Official UK procurement notice
DfE Invest NI - Successor pre seed and seed fund and Proof of Concept grant fund
Authority: DfE: Invest NI (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionInvest NI would like to procure a fund manager to deliver the following services on its behalf: Manage a Successor pre seed and seed equity fund for an initial period of ten years (with scope to extend by a maximum of five years to allow an orderly exit from the equity investments) to undertake a total investment of £48m in the NI market with an associated management fee of a maximum of £10.3m over 10 years. Investments will be made in the form of equity securities, mainly ordinary shares but can include preference shares or instruments convertible into ordinary/ preference shares. If the fund is extended beyond the 10 years, Invest NI will negotiate with the fund manager in relation to additional fees and Manage a Proof of Concept (POC) grant fund for a period of six years to undertake total investment of £7.2m in the NI market with an associated maximum fee of £900k plus VAT. A legal contract, by way of a Limited Partnership Agreement (LPA) and a Management Service Agreement (MSA) will govern the ten-year contract to deliver the successor fund. There will be a separate Grant Management Agreement for the POC grant fund. Please see Tender documents for full details.
CPV: Banking and investment services · Corporate finance and venture capital services · Credit granting services · Financial and insurance services · Investment banking services and related services · Micro-credit granting services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedWhat it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (9)
- Personnel Experience of Executive 1,2,3 and 4: 14.95%
- Management of the Successor Seed Capital Fund and the POC Grant Fund: 11.7%
- Personnel Recruitment: 3.9%
- Marketing Strategy Development: 7.15%
- Venture Capital Development, links to potential private investors: 9.1%
- Engagement with Invest NI: 3.9%
- Governance: 3.9%
- General Partner's share and the POC Grant Management Fee: 35%
- Social Value: 10.4%
Published award criteria (9)
- Personnel Experience of Executive 1,2,3 and 4: 14.95
- Management of the Successor Seed Capital Fund and the POC Grant Fund: 11.7
- Personnel Recruitment: 3.9
- Marketing Strategy Development: 7.15
- Venture Capital Development, links to potential private investors: 9.1
- Engagement with Invest NI: 3.9
- Governance: 3.9
- Social Value: 10.4
- General Partner's share and the POC Grant Management Fee: 35
- Suitability
As detailed in the Tender Documents
- Economic & financial standing
As detailed in the Tender Documents
- Technical & professional ability
As detailed in the Tender Documents
- Staff
- Names and qualifications of delivery staff must be submitted
- Price carries 35 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 3.5 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record · publisher note attached- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Awarded
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 10 Jan 2025, 12:36 GMT
- Last source update
- 12 Mar 2025, 12:02 GMT
- Award evaluation window
- 11 Feb 2025 – …
- Authority reference
ID 5408838- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-008948- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-04cf14Find a Tender
- Performance terms
As detailed in the Tender Documents
- Review procedure
CPD complied with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and incorporated a standstill period (i.e. a minimum of 10 calendar days) at the point information on the award of contract was communicated to tenderers. That notification provided full information on the award decision. This provided time for the unsuccessful tenderers to challenge the award decision before the contract was entered into.
Publisher note: Contract Monitoring. The successful contractor’s performance on the contract will be regularly monitored in line with the tender documentation. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance and the contract may be terminated. The issue of a Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance can result in the Contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of three years from the date of issue.
How it was run
Official noticeTender documents are also served through a separate tool: https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps ↗
- Submission deadline
- 11 Feb 2025, 15:00 GMT
- Submission channel
- {"electronicSubmission"}
- Accepted languages
- en
- Bids opened
- 11 Feb 2025, 15:30 GMT
Timeline
11 Feb 2025 → 12 May 2025 · 4 dates- Submission deadline11 Feb 2025, 15:00 GMT
- Bids opened11 Feb 2025, 15:30 GMT
- Notice published12 Mar 2025, 12:02 GMT
- Bids must remain valid until12 May 2025, 23:59 BST
Notice history
1 event · 2 releases on Find a Tender- Status changed to complete12 Mar 2025, 12:02 GMT
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| TECHSTART VENTURES LLPSMEContract | £10,300,000 † | — | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract · TECHSTART VENTURES LLPSME
- Signed
- 7 Mar 2025
- Value
- £10,300,000
- Status
- active
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1bids · 1 electronic · 1 from abroad | 1 | — | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Dispute resolution & review bodies
- The UK does not have any such bodies with responsibility for appeal/mediation procedures. Instead; any challenges are dealt with by the High Court, Commercial Division, to which proceedings may be issued regarding alleged breaches of the PCR 2015 as amendedReview body
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- TECHSTART VENTURES LLPAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications
Official links; attachments are not copiedNo document links were published on the notice.