The 21 fund managers who "get" angels and private investor

Angel activity is throbbing, VCTs have more funds under management than ever before and rumours about that EIS and SEIS investment is rocketing.  

If you are a private investor, the chances are that you will have to do business with a VCT or EIS Fund manager at some point in your investment career. So to give you a helping hand here are the 20 VCT and EIS Fund managers (strictly in alphabetical order!) who want to do business with you!

Angel activity is throbbing, VCTs have more funds under management than ever before and rumours about that EIS and SEIS investment is rocketing.  

If you are a private investor, the chances are that you will have to do business with a VCT or EIS Fund manager at some point in your investment career. So to give you a helping hand here are the 20 VCT and EIS Fund managers (strictly in alphabetical order!) who want to do business with you!

• Amati
• Albion
• Boundary Capital
• Calculus
• Deepbridge Capital
• DFJ Esprit
• Foresight
• Guinness Asset Management
• Ingenious Ventures
• Jenson Solutions
• Maven
• Mercia Fund Management
• MMC Ventures
• Octopus
• Oxford Capital Partners
• Oxford Technology
• NVM
• Par Equity
• Reboot Ventures
• Sustainable Technology Investors
• Unicorn Asset Management

The charming and intelligent one stop shop for entrepreneurs and the people who want to fund them

If you are an avid reader of the enterprise press I am sure you will have noticed the positive publicity that new kid on the web blockwww.fundingstore.com has been receiving.

I really like sites that do what they say in the URL.  And to my mind, it's not surprising that Funding Store is getting lots of attention from the press. It is simple to use, FREE (other than to advertise, which not expensive), and as well as featuring opportunities looking for funding, is jam packed with useful information ranging from business and marketing plan templates to around 40 different funding and general business guides. Whether you are an investor, an entrepreneur or a professional adviser this is one website to "Add to Favourites".

Why?  Well the platform is dead easy to navigate and has definitely been designed to be a one stop shop with a degree of granularity that is spot on.  If you search for a professional adviser for example, you will not only find their address, you will also see a map;  if you are looking at a funding opportunity you will see details of the management team who are in place, and the roles the company still needs to fill. 

The whole tone of the site reflects the character of its founding team led by the charming and intelligent duo Nick Montague and Chris Ellis.   

The site has not lost the opportunity to be quirky either.  I particularly liked the blog post which included an infographic on which country backs its entrepreneurs the most (The Republic of Korea in case you wanted to know!).  Quite apart from being an easy to use data base of information, I think it will be these sort of stories that will drive people back to the platform time and again. 

People are obviously already paying attention to Funding Store - of the 20 companies on the platform which have posted funding proposals, 3 have already been successful.  Other funding proposals that are currently live include everything from a Cotswold hotel to innovative technology to protect contactless cards.  This is definitely not just a site for start ups - several of the businesses are well established with turnover ranging from the £100,000s to low £millions.  
There is no need to register before you look, so there is no reason not to check it out as soon as possible.

To find out more go to www.fundingstore.com

An ambitious company you need to know about if you - LIKE THE BEATLES!

In this new section of the AngelNewsletter we will draw your attention to an ambitious company that has caught our eye.

The Beatles - and the new media film revolution through the eyes of Future Artists

21st century audiences are hungry for diverse and thought provoking content - Look at the success of the TED talk series, coupled with intelligent entertainment like 'Breaking Bad' and a cheeky 'meme' humour.  That is what Future Artists is all about.

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. Frank Zappa.

This quote is at the heart of everything Future Artists does.  It is an Independent film and media company that produces award winning, thought provoking film and media content, and is also a major educator for the north of England's creative economy, providing consultancy and training services to the region's universities and private sector.

Future Artists, with a fan network of over 250,000 people, is about to release feature film number three. 'The Lost Generation', has licensed cult 80s TV character Pob for a web series, and has signed a 12 picture deal with Dailymotion and a two channel partnership deal with Youtube - along with its innovative content distribution network and business model.

But it is not stopping there.  It is now working on a fan enabled Beatles project, telling the story of the Hamburg Beatles from 1960 to 1962 - it has all its interviewees in place, a massive fan base ready to help out and full support from the city of Liverpool and The Cavern Club.  Do you want to get involved?

Find out more at http://www.futureartists.co.uk or [email protected]

5 Things the crowd can teach angels...

1. There is no excuse for an entrepreneur not to be fully "ready for investment" when you first meet them
2. Fundraisings can be completed in a few days or weeks; it does not have to take months
3. Angel investing is no longer the preserve of a minority
4. It's cheaper to adopt a "spray and pray" investment strategy with £1,000-£3,000 a deal than with £10,000-£25,000 a deal;
5. Companies with 100s of "customer investors" are worth more than companies just with investors; in many sectors, companies that are highly visible on the web are worth more than companies that skulk around looking for funding

And 5 things angels can teach the crowd!

1. Entrepreneurs can find fundraising addictive; expect the companies you invest in to come back to you for further rounds of investment again.. and maybe again and again
2. Post investment involvement is a good and necessary thing
3. Lemons ripen before plums
4. Always look under the bonnet, not just at the fancy paintwork
5. Just because the fundraising was quick doesn't mean you won't have to wait for your exit

Amati Global Investors' thoughts on Government consultation on enhanced share buybacks for VCTs.

By Paul Jourdan

It was clear earlier in the budget statement in March that the government had become concerned about the ways in which VCTs were using a mechanism which has come to be known as enhanced share buybacks ("ESBBs").  This refers to a situation where a VCT offers to buy back shares from investors on more favourable terms than are otherwise available on the condition that investors commit to use the proceeds to make a new investment in the VCT. 

In the past this was used mainly by VCTs which continually make new qualifying investments, so there was little difference in practical terms whether the money raised was from new investors, or from investors who were "recycling" their holdings.  The facility was offered without being pushed at investors, and we believe it was used mainly by investors who were planning to sell in any case.  What mattered was that the investors were committing to a new minimum five year holding period, and this enabled the VCT to continue to make further long-term investments in early-stage enterprises.  However, over the last two years a number of limited life or asset backed VCTs adopted ESBBs, and did so with a far more aggressive approach, both in marketing terms and in using a method called "cascading" to avoid the need to make any new investments with the money raised.  This was always likely to be unacceptable to HMT.   

The proposed solution is to introduce new rules to impose time restrictions around selling and re-investing in VCTs to make this process much more difficult, risky, and expensive for shareholders.   The AIC has endorsed this approach.  However, there are some dangers with it: 

• The consultation paper argues that ESBBs have focussed investors' minds on the minimum holding period.  This is mistaking cause and effect.  Since the end of capital gains tax deferral relief for VCTs in 2004 a significant proportion of investors have been very clearly focussed on the minimum holding period, and that is what gave rise to the limited life segment of the VCT industry.  Limited life VCTs only began around 2005.  By 2006 they had gathered assets of £187m, and in April 2013 this had reached £724m, which is 25% of all VCT funds *.  We don't believe that the proposed rule changes will stop a portion of investors wanting to sell VCT holdings at the end of their qualifying period.
• Currently one of the major benefits of VCTs over EIS investments (which are much more expensive for the government) is the simplicity of the rules from the retail investor's point of view.  The proposed rule changes diminish this advantage, and will cause confusion about how long investors in VCTs are expected to hold their shares for.  Some will inevitably fall foul of the rules inadvertently. 
• ESBBs originated during the financial crisis, and were an important tool for some VCTs in maintaining their ability to make new investments during such turmoil, when such investments were doubly important.  In the buoyant markets of today it's easy to forget about what happens at the bottom of an investment cycle.

As a result we favour the alternative approach hinted at in the consultation paper of introducing a direct link for VCTs between money raised and the amount of money which must be invested in qualifying holdings, regardless of whether these investments are made from old or new pools of money. This would be simple to monitor. We believe that many VCT investors would be surprised that it doesn't exist already.  It would prevent the abuse of ESBBs, meaning that the same level of qualifying investments would be made whether money was raised from new investors or from ESBBs.  It would also serve to regulate the payment of dividends to a proportionate level, an issue which has also been flagged in the paper. 

*Figures from David Cartwright's presentation at the AIC's VCT Conference 2013 on 21 May 2013.

"Dr Paul Jourdan is the CEO of Amati Global investors.  He co-founded Amati Global Investors following the management buyout of Noble Fund Managers from Noble Group in January 2010, . His fund management career begin in 1998 with Stewart Ivory, where he gained experience in UK, emerging market, and global equities. In 2000 Stewart Ivory was taken over by First State and Paul became manager of what is now TB Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund. In 2004 he was appointed Head of UK Equities at First State. In early 2005 he launched what is now Amati VCT plc and he also manages Amati VCT 2 after the investment management contract moved to Amati Global Investors in 2010. Prior to 1998 Paul worked as a professional violinist, including a four year period with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He currently serves as a Director of Fox Marble plc, a portfolio company of the Amati VCTs, of Hebrides Ensemble and of Sistema Scotland, and also as a Governor of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Business Accelerator Sales Training day

Join Nicola Cook, Lara Morgan and some wickedly talented proven Sales Enterprise Growth experts....

plus many other heads of growing, aspirational businesses from across the UK & Europe.

Sales are the lifeblood of every organization. Ready to scale organizations will benefit from learning how to prepare well for growth acceleration, from improved recruitment to protect your culture, to rewards planning and targeted sales focus we will provide massive value to those that are nervous of the impact of letting go, delegating, and driving the sales engine.

In central London, on October 16th Lara and her team have crafted a radical sales accelerated learning agenda, the Business Accelerator conference - a priceless, demanding, full-on sales growth focus day to be delivered by experts in sales, and complemented with anecdotal stories delivered by some of the most successful entrepreneurs we rarely have the chance to ask direct questions to.

It is an amazing line-up of speakers including Phil Jones, Country Head & Deputy Managing Director, Brother UK, Jamie Edwards creator of Mental Ketchup, Matt Garman Founder of Sales+Profit and Taavet Hinrikus, Founder of Transferwise as well as Lara Morgan and Nicola Cook themselves.

They have very kindly offered a special discount just for our readers and if you use the promotional code BAPS20 on the booking page you will receive a further 20% discount off the advertised ticket price.

They have set up the day to attract only those really passionate about learning about sales growth. Most conferences only offer either inspirational anecdotal stories, or a full on training day delivered by experts. The Company Shortcuts Business Accelerator conferences are different. They combine a whole host of exceptional business leaders with expert speakers who are all going to share how you too can apply there 4 steps to Sales Secrets accelerated business model.

General Manager of companyshortcuts, Lara's business partner Nicola Cook, is an award winning entrepreneur and twice published international best selling author. She has teamed up with Lara Morgan (who successfully grew the 57th fastest growing company in Britain) to deliver an exceptional sales event. The whole day will engage and drive sales professionalism, pride and fast growth acceleration into enterprise companies giving massive take away and actionable value.

Click here to view the full event line-up

The programme is designed to offer you value before, during and after our event so in addition to your conference ticket Company Shortcuts are also giving you;

• Added value pre-event downloads that will get you thinking before you arrive
• A weirdly original comprehensive delegate pack to use during the day
• 25 complimentary downloadable & adaptable unbranded Company Shortcuts frameworks that take the headache out of you having to design any processes yourself, we've already done the leg-work for you
• A complimentary copy of Lara's book 'More balls than most'
• A complimentary copy of Nicola's book 'The Secrets of Success in Selling'
• 30 days worth of complimentary KUTA (Kick up the arse) daily action texts which act as a daily reminder to kick arse!
• 30days worth of complimentary membership to their online Aim High Business Network which is an additional resource and community to tap into
• and if you book quickly you can also qualify for a complimentary FREE guest ticket

Click here to view the full event line-up and visit the event micro-site

Lara tells us that on the day they intend to enliven the audience and engage continually. They have plans to make sure you interact and will inject you (nearly literally) with energy boosts, ideas, tips and thought provoking challenges to ensure you gain exceptional value. They have even more surprises, some wicked action-orientated tools and bonuses to give away during the day.

Book now, before the price goes up.

The Earlybird price which saves 20% off the full ticket entry, is available for a limited time only, so we recommend you grab your place now.

And remember use the promotional code BAPS20 on the booking page you will receive a further 20% discount off the advertised ticket price.

This promises to be an exceptional event (we wouldn't be endorsing it if we didn't believe so!). Britain needs to learn to sell more in order to accelerate the pace of growth and we believe you will massively gain from this experience. Your investment of one day and the small ticket price for attending is frankly a no brainer - the payback when you apply this learning and are inspired by those around you sharing their challenges and successes will more than reap a return on investment.

Here's the link again to again to Book your ticket now.