Venture Capitalists...

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Does anyone know of good venture capitalist ???

[gary]

Hi Michael

Welcome to the forums!

Some good places to start:

http://www.bvca.co.uk/

http://www.venturesite.co.uk/

Gary

[kyber]

Are you sure it is a VC you need? What about other types of investors from the small timer through to the angel investor?

[Ozzy]

I'll backup what Stuart says. It does depend on the requirements but Business Angels (private investors) are generally much more flexible and also more available to get involved and offer their expertise in growing a business.
Another good place to look is at http://www.innovateur.co.uk/.

[Alpha]

Agree with previous comments but depends on size of investment required, risk, what you may be able to contribute etc.
There are numerous sources of finance ranging from banks/building societies with any number of products such as loans, overdrafts etc. Then moving up the scale and increasing in involvement in your business are the others that have been previously mentioned.

Also a number of venture capitalists tend to specialise in particular areas so check out the bvca site for each individuals speciality. (Having said that the vast majority tend to go for high growth, high tech companies with a good management structure)

All the best and welcome to the forum

Alan

[daveashton]

Try http://www.connectonthenet.com and get the english equivelant goverment body from them.

They are not profit making but introduce VC's to companies needing investment.

ALl VC have areas of interest and different investment criteria so this route will save you a lot of time and effort.

Good luck

[Balls]

Venture Capitalists are to be found everywhere. In many instances these are people with untaxed money wanting to put it into a shelter then extract their pound of flesh plus some in tax incentives as well.

In Australia for instance you even have the spinners of the silver screen from Bollywood making films because of the 10BA of the Income Tax Act of Australia which allows huge deductions, offsets and tax holidays.

In Malaysia and Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore you have the South East Asian Chinese all cashed up with lots of untaxed money and with nowhere to go.

The uncertainty of the region means many are looking for a second passport/ home. Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA are preferred destinations.

In these instances, the immigration laws require a certain amount in dollars as an investment so that this category ofd prospective migrant can enetr lock stock and barrel. To meet this end, accountants and lawyers look to people like you with viable schemes or projects or ventures (whatever you chose to call it) and device some sort of corporate structure whereby they could invest in your scheme to qualify for a long term permanent visa or the like.

Say if Mr. Chong and family want to acquire permanent residence in England, they may be enticed by your accountant to invest in your scheme of say reviving the Holloway womens prison reformed prisoners football club for $1,000,000.00

The minimum requirement udner the immigration law would be an investment of $200,000 only and they qualify to enter the UK. So they put up the $1,000,000.00 in a guarantee of $800,000 with the $200,000 upfront.

They now qualify to enter the UK as permanent residents (for arguments sake only) and you have your money subject to all the prudent business requirements.

The football team is revived. A social imperative o the government is satisfied, the Chongs get to enter the UK in case Indoensia blows up and you have your money.

A forum is about to be launched where you could freely discuss your legal issues and it includes finance and taxation as well. It is manned by lawyers, accountants and other professionals.

Keep watching and I will keep you posted.

[Rob]

Mention has been made of Business Angels. They are a popular way to fund a business, if you are looking for amounts between £10,000 and £250,000. These are people, usually retired or successful business people in their own right, who are looking for opportunities to invest in new businesses.

In exchange for an investment they will typically look for a shareholding in the business and some hands-on involvement. They will have a vast business experience and so are useful people to have on board. However, you will have to accept an element of loss of control but that needs to be balanced against your desire for funding.

You can get more information on Business Angels at http://www.bestmatch.co.uk which is the gateway site for the National Business Angel Network.

[Balls]

Business Angels is another name for venture capitalist or just plain investor. If you float your company you will still lose some degree of control You have to part with some degree of control if you have an outside investor with significant monetary input.

Venture capital is somewhat different in that it seeks to take a risk usually at the seed level or even at mezzanine.

However the point is taken and I would like to visit the site to see whats on offer other than ideas on how to cash in on ideas.

[Strategist]

You do need to be careful in respect of approaching individual investors as you may be in breach of FSA rules as in effect you are attempting to market securities. However, there are two ways around this:
1. Use a 'Business Angels Network' or other intermediary (some have already been mentioned.
2. The following is a nutshell explanation and should be treated as guidance only. If you are what is classified as 'exempt' under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. This means you are either a 'high net worth individual' or a 'sophisticated investor'. You used to have to be cerrtified as being one or the other by an accountant but you can now, if you qualify, certify yourself. As an exempt person, you may then make direct approaches to potential investors who may be persons that you reasonably believe to be either 'high net worth' or 'sophisticated'. Finally, your business plan must also contain an appropriately worded 'health warning' (for which there is guidance available).
If you are unsure - use the first route.
Hopefully this helps.