SETsquared applauded for supporting university entrepreneurs

 

SETsquared has been shortlisted for a prestigious award for its work in nurturing a new generation of university entrepreneurs.

 

The partnership of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey is shortlisted in the Higher Education Enterprise Champion category of the National Enterprise Educator Awards.

 

Judges were impressed with SETsquared’s Researcher to Innovator programme, which helps researchers with promising ideas and projects who lack the skills and knowledge to convert them into commercial realities.

 

The programme, which runs over six months is aimed at the brightest and best postdoctoral researchers in any discipline, has already helped 100 people hone their ideas over the last three years. Success stories include:

 

• TrueInvivo, a Surrey company that has developed an innovative method of measuring radiation dosage and spread in cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. The company has since gone on to secure places in SETsquared’s other entrepreneurship programmes and this summer won the Grant Thornton Entrepreneurial Excellence Award

• Inductosense, a company that has developed compact wireless sensing technology that can be embedded into structures and products for low-cost monitoring.

Simon Bond, Innovation Director for SETsquared, said: “We are truly honoured to be shortlisted for this award. Seeing the phenomenal success of the entrepreneurs we support is reward enough for us so this really is the icing on the cake.”

 

SETsquared will find out if it has won at the IEEC2015 Gala Dinner and Award Ceremony in Chelmsford on September 10. If the partnership does scoop the award it will add to its long list of prestigious titles, which include top university business incubator in Europe and the number two university business incubator in the world.

 

 

Credit Benchmark raises $20m in Series B financing led by Balderton Capital

 

Credit Benchmark, the independent source of consensus credit risk information, today announces substantial new Series B funding and its expansion into the US. It also launches its service to contributing banks, with the first release of its consensus data.

 

The $20 million round was led by new investor Balderton Capital with participation from existing partner Index Ventures. Balderton’s investment follows a previous round of $7 million in July 2014, which Index led. It will be used to expand Credit Benchmark’s data gathering efforts with global IRB banks, extend its intelligence platform and grow its international team and presence.

 

Re-inventing credit risk information

 

Credit Benchmark brings sought-after credibility to a credit risk market renowned for opacity. By aggregating and anonymizing credit risk estimates of the world’s largest banks, the company creates consensus credit data and analysis that directly reflect the views of banks’ own risk teams. This unlocks the insight of organizations with assets in the trillions and with tens of thousands of credit analysts. The coverage includes globally systemic entities as well as deep country-specific databases.

 

In a recently published whitepaper on sovereign risk, Credit Benchmark demonstrated the advantages of using consensus data in credit risk management. The research highlights the differences between industry-sourced estimates and other sources of credit assessment and the predictive power of banks’ analysis.

 

Credit Benchmark’s contributed-data platform is tried and tested. The founders, Mark Faulkner and Donal Smith, successfully applied the model in their previous company Data Explorers, acquired by Markit in 2012.

 

Reaching into new areas

 

The model allows Credit Benchmark to offer insight on a whole range of entities left uncovered by sources such as agency ratings and credit default swap prices. These include unrated sovereigns, hedge funds and unrated public and private companies.

 

Consensus data also offers new and differentiated insight on entities that have existing public ratings, bringing in the Street’s own perspective of credit risk. It is a valuable resource to financial institutions managing risk and capital, conducting trading and research and investing, among others.

 

In the past year, Credit Benchmark has invested heavily to ensure the security and scalability of a platform tasked with handling the large datasets provided by contributing banks. It has also made significant progress in bringing on board new contributors from among the world’s largest banks.

 

The backing of Balderton Capital and Index Ventures, VC funds with strong capital markets focus, underscores the transformational nature of Credit Benchmark’s data offering. Tim Bunting, General Partner at Balderton Capital, will join the board of directors.

 

Expanding platform and team internationally

 

Credit Benchmark also announces today the formal launch of its US presence and the appointment of Harry Chopra, formerly head of Global Sales and Client Services at S&P Capital IQ. Chopra joins Credit Benchmark as chief commercial officer, based in New York.

 

The company will continue to build its teams in London and and New York, particularly in customer-facing and data science roles.

 

Elly Hardwick, Credit Benchmark CEO, said: “This substantial new investment from Balderton and continued support from our partners at Index is powerful validation of our mission – and our ability – to shake up the credit ratings market. Every day we see new examples of the value Credit Benchmark consensus data offers. Our team of experts are poised to bring change to a sector ripe for disruption.”

 

Tim Bunting noted: “Credit Benchmark’s plan to provide transparent credit information on more than 200k companies will provide huge value to all market participants. The need for better data has never been higher. The depth and transparency of the Credit Benchmark platform is a great leap forward in the biggest financial market of all. Balderton is very pleased to be joining the Credit Benchmark team.”

 

"The Credit Benchmark team has pulled off something quite extraordinary. By convincing the world's largest banks to contribute their closely-held credit risk

 

estimates to Credit Benchmark's platform, they've created an entirely new model in credit risk ratings,” said Jan Hammer, partner at Index Ventures. "They are disrupting decades old ways of risk assessment, and the potential impact on the financial services sector is huge."

 

 

CWRT launches new Franchise Fund

 

It is a big step from deciding to start a franchise to actually opening your doors for business. For many, one of the biggest hurdles is raising the finance to start up your new business venture.

 

In order to help overcome this barrier to setting up a new franchise, the Coventry and Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust (CWRT) has launched a new Franchise Fund, lending between £1,000 and £75,000, to help finance the purchase of franchise licenses and encourage employment.

 

Mike Musson, Chief Executive of CWRT explains: “Franchising continues to be a dependable business opportunity and UK franchisors and franchisees are confident about the future, with nine out of 10 franchisors reporting optimism for trading conditions over the coming year.”

 

“We finance those businesses that mainstream funders, such as banks, fail to support. Many of the start-up companies we work with have become very successful and created jobs, so we are providing a much needed alternative funding approach.”

 

Aimed to support individuals without financial resources to start new franchise businesses, the new fund is another addition to CWRT’s lending portfolio.

 

With over 10 years of successful of providing start-up and small business loans, CWRT already offers start-up loans across the West Midlands and small business loans to Coventry and Warwickshire businesses.

 

The good news is that because franchising is recognised as a safer route into business than setting up on your own, CWRT is happy to lend for the initial investment as part of a reputable franchise.

 

When applying for a start up loan, franchise business plans are a must have, and often the franchisor will help.

 

Mike Musson concludes: “Our Franchise Fund is a great way to encourage new entrants into this vibrant sector. We are confident that with our start up loans for the upfront cost of franchise licences, financed businesses will grow and provide local employment.”