launch of LVIN and our partnership with Haatch is incredibly exciting. It is integral to us being able to drive forward an inclusive, innovation-led community at Loughborough – something which is a key priority in our Strategy. We are passionate about nurturing emerging businesses, and being able to connect early-stage founders with alumni and University supporters will accelerate both growth for the businesses and the development of the University’s innovation ecosystem.”
Jonathan Keeling, Partner at Haatch, added:
"The hardest money to raise is the first cheque, and it's usually raised in a closed room. Universities like Loughborough are producing exactly the kind of founders who should be in that room, and there's a community of alumni who would genuinely back them if anyone made the introduction properly. That's all LVIN is: a way of connecting the two, with real diligence in between and real support after the money lands. We're not here to be another fund on a list. We're here because this is how early-stage investing should have worked all along.”