More than 1,000 potential entrepreneurs and investors registered for a series of webinars run by Minerva Business Angels, part of the University of Warwick Science Park, and its Minerva Birmingham partners Aston University Centre for Growth and University of Birmingham Enterprise.
The series was targeted at those who may be considering being an investor and companies looking for finance as part of the Minerva Birmingham Pitch Up programme, a programme run by the partners to help young companies become investment ready and source investment in a competition format.
The angel investor webinar series was led by Alex Toft, Head of Minerva and a recent winner of the Regional Icon Award, Barclays Entrepreneurial Awards.
John Cooke and Andrew Cruxton from University of Birmingham Enterprise ran introduction to investment webinars aimed at businesses seeking investment with support from colleagues Kate Angel and Ibrahim Abbas at Aston University Centre for Growth.
The educational webinars covered in detail what an investor needs to know and what a company should consider when looking for investment. Sessions included tax breaks for investors, what angels should look for and what companies need to consider when pitching for funds.
Attendees were able to question a variety of experts and the programme included several panel sessions. In all there were nine events for investors and 4 for companies, the most popular being re-run. A total of 1,071 registered and 652 attended and it was considered a great success with excellent feedback from participants.
Alex explains: “One of the drivers for the programme was to help address the UK investment imbalance and to encourage local investment.
“We tend to see that outside of the South East there’s less appreciation that investing in start-ups/scale-ups can be an effective part of an investment portfolio – and that there’s a huge socio-economic impact that can be realised by investing in potentially high growth companies and young talent. Similarly, all too few companies realise the growth potential which can be afforded by exterior experienced investment. So, we were delighted to deliver this webinar programme.”
The panels and presenters included Neil Taylor, a partner in Edwards Charted Accountants and Martin Clifford from Legal Clarity plus a collection of experienced Minerva Business Angel investors.
Panel member Professor John Lyon of Warwick Business School commented “This is probably one of the best angel educational programmes outside the US in its comprehensive approach and direct contact given to an array of real experience.”
Liz McKenzie, an experienced angel investor, noted “These programmes are so important in helping to raise the benefits of being an angel and turning a spotlight on the support given by Minerva. It also lets us highlight the importance of Minerva Birmingham Pitch Up and to share the great work that Minerva’s partners are doing to help support access to finance and growth”.
