Most business start-ups fail. But countless failed entrepreneurs go on to establish further enterprises. Biographies of Apple co-founder and many-times-over millionaire Steve Jobs are best-sellers. The narrative of his life with its drama of highs and lows, friendships and fallings-out, makes compelling reading for anyone interested in what drives a human being to risk all in pursuing a dream. In his PhD research, my friend Dr Keith Cotterill, examined attitudes to failure in Cambridge, Munich and Silicon Valley. Read more about his findings here Down but not out | University of Cambridge,
Read more →A sum of £1 million has been injected into six SMEs by the London Business Angels (LBA) alongside other co-investments of around £4.5 million. The six companies backed by the private angels network includes trunk mains monitoring company Syrinx, which is backed by LBA as part of a £2 million round, and Liverpool-based nasogastric feeding tube business Westco Medical, which has secured a £146,000 Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) commitment. LBA is part of Angel Capital Group and is also a founding member of the British Business Angels Association. A portion,
Read more →More than £1million has been invested in start-ups through online equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs in just nine months. Seedrs was set up last year as a platform for entrepreneurs to raise funds from small investors in return for equity in their business. As bank funding to smaller firms dries up – figures show it fell £4.8billion in the first quarter of this year – demand for alternative sources of finance has soared, with £700,000 invested via Seedrs in the past three months alone. So far 21 start-ups have received up
Read more →Recent research shows that 232 companies in the technology sector were backed with £1.01 billion from 248 investors during 2012. The venture capital outlay is a significant rise from figures recorded in 2011 when 193 businesses were supported with £788 million from 228 backers. Statistics from 2012 represent the largest recorded since 2008 when a similar amount was injected. Before that, bigger amounts are not found until 2001 numbers are examined. The biggest investment of the year saw Tamar Energy backed by a large syndicate of investors including the Duchy
Read more →Funding Circle, a lending website set up to make it easier for firms to access finance, will from tomorrow double to £1 million the size of loans that businesses can apply for. Last week it began lending £20 million allocated to it by the Government under the Business Finance Partnership. It also has plans to increase further the size of loans that firms can apply for. The site, which was set up in August 2010, connects individual investors with businesses looking to borrow. Investors, whose money is pooled across several firms to
Read more →When a frustrated small businessman wrote to Sir Mervyn King recently to complain about the difficulty of raising a £10,000 loan to buy a van, he got a surprising reply. The Governor of the Bank of England sympathised about the “maddening” credit decisions of our big high street banks and urged the businessman to try a new lender instead, specifically suggesting Handelsbanken. Handelsbanken? It was a remarkable endorsement for the Swedish bank, which is little-known in Britain but is building a base of business customer fans disenchanted with the mainstream.
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