TMT start-ups set to benefit from £440m investment boost

By on May 20, 2013   /   Blog Post, business, Investment, SEIS   /   Leave a comment
TMT start-ups set to benefit from £440m investment boost

TMT start-ups are set to benefit from a £440million investment in the Government agency for innovation and growth – the Technology Strategy Board. Every pound invested by the board returns £7 to the economy by helping TMT start-ups to develop and bring ideas to market, according to research carried out for the agency. Digital Shoreditch, which starts today in East London’s Tech City, was founded 3 years ago with the backing of the board.   The annual technology festival, the brainchild of Kam Star who also founded games firm Playgen,

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Crowdcube values itself at £7.1 million after ‘world record’ three-day fundraising

By on May 13, 2013   /   Blog Post, business, Crowdfunding, Investment, PE/VC   /   Leave a comment
Crowdcube values itself at £7.1 million after ‘world record’ three-day fundraising

Crowdcube has raised £1.5 million through what it describers as a new world record for funds raised via an equity crowdfunding platform.  Founded in February 2011, Crowdcube allows businesses to showcase themselves and secure growth capital from a large group of investors. Crowdcube says it first set out to raise £250,000 but, having raised that within the first five hours, made it live for a further three days to raise the rest of the amount. In total, 259 investors contributed to the round. When Crowdcube last tried to raise capital through

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EIS and SEIS failing on awareness and eligibility fronts

By on May 8, 2013   /   Blog Post, business, Investment   /   Leave a comment

The Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme are failing to register on the radar of UK entrepreneurs, despite having been around since 1994 and 2012 respectively. Entrepreneurs are not up to scratch with details, and also don’t know the basics. A quarter of British entrepreneurs have not heard of the Enterprise Investment Scheme EIS, new figures show.   A recent study found that 25 per cent of business builders have not heard of the funding incentive, and 35 per cent are not aware of the EIS tax relief available to

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Down but not out

By on April 30, 2013   /   Blog Post, business   /   Leave a comment

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,

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Six new deals for London Business Angels as the network uses EIS and SEIS schemes

By on April 23, 2013   /   Blog Post, business, Investment, PE/VC   /   Leave a comment

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,

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More than £1m invested in start-ups through crowdfunding platform Seedrs in just 9 months

By on April 23, 2013   /   Blog Post, business, Investment   /   Leave a comment

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

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UK tech venture capital deals reach new high as total invested Reaches £1Bn in 2012

By on April 23, 2013   /   Blog Post, PE/VC   /   Leave a comment

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

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Funding Circle doubles the size of loans offered to businesses | This is Money

By on April 12, 2013   /   Blog Post, business   /   Leave a comment

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

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The Swedish bank that brought back the bank manager | The Times

By on April 12, 2013   /   Blog Post, business   /   Leave a comment

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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How mezzanine finance can help ambitious SMEs to grow

By on March 20, 2013   /   Blog Post, business   /   Leave a comment

SMEs are vital to the health of the UK economy and fast-growth businesses, in particular, play an important role in driving growth and creating new jobs. However, it’s these businesses, the ones with the potential to grow rapidly, that often find it the most difficult to obtain the funding they require. Business owners need finance in order to invest but they want to retain control of their business and not give up valuable equity. It’s a difficult situation for any ambitious entrepreneur. For companies with annual turnover of between £500,000

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