Latest News Archives - Page 20 of 29

Just a quick one – yesterday was our first online pitching session, and we are thrilled to say that it went really well. We had 4 fantastic businesses pitch, all very different but each with huge growth potential. We’re even more pleased because all of the business got investor interest. A great start to our online events!

Good customer feedback is great at any time, but good feedback during the current situation with COVID-19 is fantastic. One of the businesses who is pitching with us online next week, took the time earlier to tell us how pleased they were with our approach to moving to an online solution so quickly and thank us for the support they have received.

This feedback makes all the hard work worthwhile. We’ve learnt so much over the past couple of weeks, as I’m sure most businesses have. Some of the tools we are keen to implement when we all come out the other side.

In the meantime, every day is a learning day and we are here, up and operational if you want to begin your funding journey.

It was fantastic to see some familiar faces today via Zoom, and getting to show everyone the ropes ahead of our first online pitching session in a couple of weeks time.

We did of course miss having everyone together in a room for a catch-up. But all things considered, we were just pleased to see everyone fit and well.

Roll on the next Zoom Training which will be tomorrow morning. We’re looking forward to seeing more familiar faces and checking in with everyone.

It’s a difficult time for SME’s at the moment as they face an uncertain future with COVID-19. We wanted to remind everyone about R&D Tax Credits and how they can benefit your business, especially in the current economic climate where cashflow is tight.

A company in any sector can potentially claim R&D tax credits, the key point is whether there are qualifying R&D activities being undertaken.

If your company carries out research and development then you may be eligible for R&D tax credits.

R&D tax credits are a government incentive designed to reward UK companies for investing in innovation. If you’re making a claim for the first time, you can typically claim R&D tax relief for your last two completed accounting periods.

There are three main types of tax benefit that arise from a successful claim for R&D Tax Relief, these are:

A payable cash credit
A rebate of corporation tax
An enhanced deduction that can be carried forward

To find out if you qualify and to learn more about R&D tax credits CLICK HERE to view the HMRC guidelines.

If you think you qualify and would like to make a claim just GET IN TOUCH.

There is no doubt the current situation around the world is having a huge impact on businesses and the way that business will be delivered in the weeks or months to come. We will be introducing an online solution for our pitching sessions which we will be rolling out with immediate effect. It is our priority to keep our customers, members and staff safe. We are confident that apart from moving to an online solution it will be business as usual and we will be working hard to get as many businesses funded during this time, as we do during any time.

If you have any questions whatsoever please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Additionally, if you are looking for funding, we are open as usual!

The North East Times have just released an article about the launch of our new Newcastle Angel Group. We can’t wait to get this group up and running. There are so many fantastic businesses in the region, and we’re really looking forward to supporting them on their funding journeys.

Read the article HERE.

Good news Friday…another Yorkshire business funded!
A huge well done to Corksol in securing their investment. Corksol is a truly unique and innovative product, that has massive potential and the team to realise it. We are delighted to have been a small part of their journey and wish them every success.

Corksol is the exclusive distributor of a multi-function coating solution for the building and construction trade, uniquely providing thermal, acoustic, fire-resistance and breathability solutions in one application.

Corksol offer a spray-applied coating solution that is equally suitable for application to internal and external walls and roofs and in a multitude of application settings. For example, with external coastal locations where salt reduces traditional coating performance, through to use at major events to enable noise-reduction!

As the name suggests, the product is made from natural cork and generates a set of unique benefits from just one application and comes with a 15-year manufacturer guarantee. Corksol offer the only spray-applied product on the market that provides a combined solution to the issues of energy-saving (thermal retention), fire-retardancy, noise-reduction (acoustic properties) and condensation removal (via breathability properties).

Founder, Joff Ward said “not only did angelgroups find us the money that we needed, but they also found us the right individual to help us deliver on our growth ambitions. The help and support through the whole process has been invaluable and we can’t thank them enough”.

Have you ever considered looking for investment for your business and wondered what it’s all about? How it works? What the investors are looking for or how to value your business? Yes… well this event is for you!

We are running TWO free virtual workshops on breaking down the investment landscape in April.

We hope you can join us at one of the two online workshops, which will cover the following topics:

Is investment right for you
Angel or crowd funding
Valuation – what is your strategy
What an angel is looking for
What does your perfect angel look like
Pitching for investment

We had a great time sponsoring the Lincoln Business Club this morning, thank you for having us!

It was a fantastic event and we got to meet some awesome businesses. What a great way to spend a Friday morning.

Shipley Enterprises Ltd supplies and distributes the highest quality, authentic Kashmiri and Indian food products for the retail and food service markets under the Aagrah Foods brand. The recipes are based on those used at the Aagrah Restaurant Group and have been perfected over 40 years.

Shipley Enterprises Ltd, T/A Aagrah Foods is operating under an IP license agreement to supply restaurant quality food products into the retail and food service markets as well as online. The current range of six Tarka (TM) cooking bases have regional listings with Asda, Co-Op and around 15 independent farm shops and have a growing following online which includes regular orders from Europe and even Australia. The directors (Shezad Aslam, Shakil Hussain) have created a detailed 3-year business plan which sees turnover increasing to a healthy £5.3m in three years.

Founder, Shezad Aslam said “We were delighted with the support from angelgroups, in helping us raise the £330k we needed to meet our aspirations and would definitely recommend them to businesses looking to go down the equity fundraising route”.

“This is exactly what we are looking for, a great team with a great product with such huge potential” angelgroups Martin Avison.

It may have been a gloomy day over in Hull yesterday, but what a view from the pitching room!

Well done to the four businesses who pitched, there was some fantastic feedback from the Angels including “very investable, great idea!”.

One down, one to go, as we get ready for tomorrow’s pitching session in Sheffield where we have four new businesses pitching for investment and support – roll on the next event.

Have you ever considered looking for investment for your business and wondered what it’s all about, how it works, what the investors are looking for or how to value your business?

Yes?

Well we have a free event coming up that’s aimed at you! If you’re interested in attending, just pop us an email at: [email protected] and we will send you over some more information.

The event link will be live soon, in the meantime – we hope you have a great weekend.