Within the last six weeks Central England Business Angels has invested over £1M of Angel Private Equity into 5 companies. The investee companies included Digital Gaming, two manufacturing opportunities, a product distribution into the major retailers, and a University spin-out. Of these, the University Spin-out was an SEIS investment, the others qualified under EIS.
Second round financing for this company which has the UK rights to a Dutch indoor ski slope which works on a treadmill principle. With variable speed and elevation and not requiring sub-zero temperatures these slopes have considerable advantages over snow domes and provide an excellent training venue, as well as being great exercise. This funding round will enable the company to build three further sites and then be self-financing.
Central England Business Angels is pleased to have introduced the first investment to the Social Impact Co-Investment Fund. It was fortuitous that we were working with Nu Drive, a company producing a new design for wheel chair leveraged propulsion, at the point when FSE approached us with the Social Impact Fund. We immediately saw a match between the social impact of Nu Drive and the need for additional money while preserving equity.
This diversified manufacturer of small scale renewable energy products came to Beer & Partners in mid- January 2012, seeking to complete its latest £1.3m round of fundraising having £700,000 already committed from existing and new investors. Investments from two Beer Investors were secured with one agreeing terms within three weeks of meeting and a second within one week. In fact this round could have been oversubscribed by almost a quarter.
