The Network for Sophisticated Investors SPRING 2018
BROMPTON BIKE HIRE UNLOCKING THE URBAN DREAM, ONE DOCK AT A TIME
ANTIKOR TURING TINY TOXINS INTO GIANT LIFESAVERS OSPREY ENGINES SWOOPING IN ON THE MARINE INDUSTRY
Welcome New Year, New Faces, New Opportunities 2017 finished with the fantastic news that CHARGEMASTER is anticipating an IPO in June for a rumoured £170m. ENVESTORS introduced, through several funding rounds, £15.3m from members of the ENVESTORS Private Investment Network, all of whom can anticipate sizeable returns. We are absolutely delighted at their success. Breaking the China market was one of the biggest focuses of the year and culminated in the ONE BELT, ONE ROADSHOW in November (see the article on page 17). Through our partnership with The China Business Council, the construction of the so-called ‘investment bridge’ continues at an impressive rate and we have secured very strong funding intent for our tech companies SOLARIS, ZAP&GO and ANCON. The next roadshow is planned for April 2018: watch this space.
As a result, the potential prize for AI companies is particularly big: the last few years have seen enormous investment in healthcare from Google, Apple and venture capital funds, all aiming to be the leader in this area. ENVESTRY™, our white labelled investment platform, continues to thrive and now has 69 licensees - we have recently welcomed Stakeholderz, Prime Advantage and The Recruitment Network – and over 7,000 registered investors.
Soaring above the crowd with a minimum investment of £25,000. © Envestors Limited, 1 Lancaster Place, London WC2E 7ED. Envestors Limited is incorporated in England and Wales, registration number 07236828. Envestors Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom.
envestors.envestry.com
Clearly 2017 was a tough investment year for a whole host of macro, economic and political factors. The positive outcome of the Budget, however, and with the full endorsement of EIS by the government, we are well set for a much more active and prosperous 2018. Onwards and upwards! Oliver, Scott and Nick
We predict the focus this year will – at last – be considerably greener than in past years. Our latest signings reflect the move towards a healthier lifestyle with an emphasis on the environment. The tech sector maintains its astonishing rate of growth and the potential for AI is limitless, particularly in the MedTech sector. It is already showing some impressive capabilities having reached clinical levels of competence for some diagnostic tasks, such as skin cancer and diabetic retinopathy.
Events Investment Presentation Lunch
Family Office and Early Stage fund Breakfast
Family Office and Early Stage fund Breakfast
New Members Lunch
When: Thursday, 1st March Where: Coutts, 440 Strand, WC2R 0QS Time: 11:30am – 2:30pm
When: Wednesday, 7th March Where: Coutts, 440 Strand, WC2R 0QS Time: 8:10am
When: Wednesday, 25th April Where: Coutts, 440 Strand, WC2R 0QS Time: 8:10am
When: Thursday, 26th April Where: Envestors, 1 Lancaster Place, London WC2E 7ED Time: 12:30pm – 2pm
Helping fledgling companies grow and succeed
CMS_LawTax_CMYK_28-100.eps
Business savvy, no-nonsense advice from CMS.
Contact John Finnemore T: +44 20 7524 6432 E: john.finnemore@cms-cmno.com
cms.law
Contents INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
6
MWS Rebooting the apprentice. You’re hired!
7 ANTIKOR Turning tiny toxins into giant lifesavers. 8
CABLE DENTAL
9
BROMPTON BIKE HIRE
10
VMOTO
11
JOBHAWK
12
FORCIVE
13
BIKECATION
14
SCREACH
15
OSPREY
Bridging the gap between the dentist and the clinician.
Unlocking the urban dream, one dock at a time.
18 Airbeem FEATURES 16 ENVESTRY™ and BRITBOTS: Nothing artificial about this intelligent coupling. The forthcoming decade looks certain to herald a golden age for robotics with genius technologies making their way out of the lab and into all our daily lives.
17 ENVESTORS Conquer China: Scaling The Great Wall of Opportunity An overview of the first Envestors One Belt, One Roadshow, November 2017.
Going green in an electrifying ride.
Raising the roof of the construction industry.
Striking gold in the data mine.
The brakes are off: BIKECATION is full speed ahead.
Screach nothing shrill about this software’s reach.
Opsrey Engines: swooping in on the marine industry.
Risk Warning Responsible Investing Please be aware that investments of this nature are
Before investing in a project about which information
not for everyone. Investment in new business carries
is given, potential investors are strongly advised
high risks as well as the possibility of high rewards.
to take advice from a person authorised by the
Risks include a lack of liquidity (ie. the ability to sell
Financial Service and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), who
your shares) and loss of investment. To help manage
specialises in advising on investments of this kind.
risk you should invest in a diversified portfolio. For full information as to the risks, please visit: envestors.envestry.com/risk-warning ENVESTORS 5
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
MWS: REBOOTING THE APPRENTICE: YOU’RE HIRED!
Listen to Richard Alberg, the founder of MWS and you will be inspired by his vision. His genuine and passionate belief in the service he provides is evidenced not only by the countless, glowing testimonials from his clients, but also from the shine of his balance sheet. MWS success has even garnered recognition from Downing Street, when the company was one of nine organisations selected in a nationwide competition to find the most innovative and beneficial business to the public sector. Richard himself is a serial entrepreneur, he previously founded PSL, a technology-powered staff assessment company he sold for £6m in 2006. ‘As well as the accountants, customer service agents and retail staff, we also we devised selection tests for immigration officers, traffic wardens and tax inspectors…all we were missing were vivisectionists!’ laughs Richard. Their technology transformed this traditionally pen and paper sector, and Richard’s business was acquired by a large public company which is now part of IBM. Richard has always been drawn to sectors that operate through people and the study of all the inevitable human errors that hamper any operation with a large number of staff. Having completed his PSL earn-out he established MWS in 2009 to provide an in-house SaaS platform for Government funded work and apprenticeship programmes. ‘Innovation is in my DNA. We look to solve problems by studying an industry from a different perspective; I would never diminish the impact of helping a single employee one-to-one, but with our technology we can help a thousand employees in the same situation’. It was the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in 2017 that created a transformational opportunity, tripling this part of the market to £3bn. Richard recognised and seized on the opportunity using £1.3m of his own funds to significantly redevelop the platform.
6 ENVESTORS
With an established and growing client base already in place, he created an exceptional system for apprenticeship training providers. ‘The system is called Aptem’, he continues, ‘and we are a generation ahead of our competitors’. They provide a truly unique end-to-end platform for apprenticeship delivery. A trademarked nudge engine and collaboration centre, hugely improved performance through joined up functionality and intelligent collaboration and the capacity to deliver highly complex programmes over many months. ‘There are compliance rules, frequent audits and if an error occurs, it can result in having to repay the entire fee back to the government, but as the sector’s technology usage matures, Aptem is becoming increasingly recognised as the logical, efficient and go-to software of choice’. MWS’s highly experienced management team is now seeking further funding for their ongoing product development and to expand their sales and marketing departments. In a fast-growing market, the company are determined to maintain the commercial advantage of their technological edge and the extraordinary quality of their product. Quality that was recently confirmed by an investment of £250,000 from an existing MWS customer. With a growing client list that already includes giants such as The FA, RBS and John Lewis, their forecasted exit within 3 to 5 years is highly credible. MWS doubled their turnover in 2016, and are looking to other markets to outsource their technology workload. ‘Our business plan set a target of three new customers a month. This month alone we have already signed ten which is a superb rate of growth’.
“The reason is simple: ‘Aptem actually works’.”
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
ANTIKOR: TURNING TINY TOXINS INTO GIANT LIFESAVERS
We all dread the C word. Cancer is one of the world’s most pressing healthcare challenges and, on the whole, research progress from one year to the next is incremental with true breakthroughs being depressingly rare. Funding is scarce, the big pharmaceuticals have monopolised the drugs market and sadly sometimes the revolutionary, magical ‘cures’ – Herceptin, for example – simply aren’t that effective. Nevertheless, the metaphorical battle continues and ANTIKOR gives us reason to hope. Founders of ANTIKOR, Dr Mahendra Deonarain (CEO) and Dr Till Medinger (Chairman), are true experts in the field. Cambridge graduate Mahendra spent 20 years as a biologist at Imperial College and for 14 years was Principle Investigator and Reader in Antibody Technology, researching therapies that use antibodies to target cancers. Till, himself holding a Chemistry Doctorate from Oxford and past President of the British Pharmaceutical Association, was SVP for Corporate Strategy at AstraZeneca Plc and previously with ICI Pharmaceuticals, directing business operations worldwide and overseeing the launch of several global blockbuster products.
better tolerated. We can bolt 10 – 12 toxins onto these tiny fragments – 20% of the size of the traditional ADC – which in turn are then attached onto antibodies. These penetrate solid tumours and clear far more quickly from normal tissues, which results in barely any side effects. We are specifically targeting gastric cancers, which are traditionally very difficult to treat and cure’. ‘This is not new technology’, continues Till. ‘We have merely applied our research to radically augment its efficacy. No doctor or scientist will ever claim to have cured cancer, but this is fundamentally a huge breakthrough and we have improved this out of sight. We are a highly committed, experienced team based at Stevenage BioScience Catalyst - state of the art facilities on the doorstep of Glaxo’s HQ - with lifechanging capabilities, but we need serious funding, and we need it now’. Their groundbreaking work has not gone unnoticed. The UK government, through Innovate UK (the Technology Strategy Board), has granted them an initial subsidy of £810k. Along with funding from their original investors, they have progressed and completed a major toxicology assessment. At this pivotal phase of ANTIKOR’s growth, they are now seeking funding of £1.5m to strengthen their technology, progress patent prosecution in the major global territories, develop their product and ultimately to seal their first major partnership with a global pharmaceutical company. To paraphrase John Diamond (himself a victim of gastric cancer), we need to fund these brilliant scientists to make cancer a word, not a sentence. These tiny, tough, potent antibodies are just the weapons needed to win.
‘One of the most active areas of cancer research is the development of Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs),’ explains Mahendra. ‘These are powerful toxin payloads attached to whole monoclonal antibodies that are precisely targeted to the tumour. These work well in certain strains of the disease (such as cancers of the blood) but in solid tumours they are much less effective as they have poor tumour penetration, are much less potent and highly toxic. The toxins take weeks to leave the body and the side effects are horrendous for the patient. We realised that antibody Fragment Drug Conjugates (FDCs) however, have a much, much higher success rate. They are safer and in clinical trials they have outperformed traditional ADCs and are at least 10x
ENVESTORS 7
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
CABLE DENTAL: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE DENTIST AND THE CLINICIAN Despite the technological advances in all forms of dental work, this is a surprisingly traditional sector of the medical industry, often referred to as being a real ‘cottage industry’. Take specifically the ordering and manufacturing of a crown, bridge or implant. The dentist will take a wet impression of your teeth and then handwrite a prescription (in ink!) and put it in a bag and send to a dental laboratory for manufacture. This is received by a technician in the lab when the post arrives. They spend time interpreting the dentist’s handwriting (no laughing please) and then waste even more time entering the details into the lab software that they use to run their dental lab. During the actual manufacturing process, time and money is again wasted with the practice staff constantly needing to ring – or email, or WhatsApp - the lab and vice-versa, none of which is recorded officially or securely or accessible on just one device. In a week or so, the manufacturing process will be finished (depending on the nature of the order) and the lab product will be returned in the post ready to be fitted. In the current world of UK dentistry, the chances are that the dentist will have no idea of precisely what he is putting into your mouth, how much it actually costs the lab to make it or what he is paying for it and whether they – and therefore you, the patient – are getting a financially beneficial deal. They are certainly not as informed as they should be from a regulatory perspective. Qualified barrister Marcus Rickard realised the absurdity of all of this, both from a legislative viewpoint and commercially. ‘How this is all handled in the UK is just antiquated’, explains Marcus. ‘I realised that there was no system in place for UK dentists to simply order these necessities online and for all the information and correspondence about each order to be kept in one secure online location’. It was from this conclusion that CABLE DENTAL was born. ‘It is quite the paradox’, explains Marcus. ‘We live in such a technologically savvy world. But in many ways dentistry is literally years and years behind. However, that is starting to change with the rise of the intra-oral scanners. Now a dentist can take an instant digital photograph of the inside of your mouth whereas before, the dentist would post the details to the technician. There is finally an acceptance that new technology is needed in all areas of the dental sector. With CABLE DENTAL, information can be instantly shared with your dentist’s manufacturing dental lab allowing those scanned images to be passed into the existing channels that they use every day. Similarly, not
8 ENVESTORS
only can CABLE DENTAL transform the clinical journey, it will transform the procurement through the same medium. Our platform is the first online ordering system to enable dentists and the corporate dental groups to do all of this: a major advance in a sector that has been, until now, oddly resistant to change’.
‘I just wanted to drop you a line to say thank you for introducing CABLE to us. It has made life so much easier…’ Debbie Ettinger, Practice Manager, The Dental Rooms Practice Limited (NW10)
Marcus continues: ‘We have no competitors in the market spanning every aspect of this process. We acquired Transactor Systems in 2016, the leaders in providing dental laboratory software, whose transacted invoices of c.£168m with their 400 laboratory clients represents nearly a quarter of the UK lab market in terms of revenue. We are now focussed on targeting both dentists and the labs themselves’. So one might think that the million dollar question – quite literally – is whether this was actually a problem in the first place? To which Marcus retorts ‘A few years ago If you had suggested to anyone in the pub that you had an amazing business idea for making it easier to order taxis you would probably have been laughed at. Well, just ask the owners of Uber’. ‘CABLE DENTAL’s integration with V8 provides the dental industry with the first 360 orderings and communications platform – really helping the dentists and the labs work together better. Clearly a system built by both dentists and technicians’. Chris Lyons, Woodlands Dental Laboratories The company is seeking funding to accelerate sales by solidifying the successes of the pilot phase and the exceptionally strong management team intends to build CABLE DENTAL into THE integral purchasing, regulatory, compliance and financial management tool in this sector with a view to exiting within three to five years. With a pool of 30,000 dentists and 3,000 labs in the UK, this traditionally pen and paper yet vast sector of the medical industry is, finally, with the help of CABLE DENTAL, implanting itself in the digital age.
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
BROMPTON BIKE HIRE: UNLOCKING THE URBAN DREAM, ONE DOCK AT A TIME
Cycling is a wonderful way to get about a city: the health and environmental benefits are substantial and with the inevitable, daily horrors of rush hour traffic, it’s also a far more reliable way of getting to your destination on time. But owning a bike has its drawbacks as they can be expensive and easily stolen even with the strongest locks. Those ubiquitous Boris Bikes are too hefty to lug on the tube and – speaking from personal experience – too uncomfortable to cycle all day, every day. BROMPTON BIKES, however, are portable, foldable and acknowledged to be the best of their ilk available in the current marketplace. A light, comfortable, top of the range bike that can be borrowed for as little as £3.50 a day? Hello BROMPTON BIKE HIRE. ‘Most of the stuff we buy is overpromised and oversold’ says BROMPTON CEO Will Butler-Adams OBE. ‘The BROMPTON BIKE is the rare case of something that actually does far more that you’d expect it would’. Will has always loved cycling and the outdoors - having grown up on a farm - and cemented his fondness of wheels by gaining a first in Mechanical Engineering from Newcastle University. Following a chance meeting – ironically on a bus – with the BROMPTON founder Andrew Ritchie, he took up an offer to have a look around their factory. This was 15 years ago and his passion for these extraordinary, folding machines has yet to abate.
more reliable and viable solution. There is little impact on the urban landscape and the Docks are cheap to install. In addition, they are fully prepared for the prospective electric bike hire revolution’. 17,500 members have registered with the scheme since 2012, with different tariffs for frequent or leisure use. To date, the company has sold 45 Docks to strategic partners, including councils, train operators and companies across the country. They are now seeking funding to accelerate the expansion plan, to increase awareness and usage thus attracting future partners within the NHS, property development and construction sectors. This would take their tally to nearly 100 Docks and with the network past its critical mass, will result in faster future growth, improved profitability and ultimately global expansion.
‘Quite simply, we wanted to share our enjoyment of cycling, and make it accessible to everyone.’ BROMPTON CEO Will Butler-Adams OBE
Coupled with the enormous potential of the BROMPTON electric bikes, which can be installed and charged in the existing Docks, Will and his team have completed the uphill struggle and are now freewheeling to a prosperous future. In the words of John F Kennedy, ‘Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike’. BROMPTON BIKE HIRE is just the ticket to give you a taste.
‘Quite simply, we wanted to share our enjoyment of cycling, and make it accessible to everyone. With bike hiring schemes still in their infancy, we took the plunge and started up BROMPTON BIKE HIRE. With the help of a lost property office in Waterloo (donated by Sir Brian Souter, part owner of the Virgin Rail Group), we were able to build our first Dock (a secure return and storage docking station, specifically and uniquely designed for the BROMPTON BIKE) for travellers who use that station. The scheme exploded in popularity but what surprised us, however, was that many people were so passionate that they were actually taking them home on the train to use at the other end. We have now been doing this for 5 years. We know there is huge demand and how it all works; the billing systems are in place and we have improved the operations to make this a truly simple and enjoyable arrangement for the consumer. We know that, unlike the traditional bike hire schemes, we are a
ENVESTORS 9
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
VMOTO: GOING GREEN IN AN ELECTRIFYING RIDE
For Londoners, grid-locked traffic and choking pollution is the curse of everyday life. The Congestion Charge and low emissions laws have helped to marginally alleviate this dirty diesel-souper, but there is still an awfully long way to go.
‘Electricity is 1/10th of the cost per mile of petrol and having surveyed 500 delivery drivers, we confirmed that they could save up to £150 a month by switching to an electric model. A driver is still riding a bike that is best in class, while saving over £1,000 a year.
Busy, working millennials are compounding the problem by abandoning cooking and the weekly shop and instead ordering their evening meals by app. Food which is then noisily delivered by an army of scooters. Every evening the residential side-streets of the capital play host to a symphony of rattling plastic boxes and idling two-stroke mopeds.
VMOTO is targeting a fast-growing market: the worldwide volume of electric motorcycles and scooters is expected to double in the next ten years and the snowballing food delivery market is forecasted to grow 50% by 2020 in the UK alone. Delivery giants DELIVEROO and PAPA JOHN’S have confirmed that they will deploy VMOTO scooters, and the company are in advanced talks with the other big names of this field.
Former corporate lawyer Richard Jordan, has always been fascinated by electric vehicles. Having helped numerous tech businesses to fund and exit, he recognized that electric commercial transport is the future and took over the UK distributor for VMOTO bikes and scooters at the beginning of 2017. Since then he has increased sales - by over 400% this year - by identifying the parts of the market where petrol is, to all intents and purposes, finished: commuting and, in particular, delivery. Charles Matthews OBE shares Richard’s vision: he has pledged to invest through the ENVESTORS platform and has also agreed to become a board adviser. With his own wealth of experience in the automotive and engineering industries (having served as Chief Executive of Cosworth Group, Managing Director of Rolls Royce and Bentley Motor Cars, spent time at Jaguar, Chrysler and Vickers), he adds yet more gravitas to the exceptional VMOTO team pedigree.
VMOTO are currently seeking funds to launch their delivery leasing business, with an initial order of 100 scooters. With retailers in place in 5 large UK cities – all with service and maintenance capability – and the only electric scooter brand to feature at this year’s Motorcycle Live Show, VMOTO is poised to become the lightning rod of the electric two-wheel leasing world. By cutting costs, noise and pollution, VMOTO will bring a desperately needed change to any smoggy metropolis.
10 ENVESTORS
Our scooters will replace the noisy, dirty models of the past with an economical, environmentally friendly and high-efficiency solution that is extremely beneficial to a brand’s corporate image. It really is a no-brainer’.
‘…we provide users with a delivery necessity that is the best of its kind.’ Richard Jordan, VMOTO
‘VMOTO has a unique marketing position’, continues Richard, ‘in that we provide users with a delivery necessity that is the best of its kind; a longer battery life, far higher loading capacity and total operating costs significantly below those of the competition. We offer retailers a green, vastly improved fleet, with a full-service package including support and maintenance, all while actually saving them costs. We are literally selling them money’.
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
JOBHAWK: RAISING THE ROOF OF THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
The digital age has transformed almost every aspect of life in the developed world, vitalising every sector and upending ideas of how businesses can function with boundless new efficiency and automation. Construction is the one industry that has not seen productivity increases as a result of new technology and it remains hampered by one HUGE problem: the hiring of labour. The UK construction sector employs 1.8m skilled tradesmen and unskilled labourers and up to 1.1 million are selfemployed, working without contracts. A developer like Berkeley Homes uses 50 or more subcontractors across the timeline of a vast residential project, in sequential order as the development progresses: think dozens of cranes, bulldozers, trucks, scaffolders, cement mixers, an endless list. In this regard, the terms ‘homebuilder’ and ‘contractor’ are now potentially misnomers as the physical delivery is largely done by other firms; indeed these giant commercial projects have practically 100% of their construction work subcontracted. In other words, one enormous, hugely fragmented supply chain. This is the textbook case of an inefficient market, ripe for disruption and crying out for… JOBHAWK. The idea behind JOBHAWK was initially conceived in 2015 by Pete Mills and Mat Glendenning of Pantera, a carpentry business with over 200 carpenters and an annual turnover of £12m. Through conducted research across competitive firms and tradesmen, they identified their idea as an opportunity for an industry-wide solution. In late 2015, they sought the advice of Steve Langkamp and Owen Day, who then decided to pursue the JOBHAWK vision as co-founders. Steve has a wealth of experience in the software industry. He co-led the hugely successful sales of Magic 4 - $83m - and Purple Labs - $113m. As Chief Commercial Officer for the Myriad Group, he led negotiations and closed a $100+ million social networking services contract with Telefónica Group with all three businesses making their VC investors a lot of money. He recognised the huge potential of JOBHAWK and joined as CEO in mid-2016.
seeking self-employed tradesmen and labourers to join their projects. Many of these jobs are not advertised so the subcontractors have to call individual tradesmen that they know from previous sites. This is hugely expensive and often a complete waste of time, as most are busy working and thus unable to take the calls. Likewise, a carpenter, for instance, could be lined up to take a job. But somewhere in the chain something will be delayed – the floors aren’t ready, for example – and so this selfemployed and skilled worker is now without work. How’s he going to pay the rent? It can be a logistical nightmare for both the employer and the employee. Until now, the whole industry has been trapped in this archaic analogue scramble to fill and find work’.
‘On any given day, there are 24,000 open jobs in the UK construction sector’ Steve Langkamp, JOBHAWK This is where JOBHAWK fits a niche that is desperate for modernization. Their cloud-based platform uses artificial intelligence to match available tradesmen to the best jobs. The website and App is intuitively designed to be not just easy to use, but also fast: companies can post a new job in less than a minute and a glove-wearing tradesman can apply for and accept a job with a tap, without ever needing to talk on the phone. Having successfully completed a four-month market trial targeting bricklayers and carpenters in London and the South East, and with only a modest marketing spend, JOBHAWK already has 4,000 tradesmen and 45 subcontracting companies on board. ‘The feedback has been fantastic’, continues Steve, ‘Tradesmen love it because the App gives them instant access to jobs they wouldn’t otherwise hear about which, in turn, gives them far more options to better optimise their pay versus travel time and cost. The subcontractors are delighted that JOBHAWK generates qualified applicants in minutes and some projects have been totally filled in under an hour’. JOBHAWK will prove to be an essential partner to the whole construction industry. It is entirely unique and Steve has every right to believe that it will be a welcome monopoly in the world of builders. The team are now seeking funding to launch JOBHAWK commercially and will monetise the business by charging subcontractors subscription fees. They have already laid the foundations for success, and by hiring a customer success team to acquire more contractors and tradesmen, the team has underpinned a winning formula to connect the supply and demand for labour, brick by bricklayer.
‘On any given day, there are 24,000 open jobs in the UK construction sector’ explains Steve. ‘About 75% of these jobs are from subcontractors
ENVESTORS 11
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
FORCIVE: STRIKING GOLD IN THE DATA MINE
The concept of big data has been around for years; most organizations now understand that if they capture all the data that streams into their businesses, they can apply analytics to discover key trends and get significant value from it. The software exists for future decision-making but to work faster, stay agile and gain a competitive edge, businesses need insights for immediate action. The giants (Google, LinkedIn etc) have their own solutions, but these only exist in a customised form. Businesses simply cannot ignore their data: for a typical Fortune 1000 company, just a 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than $65 million additional net income. For the smaller businesses, however, the owners struggle under the complexity, the costs are often prohibitively high and anyway the existing products only offer a partial solution. That is, until FORCIVE. Both co-founders – brother and sister - bring their own set of specialist skills to the business: Gabriel De Dominicis is the CEO and has led the company through its initial growth phase and its first financing round (successfully raising 1.8m euros of seed capital from a selection of European technology funds and private investors, including Manfred Kaiser, VP at Oracle). He has over twenty years of experience in various C positions in technology companies - some of which are now public companies - and assisted in driving these from early stage to pre-IPO stages. COO Muriel De Dominicis has had more than 16 years of experience in B2B, with a focus on International Business Development, and has a proven track record of taking small businesses to the next level (no. 1 Teeth Whitening UK Company Award). She has extensive knowledge of Business Strategy and Business Process Implementation with a great know-how in IT gained throughout various IT projects supervision and Implementation.
12 ENVESTORS
Explains Muriel, ‘In a nutshell, FORCIVE is data software that offers simplicity and completeness. We manage the entire lifecycle of big data: we capture, clean, augment, wrangle, transform, store and analyse it, all in real time and at scale. This, in turn, enables machine learning and AI and reduces deployment lead times, costs and associated risks. This will soon be the industry standard, we’ve just got there first!
‘Our revenue will come from renewable licenses, one-off stream contributions plus maintenance fees. This is the future, right now’ Gabriel De Dominicis, CEO FORCIVE
The FORCIVE software delivers the next generation of prediction systems. Our partner, Mastercard, uses the data we have harvested: MasterCard currently has a system that generates expense predictions for card holders, however this kind of predictions are issued monthly. With FORCIVE, MasterCard is able to process real time data in relation to a customer’s transactions, which can help the bank to not only understand the card holder’s behaviour and predict real time spending, but it can help to manage their customers and detect fraud. FORCIVE can also be used to identify possible promotions that would be of interest to the card user. As another example, we recently ran a successful trial with Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai. This prestigious hotel values its returning guests and encourages them to return. At present a traditional loyalty program, offering discount on the next stay, is the system adopted in Hospitality to retain customers, which doesn’t lead to any certainty about their return. With FORCIVE, data related to customer spending behaviour’s (example: room service choice, preferred rooms, restaurant choice, spa bookings, how much they spend etc) is acted upon in real time during the customer stay, offering tailored discounts aiming at increasing revenue opportunities while keeping the customer happy. Ultimately, our software is scalable for any industry. All can benefit hugely from this data: by analysing customer behaviours, we can interactively make suggestions in real time which is then highly profitable for our clients’, continues Gabriel. ‘Our revenue will come from renewable licenses, one-off stream contributions plus maintenance fees. This is the future, right now’. Data is the key. With its easy, complete, cost and risk effective platform, FORCIVE is most definitely a force to be reckoned with.
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
THE BRAKES ARE OFF: BIKECATION IS FULL SPEED AHEAD
Was it Bradley? Was it Boris? Maybe it was the lure of the lycra? Whatever the reason, Britain has recently gone cycling mad. We don’t just want to ‘see’ though; we want to ‘do’. As a result, a booming, experiential economy has emerged, providing us with active rather than passive leisure activities. Rob Penn and Jamie Paterson are old friends with a shared passion for cycling. Rob has a cult following having authored the bestselling book ‘It’s all about the Bike’, along with his televised jaunt around the UK in a fish and chip van with Freddie Flintoff. Jamie has two decades of experience running businesses in both the UK and the US. Together they saw that there was a gap in the market for bespoke cycling holidays that actually put the cyclist first… and thus founded BIKECATION. Countless travel firms offer traditional cycling holidays: the operator plans a trip from A to B on fixed dates and then tries to fill up the group. This is inflexible and biased towards protecting the operator’s interests and needs. BIKECATION puts cyclists first: with the increased funding, they will use cutting edge IT to enable cyclists to book their own personalised trips online, when they want and where they want. ‘Our new website will allow clients to plan and book their own cycling holiday or short break in just a few clicks,’ Jamie said. ‘From the flights and airport transfers to hotel rooms, bike hire, and downloading cycling routes, we are creating a one-stop shop. Many hotels in iconic cycling destinations like the Alps and the Pyrenees have only recently identified the benefits of attracting cyclists, and they have started marketing themselves as ‘bike hotels’.
cycling routes and pulled it all together in our unique digital booking platform,’ Jamie said. ‘We are now focussing on being THE cycling short break provider. BIKECATION will own this space’. We are inclined to agree. They have found their niche, and huge success is now well within their grasp: over two hundred tours have been organised to date and their website regularly attracts over 3,000 hits a month, resulting in over £1m in revenue since inception. Sustainable growth will be achieved by broadening the cycling destinations offered, going beyond Europe. ‘We had a brilliant weekend. The Hotel was perfect and the staff were really helpful. We ended up doing 70 miles on the Saturday and 80 miles on the Sunday. Some of the hills were hard work compared to here in Norfolk, but the long downhill bits made it well worthwhile. The views were lovely. We found the whole package really good value for the money and will definitely use you again next year. Thanks again for organising it all for us’. Ross Bilham. ‘Ultimately we want BIKECATION to be the go-to website for cycling holidays, wherever you are in the world. So a cyclist in Sydney looking for a weekend’s pedalling in Bali comes to us first. This makes the business massively scalable and a year-round proposition.’ Uniquely, BIKECATION are giving investors the opportunity not only to be part of this visionary, working capital but also to invest a minimum of £5,000 which comes with some seriously appealing perks: investment will guarantee membership of their VIP Bespoke BIKECATION Members Club that includes concierge services on their trips, offers at top hotels and – possibly the most exciting bit – an annual day out cycling with Rob. By creating this new digital platform - it gives clients the opportunity to tap into BIKECATION’s knowledge and experience, book a long weekend from a phone, conquer an iconic Tour de France col over the weekend and then, most importantly, brag about it to colleagues on Monday morning. BIKECATION has most definitely put the poke back into bespoke.
Our new website focuses on selling rooms in these bike hotels. We act as an agent rather than as an operator and our scalability is through earnings via commissions from all the other operators. This is a market first and will significantly improve the holiday experience for thousands of cyclists.’ ‘A fantastic mini-break. We ate well, we slept well, took loads of exercise and returned home completely revitalised. The weather was kind and it was a beautiful journey. Thank you BIKECATION for making it all so easy’. Rupert Clarke. ‘We have identified the best bike hotels, mapped the most beautiful
ENVESTORS 13
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
SCREACH: NOTHING SHRILL ABOUT THIS SOFTWARE’S REACH
If you’d told a retailer 20 years ago (or your trusty Luddite scribe 20 minutes ago) that you had the technology to increase their instore footfall, drive their sales, reduce their costs and and the ability to intelligently engage with their customers and yet at the same time save them money by creating third party advertising revenue and dramatically reducing their traditional marketing spend, they might have smelled a sci-fi rat. But that time is now, and SCREACH is the business making it happen. CEO Robert Rawlinson joined the company in 2015. Previously working in large multi-nationals, he then turned his attentions to the start-up digital sector: he was involved in the enormously successful sale of Genesis Communications, which started as a small Telco technology platform and eventually grew to having 650 members of staff, a £70m turnover and exited at £32m after being sold to the Dixons Store Group. Through an old friend and technologist, Robert was alerted to the possibilities of the SCREACH software and decided to use his management skills and experience to turn this company into something huge. Explains Robert, ‘In a nutshell, what we do is use our data fed software that programmatically (using a rule based algorithm) and intelligently engages with, interacts with and ultimately influences a retailer’s customers (through TVs and mobiles) to buy more of what a retailer wants to sell’. Think of a smart marketing platform that has the ability to learn what works and what doesn’t to provide the consumer the best shopping experience whether instore or online. ‘By displaying relevant, interesting content that is specific to an individual customer, we can intersperse the video content with promotions and advertisements and then analyse the results. The SCREACH software then dynamically changes the screen content to improve its effectiveness in driving more sales’. In addition to these obvious benefits, the software
14 ENVESTORS
also reduces costs such as people (through self serve, self order functionality), expenditure on traditional communication media such as print and on wastage (such as perishable food). ‘Digital screens are increasingly commonplace internationally in nearly all areas of high footfall, high transaction consumer facing venues thus making the SCREACH market applicability global. The UK market alone has an estimated 600,000 suitable venues and all these operators have an increasing need to improve their retail experience, reduce their operating costs and, naturally, raise their revenues’. An example of their success thus far is the branded shoe retailer Schuh: all 135 of their stores now have SCREACH software on external facing screens and because they sell branded products, such as Nike or Adidas, Schuh can in turn make a profit (and offset the cost of installing the screens and software) by selling this as advertising space. BT have recognised their unique model awarding them a three year contract, after a full due diligence process, to be part of their VAS suite of products. The pub chain Marston’s have reported a 53% uplift in sales and a 12% reduction in print costs since installing SCREACH in a number of their venues.
‘SCREACH software then dynamically changes the screen content to improve its effectiveness in driving more sales’ Continues Robert, ‘McDonald’s have set the lead in the Retail marketplace with interactive screens that personalise your order thus making the whole process much quicker, more efficient and ultimately giving the customer more control. This is the future, and SCREACH is very much part of this journey although there is one big difference: our high levels of programmatic automation uses data to make the solution more dynamic and ‘intelligent’. SCREACH are now seeking funding to primarily expand their sales and marketing strategy. The software has been fully market tested for over two years and is now ready for mass deployment. All six members of the management team have successfully built and exited companies before and have demonstrated their expert knowledge and understanding of the success that SCREACH will undoubtedly achieve by investing their own hard cash in the business. Now that is something to SCREACH about.
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
OPSREY ENGINES: SWOOPING IN ON THE MARINE INDUSTRY
There are few things in life as much fun as, quite literally, travelling at speed. Whether racing a car or experiencing the delicious thrill of travelling on a RIB smashing through the waves, there is something about being propelled at high velocity that is undoubtedly addictive. This is not news to OSPREY ENGINES CEO, Andrew Barnes. Starting his career as a sponsored student with Ford, Andrew then moved to Lotus before being headhunted by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), who ran a joint venture with Jaguar and managed the racing team which secured the spectacular result of placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd at Le Mans in 1988. At TWR Andrew headed up the team that designed and built the engines for the Jaguar XJ220, the £500k supercar that has a top speed of 212 miles per hour. His team then went on to create and manufacture the engines for the original Aston Martin DB7. ‘We initially set ourselves up as a research facility, which makes us effectively ahead of the curve and allows us great insight into where various industry sectors are with regard to the latest technology. It became apparent that engines in the non-automotive arena were decades behind those in the automotive sector and would struggle to meet upcoming emissions legislation. We started playing around with different concepts that would not only meet the emissions but transform the engines available to this market’. With the expertise of a seasoned engineer he now saw the opportunity to manufacture engines in his own right. ‘The market chose us’, explains Andrew. ‘We happened upon a boat manufacturer who was completely frustrated by the large and heavy engines on offer to them. They immediately realised the potential of our engine to allow them to transform their own product and collaborated with us to finesse the design. This was an excellent entry point, because volumes are comparatively low in the marine market, which means a natural, organic growth without having to ramp up production volumes immediately’. Encouraged, Andrew set up OSPREY ENGINES in 2016. Neil Craggs then came on board to help with fund raising. He subsequently became Investor Director in the Seed funding round completed last year and since then has provided support with the necessary non-engineering stuff. Himself no stranger to engines having previously worked with Andrew on developing innovative technologies, he brings 20 years of experience in Corporate Finance in FTSE quoted companies within the engineering and manufacturing industries.
The timing is impeccable: from 2018 EU emissions regulations require significant reductions in nitrogen oxides (NOx) from engines used in Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM) and the incumbent engine manufacturers are stifled by the backward technology on offer – the engines are heavy and large, a problem that will only get worse as they try to meet the new legislation. There will undoubtedly have to be compromises made to the design of the existing NRMM products to accommodate these changes. ‘Three different companies approached us’, continues Neil. ‘We didn’t even need to do any marketing. With their current suppliers’ offerings being non-compliant and unsuitable, the industry has recognised that they need the innovative thinking and expertise of OSPREY’.
‘…we have taken an old concept, and revolutionised it for the 21st century’ Neil Craggs,OSPREY ENGINES Andrew’s solution for the non-automotive market has been to develop a range of novel low-emission, fuel-efficient, lightweight and low-profile internal combustion engines. The diesel engines are based on 2-stroke technology, which results in them being smaller (weighing in at 90kg compared to the current industry leader Yanmar’s at 276kg) and run cooler, thus reducing the on-board cooling pack required. These designs emit dramatically reduced levels of NOx and can readily be made compliant with the new legislation, creating clear potential to disrupt the existing supply base. In September work began to install a proof of concept diesel engine in a boat. This is co-funded by Innovate UK, who awarded £100k to Osprey and C- Fury – providing external confirmation of the urgent need for, and potential of, the Osprey technology. As a quick route to market Osprey’s first petrol engines are now ready to enter production for a leading UK manufacturer of rigid inflatable boats (RIBS). The OSPREY management team believe that it is realistic to target market penetration in Europe of 5% in seven years, with sales of 20,000 units generating revenues of up to £150 million. Continues Neil, ‘After marine, our next target is the urban construction sector, where operators are faced with adding expensive after-treatment packages to existing equipment in order to meet site emissions limits. By replacing their existing equipment with an OSPREY product, they will then have the potential to extend the life of a very expensive piece of machinery. Similarly for manufacturers of truck-mounted forklifts Osprey’s lighter weight engine has an immediate payload benefit - It really is win win: we have taken an old concept, and revolutionised it for the 21st century’. Indeed they have.
ENVESTORS 15
ENVESTRY CASE STUDY
ENVESTRY AND BRITBOTS: NOTHING ARTIFICIAL ABOUT THIS INTELLIGENT COUPLING The forthcoming decade looks certain to herald a golden age for robotics with genius technologies making their way out of the lab and into all our daily lives. BRITBOTS CROWD is the world’s first dedicated equity crowd-funding platform for high potential companies in field of robotics and associated technologies. Successful British entrepreneur Dominic Keen, though originally an engineer, spent the early part of his career in Venture Capital before going on to start a high-growth software business which floated on the Stock Exchange in 2012. Having always been fascinated by robotics and artificial intelligence, in December 2016 he launched the British Robotic Seed Fund, which has helped fund exciting ventures in this field to maximize their growth potential. ‘We support roboticists get their inventions out of the lab and to the field. Crucially, BRITBOTS support exciting start-ups find their initial customers and establish the marketing activities that ensure ongoing business growth. We are also available, in certain circumstances, to provide consulting services to larger organisations that seek to conceive and deliver transformational projects that leverage the most recent advances in robotics and artificial intelligence’ ‘Many robotics initiatives require external funding to support the costs of product development and deployment in the field. Britain offers one of the most attractive business environments in the world to nurture new robotics propositions. BRITBOTS provides a suite of services to assist roboticists to raise capital efficiently. Additionally we help unlock grants and other public resources which might boost the chances of success of a concept. It is estimated that this market will be worth over $20tn by 2021’. ‘This is why I chose ENVESTRY. We joined forces in the summer of 2017 and the platform has proven invaluable in reaching out to a broader range of investors. You can’t pick up a paper these days without reading something written about robots or artificial intelligence and it is becoming
16 ENVESTORS
very much part of the national psyche. This, naturally, translates into investor appetites’. ‘I didn’t really want to use a general crowdfunding platform as robotics doesn’t necessarily jump off the page in the same way as, say, a consumer company would. Therefore, setting up a white label platform for the sophisticated investor rather than just a generalist one made a lot of sense. ENVESTRY has been key in enabling me to do this’. ‘Having worked with members of the ENVESTRY team over many years, I had no doubts in their ability to deliver a platform that would be userfriendly for the investor, whilst maintaining rigour and transparency.’ ‘Typically, we look to source investments of between £300,000 and £400,000 in each startup and focus more on market-ready robotics rather than research. With the decreasing cost of hardware, some of the world’s most advanced robotics businesses being currently established in the UK. BRITBOTS is well positioned to ensure that these companies are able to maximize future success’. ENVESTRY is a white-labelled FCA regulated equity crowdfunding platform, which organizations license to help them to manage investors and deals. The key benefits for licensees are that it offers a complete set of tools for managing deals and investors (dashboards, CRM tools, online book-building tools etc.), FCA regulatory cover and the opportunity to syndicate as part of the enlarged ENVESTRY network of networks. ‘It really is simple. An investor can register and see what opportunities are available on britbots.envestry.com. All the information is already loaded on the platform, so the potential investor has instant access to the necessary financial, legal and administrative details’.
ENVESTORS CONQUER CHINA
ENVESTORS Conquer China: Scaling The Great Wall of Opportunity An overview of the first ENVESTORS One Belt, One Roadshow, November 2017. China Roadshow Objectives: • To introduce leading high growth UK based technology companies to strategic market development and investment partners in China. • To assist UK technology companies to fully capitalise on the China market opportunity. • To enable UK technology companies to understand the key challenges and requirements of doing business successfully in China. • Understanding the opportunity and Provincial Government support available (grants, incentives, and ancillary benefits) to UK companies seeking to establish a formal office or operation in China. • Understanding the market development opportunity for UK technology companies to set up a formal presence within a leading science and high tech development park in China.
Why China? Founded in1949 as a hardline Communist country, the People’s Republic of China has steadily embraced the tenets of capitalism, especially since economic reforms were enacted in 1978. Today, China’s economy is the second-largest in the world and will likely overtake the U.S. sometime this century. It is universally acknowledged that British technologies firms are extremely strong: we have some of the most groundbreaking academic research coming out of our universities which is commercialized at a much higher rate than elsewhere in the EU. China is, quite simply, desperate to catch up: a tech hungry nation, and yet still unable to access Facebook or YouTube. Of the 1.3bn Chinese citizens, there are many that are highly educated, extremely wealthy and eager to get a piece of us, whether to qualify for a Tier 1 visa (and thus residency in the UK), to advance Chinese interests or to simply move their cash abroad. At ENVESTORS, we fully understand that this is a huge opportunity for our leading UK tech companies to fully embrace the vast opportunities that lie in China, whether through investment – many of the larger corporations are specifically mandated to invest in our tech to advance Chinese interests - or expansion into a country that has the capability to manufacture their products quickly, cheaply and efficiently. With a view to building this metaphorical ‘investment bridge’, we made 6 exploratory trips to China in 2017 alone and have recently brought in a full time, dedicated China Investment Analyst, which has also enabled us to publish our ENVESTORS magazine in Mandarin. To fully capitalise on the dichotomy of a country this is both forward thinking and highly traditional, we needed to understand and truly appreciate just how the Chinese mindset works. There are a number of key cultural norms and values that Western leaders like the UK need to be aware of when negotiating; it is also the case that you need to ‘kiss a thousand frogs’ and these visits have been essential in identifying strategic partners with confidence. The ENVESTORS pedigree – we have raised over £100m for our portfolio companies since we founded the business in 2004 – has given us both the experience and kudos to introduce leading high growth technology companies to market development and investment partners in China. In layman’s terms, we know how to find the right ‘fit’ between the company and investor.
ENVESTORS 17
ENVESTORS CONQUER CHINA
In light of this newfound capitalist focus, the old silk trading route has been replaced by the One Belt, One Road initiative, a development strategy created by China’s president Xi Jinping, that focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries. Seizing the opportunity presented by this scheme, ENVESTORS launched our very own version, the One Belt, One Roadshow in November 2017. We invited our portfolio companies ZAP&GO, ANCON and SOLARIS – absolutely at the forefront of the best technology companies in the UK today but lacking the capability to break China without our help – on a multi-city tour to enable them to understand the key challenges and requirements of doing business successfully in China and essential to full capitalisation of this opportunity. Chinese investors have started exploring markets to grab hold of global cuttingedge technology as well as to diversify their portfolios, and we know that our UK technology companies are the best to assist in this objective. The Roadshow began in Shenzhen, a place which 20 years ago was just a fishing village… Now it’s a Tier 1 City with over 18 million residents, snapping at the heels of nearby Hong Kong for strategic trade importance. Home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and one of the biggest container ports in the world, the scale, speed of development and infrastructure is astonishing.
‘The One Belt, One Roadshow was absolute gold dust for SOLARIS. Almost every solar panel in the world is built in China and the opportunity to meet these manufacturers in person has proven invaluable: we can now tailor our development based on their requirements and not just on our assumptions. Without that face to face interaction, we would not have got that key detail. We also met with the biggest solar panel inverters in China, who are now returning the favour and coming over to London. Finally, we all know about the pollution problems in China, but it was so much worse than I could ever have believed. This has given us the impetus to really get things changed from both a solar and green angle, because, quite simply, the world needs it’. Niall Haughian, CFA, SOLARIS
In partnership with a local operator, we hosted a dedicated investment event at the science and innovation high-tech real estate facility, Galaxy World. ENVESTORS companies were extremely well received by the audience of 30 VC funds and investors, with very strong registered investment intent secured for all of them.
18 ENVESTORS
Through our highly prestigious and significant alliance with CBBC (The China-British Business Council, an organisation that co-operates closely with the government to assist UK businesses expand into China), we were invited to showcase our companies at the Outbound Investment Conference, specifically organised as a result of the implementation of the “Going Global” strategy, a major move for China to further enhance the level of opening up in order to allow more global-going Chinese enterprises to share overseas investment opportunities and experience. We were honoured to be invited by CBBC to exclusively present our technology portfolio companies as the best that Britain has to offer; likewise the potential investors were a carefully selected assembly of those who are properly interested (see above re kissing frogs). We were formally presented to an audience of 400 VCs, family offices, corporate ventures and private investors. Company propositions were marketed, keynote speeches attended and there was much discussion about Chinese investment into Britain. A fascinating day to study the key trends and prospects that are available to us in this dynamic market.
‘If you want to be in the battery business, you must be in China. They are the largest manufacturers and we have visited the country 7 times in the last 18 months alone to get a metaphorical foot in the door. The One Belt, One Roadshow was invaluable to ZAP&GO: the potential investors loved our technology and, as a result of this trip, we now have have two feet firmly on Chinese ground. This makes for a very exciting future’. Simon Harris, Investment and Marketing Director, ZAP&GO
After the high humidity and 24c heat of Shenzhen, we were welcomed by the somewhat different but more Decemberly feel of 6c in the Paris of the Orient, Shanghai. After a short and much needed night’s sleep and with our jet lag finally fading, the Roadshow continued with all companies making formal investment presentations to Senior Management of Goldensum, a Chinese Private Equity firm with £10bn assets under management from 300 listed Chinese companies. With a mandate by their listed clients to acquire and/or invest in global technology companies, considerable strategic interest was achieved and solid foundations built for the businesses formally presenting. We then met with the Tus Stars team in Shanghai. Tus Stars are a subsidiary of TusHoldings, a firm owned by Tingshua University, the most prestigious university in China and an organisation that has spun out 500 listed Chinese companies. TusHoldings operate TusPark science
ENVESTORS CONQUER CHINA
and innovation centres, 30 of which have been built across China as incubation systems for technology and digital companies: Tuspark Beijing, for example, is home to the offices of Google, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. This visit was a highly strategic one for our Roadshow businesses as it allowed them to understand the support available from Provincial Government, who offer grants, incentives and ancillary benefits to UK companies seeking to establish a formal presence by setting up an office or operation in China. SOLARIS, for example, has two innovations that have the potential to transform the energy market: The Solaris Photonics Multiplier (SPM) and the Thin Film Technology. Solaris’ SPM can be retrofitted to existing solar farms, to generate up to four times the power output within the same allocated space. In that 98% of the world’s solar panels are built in China, this was a strategically essential introduction. Tus Stars is the investment arm of the group and the ENVESTORS companies had the chance to visit the innovation centre in Shanghai, in addition to presenting their own opportunities to the Tus Stars team. A strong connection was forged for SOLARIS, given that they are partly based in Cambridge where Tus Holdings are in the process of setting up a dedicated science & innovation centre in collaboration with Cambridge University. These discussions have entered a more serious phase and, at the time of going to press, are looking like a true gamechanger for SOLARIS. Whilst in Shanghai, we had dedicated meetings with a locally based Family Office and Launchill Ventures, an active investor into global early stage businesses. Our final meeting was with the Investment Manager of Hainan Airlines. What was once a small, provincial and domestic airline, Hainan is now listed on the Fortune 500; indeed they are so wealthy that they now own 3,000 subsidiary companies and have a mandate to invest in UK technology businesses interested in expanding into China which would, as a result, advance and benefit Chinese interests. We then caught the impressive CRH high-speed bullet train from Shanghai to Hangzhou - a rapidly developing Tier 2 city with a population exceeding 12 million, home of Alibaba and commonly referred as the Silicon Valley of China - for the last, but no less important, event. Hosted by G5 Capital, a major Chinese real estate developer and incubator, attendees had a final chance to present to an audience of VCs, corporate ventures and private investors.
‘The ENVESTORS trip to China was extremely interesting: it was very well organised and we met with many potential investors. Our technology has the potential to revolutionise explosives, drugs and chemical weapons detection within the security, border control and defence industries. The technology detects trace concentrations of threat materials in the air at the level of a single molecule, providing levels of sensitivity many orders of magnitude superior to existing technologies. This has proven highly in security conscious China; coupled with the ability to manufacture our products cheaply and thus advance their economic interests, this trip has been invaluable for us all. We were able to identify the serious, qualified investors who want to specifically put money into our revolutionary technology and, as a result, we are already in advanced discussions with several organisations that we met on the Roadshow’. Dr Robert Muir, Managing Director, ANCON TECHNOLOGIES
Thus, through our meticulous and exploratory journeys, our strategic partnerships with CBBC, Goldensum and Tuspark, our dedicated China team, the One Belt, One Roadshow presentations and ultimately our understanding and respect of Chinese culture, we at ENVESTORS are in the unique position of having laid the solid foundations of the hallowed ‘investment bridge’. We have the pioneering foresight to know exactly what it takes to introduce UK based technology companies to the right strategic investment partner in China, to navigate around the fundamentals of how to do begin the journey of entering the Chinese market with an eventual view to a successful exit. Scaling the Great Wall of Opportunity? They’ll need a bigger wall to halt the ENVESTORS revolution.
For more information please contact: Scott Haughton Chief Operating Officer, Envestors Limited 1 Lancaster Place, London WC2E 7ED, UK T. +44 (0)20 7240 0202 M. +44 (0)7734 208638 E. scott@envestors.co.uk
ENVESTORS 19
, e l p o e p 3 5 4 y o l p m Ie t n a w t s u b ut I j o t e n o e m so tal k to. People turn to you for leadership. But who can you turn to, to help manage and grow your business? Our specialist entrepreneurs group works with founders and management teams from vision to exit. We understand the complexities you face, including raising finance, understanding evolving tax regulations, global expansion and exit strategies. Running a business is a journey. And we’ll be with you all the way. To find out more, please contact Guy Rigby on 020 7131 8213 guy.rigby@smithandwilliamson.com smithandwilliamson.com
Mary Green &
© Smith & Williamson Holdings Limited 2018. Smith & Williamson LLP Regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for a range of investment business activities. A member of Nexia International. Smith & Williamson Corporate Finance Limited authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A member20 ENVESTORS of the London Stock Exchange. A member of Oaklins International Inc. The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate all of the services referred to here.