Anthony Clarke Chairman of BBAA and CEO of Angel Capital Group Explains BBAA Winter Investment Workshop

Online, January 30, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Despite the gloomy economic forecasts, 2012 promises to be a landmark year for the further growth and significance of Angel investing, and offers a vital opportunity to ensure that there is a connected environment for financing enterprise in the UK. This was the theme of the Winter Investment Workshop hosted at NESTA on 26th January attended by over 120 representatives from the Angel and early stage investment marketplace who heard from over 20 expert speakers and panellists. Key players in the financial industry spoke at the event including Angela Knight CEO of the British Bankers' Association, Mark Florman, CEO of BVCA and Stephen Welton, heading up the new £2.5bn Business Growth Fund, who all emphasised the importance of creating a continuum of finance to support business growth and their intention to work in partnership with the BBAA to strengthen the role of Angel investing going forward.
The event also provided an opportunity to hear about two major new government-backed initiatives in the angel market to support start-up and early stage investing. The £50m Angel Co-Fund , set up by Capital for Enterprise Ltd and supported under the Regional Growth Fund, offering equity investment of between £100k and £1m alongside angel syndicates willing to invest in start-up and early stage businesses. The new Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, announced by George Osborne in his Autumn Statement which is due to come into operation in April this year, will offer a major incentive of 50% tax relief to investors willing to put £100k seed investment into very early start-up businesses.

"Whilst we will certainly remain in a very challenging economic climate going forward, Angel investment in 2011 has continued to be the most important source of capital for start-up and early stage businesses and we are pleased that this has been recognised by the Government through the introduction of the new SEIS scheme and the new Angel CoFund which will be two major catalysts in the market place during 2012" said Anthony Clarke, Angel Capital Group CEO incorporating London Business angels ( LBA) and Chair of BBAA. "The year ahead should also be one of closer integration of all the sources of finance for enterprise and, notably, BBAA will be strengthening its links with the banks, working closely with the British Bankers' Association and the Business Growth Fund. We wish to ensure that there is a connected market place for companies to access the right finance at the right stage to grow their business".

Nick Forrest, Director, Economics at PwC, set the scene at the event with an economic overview. He saw low growth as the "new normal" for the economy for the next few years to which investors would need to acclimatise. Hugh Campbell from GP Bullhound reviewed potential opportunities for investing against this economic background. He felt that e-commerce and notably m-commerce would continue to show strong growth through the socialisation of the web and that tech businesses are likely to remain a strong area for investment, but cautioned against expectation of significant exits for angel investors. Jon Moulton, Chairman of Better Capital and as one of the most experienced angel investors in the UK echoed this view on the climate for investing in 2012, and said in a time of flat growth, patient angel investing offered the best opportunity.

In a session moderated by Guy Rigby of Smith & Williamson, three entrepreneurs, James Dunning, Syrinix Ltd; Henry Becket Olly Ltd and Neil Gandhi, QuickStart Global Ltd told their stories of the challenges and opportunities in accessing investment to grow their business and the success they have achieved through using smart angel money.

The workshop also explored new non-traditional sources of financing entrepreneurs. Speakers included, Ian Merricks, Accelerator Academy, Toby Reid from BioCity in Nottingham, John Spindler from Capital Enterprise, Jon Bradford from Springboard and Ignite 100, Darren Westlake from Crowdcube and Anil Stocker from MarketInvoice. It was agreed that it was important to ensure these new models effectively interface with angel and early stage investing so that entrepreneurs can successfully access all relevant sources of finance to meet their needs.