# Ian Richards

> Ian Richards is a funding round investor at Northstar Ventures backing Software and SaaS. See 8 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Northstar Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/northstar-ventures)
- Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- Total investments: 8
- Last investment: Nov 2024
- Lead investor: 25%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ian-richards/b/16a/567

Ian Richards is a funding round investor at Northstar Ventures in Newcastle Upon Tyne focused on Software and SaaS. Ian joined Northstar Ventures in 2007 with responsibility for the investment portfolio across all funds. He became a director of the company in 2010, and now additional oversees the Proof of Concept Fund. Before joining Northstar Ventures, Ian worked for NatWest Bank and 3i. Contact: ian@northstarventures.co.uk

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 2 | 25% |
| SaaS | 1 | 13% |
| Energy | 1 | 13% |
| Billing | 1 | 13% |
| Charity | 1 | 13% |

13 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Funding Round | 2 | 25% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 2 | 25% |
| Seed | 1 | 13% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 13% |
| Series A | 1 | 13% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Positive Support For You | Positive Support For You is a social enterprise dedicated to empowering adults with learning disabilities, providing tailored support to help them achieve greater independence, confidence, and inclusion in society. | $190K |  | Nov 14, 2024 |  |
| One Utility Bill | One Utility Bill offers a simple way to pay anyone's bills. One Utility Bill Limited develops software that enables letting agents to create, quote, and sell bill packages for their properties and residential tenants. It serves various energy providers, such as electricity, gas, and water providers; and TV license and broadband providers. | $2.1M |  | Apr 07, 2021 |  |
| One Utility Bill | One Utility Bill offers a simple way to pay anyone's bills. One Utility Bill Limited develops software that enables letting agents to create, quote, and sell bill packages for their properties and residential tenants. It serves various energy providers, such as electricity, gas, and water providers; and TV license and broadband providers. | $2.2M | Series A | Apr 07, 2021 |  |
| One Utility Bill | One Utility Bill offers a simple way to pay anyone's bills. One Utility Bill Limited develops software that enables letting agents to create, quote, and sell bill packages for their properties and residential tenants. It serves various energy providers, such as electricity, gas, and water providers; and TV license and broadband providers. | $2.1M | Venture - Series Unknown | Apr 23, 2020 |  |
| Footy.com | Footy.com is a online sportswear platform. FOOTY.COM helps customers throughout the UK, Europe and the USA get the best pricing for trainers, football boots, football kits and sports clothing, providing access to thousands of products. | $2M | Venture - Series Unknown | Apr 07, 2020 |  |
| Oak Engage | Oak is a simple, cloud-based software solution designed to create the ultimate employee experience and help employers get the most out of their people. Oak is used across a variety of industries by businesses and organisations looking to connect their workforce. They work with some of the world’s biggest brands to help them achieve record levels ofemployee engagement and business connectivity. From Five Guys to Aldi, ITV to River Island, Oak's enterprise collaboration software has given their clients the tools they need to bring their teams together and work better as one. | $2.7M | Seed | Jan 30, 2020 |  |
| One Utility Bill | One Utility Bill offers a simple way to pay anyone's bills. One Utility Bill Limited develops software that enables letting agents to create, quote, and sell bill packages for their properties and residential tenants. It serves various energy providers, such as electricity, gas, and water providers; and TV license and broadband providers. | $655K | Pre-Seed | Nov 10, 2016 |  |
| One Utility Bill | One Utility Bill offers a simple way to pay anyone's bills. One Utility Bill Limited develops software that enables letting agents to create, quote, and sell bill packages for their properties and residential tenants. It serves various energy providers, such as electricity, gas, and water providers; and TV license and broadband providers. | $37K | Pre-Seed | Apr 29, 2015 |  |

8 of 8 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [DSW Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dow-schofield-watts-angels) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Maven Capital Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/maven-capital-partners) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Northstar Ventures

VC Fund · Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Northstar Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in innovative solutions to help solve the most pressing societal issues we have today.  Our ticket sizes range from £100k to £500k into early stage tech companies. We provide added value in leveraging our network of university partners, funders, non-executive directors and talent to supporteach investment. We are based in the North East of England and aim to invest in companies that bring talent, jobs and growth to the region

5 contacts available at Northstar Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Alasdair Greig | Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alasdair-greig |
| Ian Richards | Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ian-richards |
| Alex Buchan | Investment Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dr-alex-buchan |
| Dominic Endicott | Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dominic-endicott |
| Emma O’Rourke | Finance Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/emma-orourke |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Bpifrance](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bpifrance) — VC Fund
- [SFC Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/startup-funding-club) — VC Fund
- [HTGF (High-Tech Gruenderfonds)](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/high-tech-gr%C3%BCnderfonds) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Ian Richards invest in?

Ian Richards invests primarily in Software, SaaS and Energy startups, most often at Funding Round and Venture - Series Unknown stage. Most of the 8 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United Kingdom. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Ian Richards last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Ian Richards closed in Nov 2024. Shizune tracks 8 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co