British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has launched a new £100m Regional Angels Programme designed to help reduce regional imbalances in access to early stage equity finance for smaller businesses across the UK. Such finance can play an important role in funding businesses with growth ambitions.

This new commercial programme aims to address this issue by increasing the availability, supply and awareness of angel and other early-stage equity investments across the country, particularly in areas where this type of finance is less readily available.

HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network), the all-island organisation responsible for the promotion of business angel investment, and a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland and InterTrade Ireland, today announces that its MedTech Syndicate has led a €1.1 million Series A funding round in medical device start-up, Ostoform. HBAN Angels contributed €280,000, with venture capital investor, SOSV, Enterprise Ireland, and other angel investors making up the rest of the funding round.

Dublin-based Ostoform was set up to address the management of a stoma – a small surgical opening on the surface of the abdomen to divert the flow of waste. A common complaint is irritation, redness and discomfort around the skin caused by leaks of the acidic content contacting the skin. Ostoform has developed the Ostoform Seal with FlowAssist. This is a seal that is secured to the skin around the stoma to effectively guide the acidic stoma output into the ostomy bag, thereby preventing it from contacting the skin. 

zJKzCPhxDcY

Entrepreneurs around the UK are opening up about 'imposter syndrome'; feeling like you're failing despite the success of your business, says UKBAA.

Optoscribe, a leading supplier of glass-based integrated photonics components, has raised £2.8 million. This funding will facilitate an expansion of current manufacturing capacity, the hiring of key engineering resource and allow the business to meet the demands of a growing customer base.

An Edinburgh-based startup enabling businesses to gain insight from customer support conversation data has secured £115,000 in seed funding.

NPIF - Maven Equity Finance, managed by Maven Capital Partners and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, has invested £200,000 as part of a £700,000 funding round in Biorelate, a technology platform using artificial intelligence (AI) to efficiently curate data in biomedicine.

Existing investors, Catapult Ventures via the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund, provided £150,000 and the Manchester Tech Trust Angels provided £350,000. The funding will be used to expand the team, and to develop its product offering, including three new SaaS products.

The Invested Investor speaks to angel investor and is a Senior Partner for Frog Capital, Shirin Dehghan

Shirin has a fascinating story about resilience, understanding when to make tough decisions and planning for her company’s sale. Shirin is a successful entrepreneur, having founded and sold Arieso. She is a seasoned angel investor and is a Senior Partner for Frog Capital. In Part 1 of her podcast you will hear how she learnt so much from the pitfall of a lost contract, and how much time and effort she spent to ensure the company was ready for a potential buy-out. This is a truly exciting entrepreneurial story, that includes a tough decision to ask her husband to step down as her CTO in order for the company to succeed in the States.

Angel investment is one of the most notable avenues for capital in the UK. Business angels tend to invest in businesses who are either in the early stages of their growth or in established companies seeking to achieve expansion, in return for equity shares.

Aside from the capital, angel investors offer a wealth of experience and have access to a depth of valuable contacts from a range of industries. Their value is signified by a study conducted by ‘Oxford Economics’, who found businesses that were backed by angels between 2010 - 2015 boasted an astonishing turnover of over £9 billion and contributed £4.5 billion to gross domestic product (GDP).

Interestingly, research conducted by ‘Company Check’ discovered that from 3,000 business owners and entrepreneurs, 38% believed a business plan was the paramount deciding factor in an angel’s intention to invest in a business. After a business plan – they thought sales figures (27%), the founder (15%), business idea itself (9%) and then the economy (8%) were focal in a business angel’s considerations.

The Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Early & Growth Stage Funds have invested €1.7M in Sytorus Ltd, this is in addition to simultaneous investment from Enterprise Ireland and private investors.

A novel anti-bacterial agent which has been developed in Scotland by MGB Biopharma for the treatment of Clostridium difficile infections, is to enter Phase II clinical trials following a newly-completed £1.3m fund raise from existing and new investors, supplementing a £2.7m grant awarded earlier this year by Innovate UK.

Enterprise Investment Partners (EIP) and Start Up Funding Club (SFC) have announced the launch of the SFC SEIS Fund, a new generalist SEIS Fund targeting a portfolio of primarily early stage SEIS companies across all sectors with strong growth and compelling exit prospects.