Business Advice

Halo Business Angel Network

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...Park, it is easier for them to get through the early difficult stages. With higher average public spending than elsewhere in the UK, there is also more money to invest in Research and Development (R&D). And the sense of camaraderie that grows from being part of a geographically ring fenced population of just 1.7m means that entrepreneurialism is generally celebrated by many rather than just a few. With everyone knowing what is going on, it is also easier for companies to draw in the support they need to develop through seed and start-up and onto development...

...stages. “We’ve got a great dealflow”, Alan says,“but ones that are little known in the rest of the UK”.

Using EIS to work for the investors

The Halo network is just a couple of years old, but it is leapfrogging many older networks. It raised its first Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) fund early on, which gave 14 angels the experience of investing together. The fund was Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) approved, which improved the timing of the investors’ tax rebates. Members have already invested £3m in companies that have presented. By providing additional financial leverage, Halo has already discovered that its EIS co-investment fund strategy can make all the difference between a rapid and fully funded close or not. The second EIS fund is almost funded and will co-invest with the Halo angels in the latest crop of fundraising. If it ends up investing in businesses like those which have already been funded, e.g. Banjax, a web 2.0 application developer, and Sophia Search, a document search and text analytics business, it will end up with an interesting sector bias in the hottest sectors of this cycle.

YouTube for angels

What I have particularly noticed is Halo’s private “YouTube” of investor presentations. Halo films... continued on page four >

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