Social Investment = Money x Collaboration²

Why the collaboration between social entrepreneurs and angels generates a more satisfying investment experience

AngelNews is happy to announce the launch of their new conference "sI=mc²", a conference dedicated to the rise in Social Impact Investing.

From AngelNews' close relationships with many angel investors, they are well aware that angels are becoming more involved with social enterprises both financially and through giving their time and experience to these organisations to help with management issues, marketing or joining charities as Trustees. 

The interest in Social Enterprise investing is growing all the time - particular recent highlights have been UnLtd's Big Venture Challenge and the number of award winners at the UKBAA Annual Awards in Liverpool earlier this month who had Social Enterprise elements to their businesses.

Go Beyond Investing is the lead investor in Lockstyler's innovative hair colour product 

Go Beyond Investing (GBI) has invested CHF 125'600 in LockStyler Ltd, the Swiss start-up which patented an organic hair lock coloring system that is simpler, cleaner, and faster to use than conventional methods.

The unique patented technique pioneered by the Montreux-based company offers ready-to-use, recyclable cartridges containing organic dyes and an applicator device. This system drastically reduces the time needed for hair lock coloring over traditional methods - from three hours to just one - while guaranteeing professional and consistent results, whether used in a hair salon or at home.

"Other players in the hair highlights color market provide only the dyes. LockStyler distinguishes itself by providing both the dye in cartridges and an applicator as a complete hair highlights coloring system," said the company's CEO, Christian Rieder. "We enter the market with complete hair highlight coloration kits. Our long term business model is based on the razor blade: give the applicator away and charge for the cartridges."

In LockStyler's target market just under half of all adult women have highlights; 69 million of them are done each year in Germany, France and Switzerland. For busy women, the faster highlighting service offered by would mean more time for family, friends work, or leisure.

"Go Beyond recognized early the value behind LockStyler's idea," said Bryan Parker, the Deal leader representing Go Beyond.

He added that Go Beyond's interest was sparked by the time saving and ease of use of the cartridge system, and further piqued by the due diligence process indicating consumer good multinationals were actively exploring product concepts in this space.

Angel CoFund join UK investors in £2.8m investment for Superbug Killing Company 

Innovative UK pharmaceutical company, Destiny Pharma, completes investment round to fund a landmark clinical trial of a new drug designed to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria

UK Clinical stage pharmaceutical company, Destiny Pharma, can today announce its successful investment round of over £2.8 million to fund a landmark clinical trial for its lead drug, XF-73, to prevent post-surgicalStaphylococcal infections. The Angel CoFund, (the £100m fund for small and medium sized British businesses, with Government backing), invested in Destiny Pharma, alongside other UK investors.

Infection from bacteria remains a worrying complication for hospital admissions. One of the most common causes of infection is the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (SA). XF-73 is a 'nasal decolonisation' treatment intended to clear SA bacteria from the nostrils of carriers, to prevent post-surgical SA infection. It has been proven to be an effective drug for killing both SA and the drug-resistant form of the bacteria, MRSA.

Housekeep.com wins award for best Angel-VC deal of the Year 

Housekeep.com, a booking service for professional home cleaners, has picked up the award for "Best Angel-VC Deal of the Year" at the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) 2014 Awards.

The London-based start up was founded by investor-turned-entrepreneur, Avin Rabheru, who raised $1m earlier this year to disrupt the £4 billion home cleaning market.

Housekeep.com's investment was raised just three months after launch, in April 2014. The investment was raised from some of the UK's most experienced VC and angel investors, including Pentland Group (Reebok, JD Sports, Speedo), Dharmash Mistry (NED BBC, Hargreaves Lansdown), Brett Akker (Streetcar) and Justin Peters (Kabbee).

The investment has been used to recruit the senior management team, to develop the cleaner training programme and to invest in technology and systems.

Furniture Village celebrates 25^th Anniversary and secures £6M investment from BGF 

Furniture Village Holdings Ltd ("Furniture Village"), the largest independent furniture retailer in the UK, today announced that it has secured a £6m investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF), the independent company established to help Britain's growing businesses.

Furniture Village was established in 1989 by co-founder and CEO, Peter Harrison, with a simple philosophy: to offer truly excellent products, prices and service to all its customers. The company's core product category is sofas, alongside cabinet furniture, beds and accessories. Marking its 25th anniversary of trading this month (August) and still independently owned, the business has 40 stores across the UK, employs 760 people and generates revenues of £200m per annum.

BGF's funding will enable Furniture Village to accelerate a roll-out expansion of new stores across the UK, as well as bolster an ongoing investment in technology: to enhance the customer experience in-store and further develop the company's e-commerce platform. BGF will take a minority stake in the business and Jon Simon will join the board as BGF's representative.