Will Schaffer

Will Schaffer is an Investment Director on Mercia Ventures' Yorkshire-based equity team. He joined Mercia in 2018 as an Investment Manager and was later promoted to Investment Director. His work centres on the origination and execution of deals for the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF and its successor NPIF II), providing growth capital to trading SMEs across the North of England. He also serves on the Mercia O2 Committee, and since joining the fund he has been involved with roughly 15 companies.

Originally from the greater Chicago area, Schaffer brings a corporate-finance background spanning both the US and UK. Before Mercia he spent more than six years in corporate finance as an M&A specialist, including a role at The McLean Group in Washington DC — where he advised tech-focused mid-market companies serving the aerospace, defence, government/intelligence and healthcare sectors — and at KPMG Corporate Finance in Leeds (roughly 2015–2017). Earlier in his career he worked as a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC, supporting figures including former US Defense Secretary Dr. Harold Brown.

In his final year at KPMG, Will was seconded to NorthInvest, where he helped build an angel investor network and support ecosystem for tech startups across the North of England — experience that continues to inform his work connecting founders with angel capital. He holds a History degree from Princeton University. He relocated to the UK in 2015 when his wife took up a PhD scholarship at the University of Leeds, and is a former competitive swimmer who once competed at the US Olympic Trials.

• Invests primarily through NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance, writing cheques of roughly £100,000 to £2.0m into Northern SMEs.
• Particular interest in cybersecurity, defence, and B2B SaaS and services, alongside broader high-growth tech and digital businesses.
• Places heavy weight on team quality: *"For us, team is especially important. We have a dedicated portfolio resourcing team which can help founders to fill both executive and non-executive positions."*
• Motivated by technical excellence and ambition: *"I'm always inspired by talented technical teams and seek out founders with a drive to deliver an industry step-change."*
• Believes investors add non-cash value through experience and networks, not just capital, and wants founders who can articulate the "why" behind their proposition.
• Views funding as a progression — personal savings → friends & family → angels → SEIS/EIS funds → VC → regional schemes like NPIF — and typically plans ~12 months ahead, with deals taking roughly six months from first contact to completion.