Member Article

£7.2m in initial investment for the Angel CoFund

£7.2m has been committed to UK SMEs through the completion of the first five investments of the Angel CoFund.

The Government backed, £50m Angel CoFund invests alongside syndicates of business angels into high potential SMEs from across England.

It aims to boost quality and quantity of business angel investing in England to support long-term, high quality jobs in growing companies.

The Angel CoFund is a private sector fund, supported by a grant from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.

Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk, said: “Business angels play a crucial role in supporting new and growing businesses, and the Angel CoFund is helping small firms get the vital funding they need.

“The variety of businesses that are receiving this funding reveals the range of skills and exciting opportunities that are being created today.

“It is absolutely critical that ambitious small firms can access the finance that they need to expand and grow.

“I am delighted to confirm today that five investments, totalling £7.2 million, have been made. The Angel CoFund demonstrates the support that the Government can play in partnership with the UK’s leading business angels, to enable business growth and job creation.”

Investments in each business range from £360,000 to £3.6m, and reflect the wide range of businesses the Angel CoFund can support across stage, sector and location, with £1.4m of funding from the Government helping to secure a further £5.8m from other investors.

The first five investment include, Phase Vision, a Loughborough based company producing high accuracy industrial inspection equipment for the aerospace, nuclear and automotive industries; style-passport.com, a London based women’s online magazine and e-store; Future Drinks, a Bristol based soft drink firm; PlayJam, a London based aggregator of games for internet enabled TVs; and Enval, a Luton based company, building commercial facilities for recovering aluminium from waste laminated packaging.

The fund was established by a consortium of business angel organisations, and expects to invest at least £70m alongside business angels in the next 10 years.

Many of the co-investing angels are taking active roles to support and mentor the businesses, providing valuable industry and financial knowledge.

Rory Earley, CEO of Capital for Enterprise Limited, one of the co-investors said: “The Angel CoFund enables us to work alongside some really high quality people, including successful entrepreneurs, in order to deliver the funding that is so essential to developing high growth businesses.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .