Entrepreneurs secure £400k Stockport Business Angels funding

Hallidays latest Stockport Business Angels event has secured £400K in funding from investors for local entrepreneurs!

Hallidays brought together investors and entrepreneurs at their Stockport Business Angels event in conjunction with North West Business Angels.

At this ‘Dragons Den’ style event 5 new entrepreneurs and innovators pitched their products and services to an audience of successful Stockport Business Angels to secure investment.

Steve Wall, NW Business Angles said: “The investment is excellent with a 40% offer of funding equivalent to £400K of investment, especially when compared to the national average of such an event being around the 15% success level.”

The successful businesses pitching included Just Bee Drinks Limited who also appeared recently on the BBC Dragons Den programme. Just Bee healthy soft drinks brand offer spring water infused with fruits and a drop of honey. They are already in 750 stores including Boots, Waitrose, Holland & Barrett and Selfridges and are growing fast.

“This event resulted in 2 offers of investment for Just Bee Drinks Limited. The NW Business Angels are good at introducing relevant businesses with enthusiastic investors and hosting the events in relaxed environments where people feel comfortable approaching one another,” said Joe Harper, Worker Bee!

Cheadle based Real Handful Limited also received an offer of investment is the UK’s first dedicated trail mix brand. They use the finest ingredients to create unique blended tasty snacks which are a source of fibre and/or protein.  They are available in 1,200 stores across the UK & Ireland within Boots, Booths, Holland & Barrett and Ocado.

 Joe Taylor, Real Handful Limited said: “The Business Angels event format really encouraged pitchers and angels alike to engage with each other. We met two investors that are passionate and interested in what we are doing who have fulfilled 80% of our funding requirement. We can now bring our plan to life with this investment which will support customer growth, the expansion of our team and the roll out of sampling events. It was a great opportunity”

Other pitchers are in discussions with a potential funder and one had a slot at the Entrepreneurs of the North Business Angel event in London recently at which over 150 business angels attended.

HMRC stats from 2014 state that £1.5 billion has been raised through the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) through the Angels market.

The face of ‘Business Angels’ are changing from individuals to more Syndication for investment. Where the average age was around 60 years with 10-15 years experience, we are now seeing Business Angels with 18 months investment experience aged around 45 years of age.  In the UK during the 1990’s 2% of the angels were female, this has now grown to around 15% whilst in the US the figure is around 40%.  In the UK 79% of the Business Angels use SEIS/EIS.