Angel CoFund portfolio celebrate success at the International Festival of Business

Blu Wireless takes away award at the UKBAA Angel Investment Awards in Liverpool, while Peter Cowley is named Angel Investor of the Year

The Angel CoFund, a £100m Government-backed fund for high-growth British businesses, is today celebrating as Angel CoFund-backed business Blu Wireless was awarded at last night's UKBAA Angel Investment Awards in Liverpool, and Peter Cowley of the Investment Committee was named Angel Investor of the Year. The awards, which were held as part of the two-day UK Business Angels Association ('UKBAA') Investment Summit, recognise both investors and the small businesses they help fund and build. The Angel CoFund, which invests alongside syndicates of business angels, started the night with seven portfolio companies in the running for awards.

Blu Wireless, a silicon IP company developing low cost 60GHz wireless technology, won the award for Best Syndicated Deal of the Year. This comes as a result of their successful $3.1m seed round led by Qi3 Accelerator who represented a syndicate of over $1.5m of London Business Angels private investors, including Wren Capital, with further funding from the Angel CoFund.

Peter Cowley, a renowned angel investor and entrepreneur best known for his role with the Cambridge Angels, joined the Angel CoFund's Investment Committee in June 2014.

LBA fuels growth of UK economy with over 80 investments made since 2009

Of the 4000+ funding inquiries received by London Business Angels(LBA)since 2009, 200 technology companies have presented at LBA investor events and 84 companies have received funding from LBA members (in aggregate excess of £10m).

14 of these investments were made alongside the UK Government's Angel CoFund which launched in 2012 and has co invested circa £5m in these dealsto date. 16 companies that sourced funding through LBA in the last five years have grown fast enough and large enough to raise further rounds of capitaltotaling more than £70m. According to the May 2009 study by UKBAA/Nesta, nearly 60% of all angel funded start-ups fail. Start-ups funded by LBA in the last five years however, have just a 14.6% failure rate to date.

Swansea University and xénos partnership creates 18 spin-outs

 Swansea University and xénos, the Wales Business Angel Network are celebrating the second anniversary of a pioneering joint initiative which is helping to create more new commercially viable businesses in the Swansea area.

The results over the last two years have been encouraging. Since spring 2012 nearly 50 ideas have been assessed leading to 18 spin-out companies being formed, 14 patents filed, 6 intellectual property licenses negotiated and over £1 million of further research and development funding leveraged.

The initiative brings the commercial expertise of xénos investors or 'business angels' together with the ideas and research of Swansea academics. By introducing xénos angels at a very early stage to evaluate business proposals, the University is able to identify and support work that has strong potential for commercialisation and the prospect of becoming high-growth companies.

Dr. Gerry Ronan, Head of Intellectual Property in the Department of Research and Innovation at Swansea University started the 'Angel Clinic' project in 2012 alongside Dr. Colin Lucas of xénos and business angel Peter Brooks of Ashgrove Management.