Birmingham Enterprise Community (BEC) has launched a fund raise that will support the growth of exciting early stage ventures looking for support within the Midlands region by providing direct equity investment as part of their FORWARD Accelerator programme based in Birmingham’s award winning Alpha Works.
The fund, which is to be raised through private investment under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), will form part of a radical and comprehensive package of support received by the businesses as they join the FORWARD Accelerator Programme, launched in July 2019, which will also include access to a pool of international mentors, support from partners such as IBM, Google & Amazon, workspace, coaching, access to both local and global networks and support to gain follow on finance.
Businesses will be invited to apply to FORWARD from 2nd January 2020 with the next programme commencing in April 2020.
Daniel Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Birmingham Enterprise Community, said:
“Since our official launch in January 2018 we have rapidly developed into a significant source of support for startups within the Midlands region. The establishment of this fund signifies another radical step forward for Birmingham Enterprise Community and the businesses that it serves.
“It also sends out the signal that the Midlands is making serious moves in becoming a place where you can both start and grow your business”.
LLamasoft, the leading provider of AI-enabled enterprise supply chain design and decision-making solutions, has announced that the official opening of its new EMEA headquarters in Birmingham took place on Tuesday 26th November.
Guest of Honour, Lord Digby Jones, a non-aligned Peer in the UK House of Lords, international businessman, media commentator, TV presenter, author and public speaker addressed the attendees.
A Birmingham-born former Minister of State for UK Trade & Investment, former Corporate Ambassador to Jaguar Cars and current non-executive Chairman of Triumph Motorcycles, Lord Jones is a renowned business advocate who speaks around the world on all aspects of global trade including the wider political and societal scene.
“With the current political and economic challenges facing organisations in the UK and Europe, it is refreshing to see technology companies like LLamasoft not only investing in the region but providing innovative solutions that will help UK and European companies across multiple industries make smarter decisions in a climate of unprecedented business complexity, volatility and uncertainty,” said Lord Jones.
Located at Pegasus House on Solihull Business Park, Birmingham, LLamasoft’s new 11,000 sq ft headquarters provides purpose-designed facilities for both employees and customers and reflects the company’s continued focus on growth, customer centricity and innovation.
This investment allows LLamasoft to better service its customers in the EMEA region in leveraging advanced analytics, optimisation and machine learning to make better, faster business decisions.
In the context of continued political uncertainty, including Brexit, LLamasoft’s powerful technology platform is helping major enterprises worldwide to model alternative scenarios to exploit opportunities and mitigate risks associated with trade wars and changes in taxes and tariffs, as highlighted in a recent BBC interview with LLamasoft’s CEO, Razat Gaurav.
This capability is augmented by LLamasoft’s recently announced acquisition of Opex Analytics, a Chicago-based provider of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, further accelerating LLamasoft’s strategy to transform the future of enterprise decision making.
LLamasoft, which recently reported 30 percent subscription revenue growth for the first half of 2019, has made a significant investment in the design and fit-out of the new offices, which include a state-of-the-art customer experience centre as well as a dedicated training facility, with ability to deliver remote training to staff, customers and partners around the world.
“As more organisations seek to leverage data and advanced algorithms to make better business decisions, LLamasoft is seeing continued strong momentum in all regions and is on track to grow its global employee count by more than 20 percent in 2020,” said Slimane Allab, EMEA General Manager and SVP of LLamasoft.
“Designed specifically to support our goals and those of our customers in the EMEA region, the new location provides the perfect environment in which to bring together our people, technology and customers to drive continued innovation and success. We are delighted that Lord Jones was able to join us to mark this momentous occasion.”
Governments that invest in businesses, but then have no say on any decisions made by company managers, are much more likely to see their investments be a success, according to new research by Vlerick Business School.
Professor of Corporate Finance, Sophie Manigart, and post-doctoral researcher, Thomas Standaert, found that governments that invested but had no input were more successful in stimulating growth in companies and providing more resources to the private risk capital market.
Whereas, the researchers found that governments that invest directly in a company and have complete control of all of the decisions tend to yield the poorest results. Businesses that raised funding this way did not grow faster than companies that raised no funding at all.
The research findings came from a previous study on both literature on government investments, but also from a dataset of 345 Venture Capital funds established between 1996-2017. The researchers analysed how a number of European companies developed after receiving venture capital through four different models, ranging from full government control, to government investment, but independent decision-making. The researchers compared the performances of each firm, up to five years after the initial VC investment.
The four key investment models that the researchers analysed were:
1. Direct and solitary – where a government invests directly in a target company and all decisions are made by the government
2. Direct but in partnership – the government invests directly in target companies, but in partnership with private investment funds
3. A passive government role – the government co-invests in target companies with private players who take all decisions. The government plays a passive role and is hands-off when it comes to most investment decisions; the government merely follows the private sector.
4. A government invests in a fund-of-fund and does not mingle in investment decisions – this goes a step further than the third model by having governments invest in private funds that are managed entirely by equally private fund managers.
Professor Manigart says,
“Government intervention in the risk capital market is needed in Europe and worldwide, but governments should respect the role of private players and not become dominant decision makers. Governments who simply provide this funding, but let the firm work independently and autonomously are much more likely to see growth, which can only be a benefit for investors, the firm, and customers alike”.
The researchers state that governments need to apply the fourth method more often in order for the target companies to be more innovative and successful. A good example of this model being implemented successfully is the Canadian government, who pioneered this model with the launch of the Venture Capital Action Plan, which has resulted in over $900 million in private investor capital being added to the ecosystem.
Government aid is genuinely effective for businesses, even companies like Apple and Tesla would not have survived without government funding. If there’s no financial help, then it could be argued that there would be no high-tech developments and innovations in society. Therefore, it is important that governments look to invest in the most effective way possible for growth in these companies, so that high-tech, social projects and high-employment companies have the greatest chance of growth and survival.
New research from City & Guilds reveals that UK workforces are failing to keep pace with L & D investment in the workforces of employers in rapidly emerging economies such as India and Kenya, with 92% of Indian and 78% of Kenyan employers planning investment to upskill workers compared to just 54% in the UK. So why aren’t UK employers keeping pace with the need to develop talent?
Peter Ryding, serial Turnaround CEO, champion of HR and founder of VIcYourCoach.com, believes this is largely because UK employers are failing to properly harness emerging tech developments opportunities in L&D and are stuck using old methods of learning that often don’t necessarily work.
“Old health and safety videos, which are seen as ‘tech’ because employees are charged with watching them on a pc with a headset, are viewed as nothing but a chore by the employee and a tickbox exercise by the employer.
“We wonder why employees are not engaged? The limited useful information is viewed negatively and rapidly forgotten (90% within 90 days!) yet many employers still use this method and the quality of their classroom learning often isn’t any better.
“Employers need to stop thinking about ticking boxes and merely gaining mandatory qualifications for their people, and embrace new, multi-faceted levels ways of learning and development that can better equip, empower and engage employees, coaching them to learn soft and hard skills one minute and apply them the next. so they put them into practice into the business as soon as possible.”
That’s exactly what is happening in the developing world.
India is not only becoming a leader in workplace education, they are embracing digital learning to a new level across their society, with even young children using smart phones to learn new skills. These experiences are immersive, tech-rich featuring AI and VR, and most importantly, adapted to the needs of the learner. It is this approach, says Peter, that is seeing tech trusted in overseas workplaces, with employers keen to invest in L&D technology they know will work. By contrast, many Western workplaces still view new tech with distrust – but could new tools like AI and VR transform workplace learning?
“In L&D, when there isn’t always a clear return, learning budgets are tight – with old methods resulting in a poor experience for leaders and learners – whereas mentoring, proven to be highly effective in upskilling workers and managers alike, requires a higher investment.
“As a CEO mentor and business coach, I was determined to create a learning platform that could deliver e-learning and e-coaching – “emulated coaching’ using AI would take the cost and scarcity of the human coach out of coaching. Doing this would slash the costs and make leadership coaching affordable for all employees – not just the bosses.
“That’s exactly what we did. VIC your coach develops staff and executives to solve problems faster and get more done in less time, developing leadership skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.
The VIcYourCoach.com developers harnessed best practice psychological and L&D research with AI technology to create an enjoyable e-coaching experience that engages participants by incorporating multiple methods of learning.
The resulting system includes short, bite sized videos that are both memorable and practical, with reading and reinforcement in a system that is adaptive, predictive and proactive, automatically tailoring content shown to better engage and develop the each individual learner.
VIC Your Coach will work on any device with voice recognition and text to speech to emulate the human coaching experience, making it intuitive and easily accessible. It doesn’t just upskill workers – it also offers feedback for managers, giving them actionable data on their team, helping managers understand different learning styles, workplace personalities and opportunities for further employee development.
Peter Ryding concludes:
“Don’t get me wrong, VIC took time and budget to develop, but the result is ground breaking and innovative. It works – and it’s receiving praise from both employers and employees who rate it 10/10.
“There is absolutely no reason why this technology could not be adapted for other areas of L&D and start the same workplace learning revolution here that overseas employers are already enjoying.
“The biggest change we need to make is to raise our L & D expectations. The L & D budget is a productivity investment. Instead of merely focusing on gaining new qualifications, or achieving mandatory training compliance, L&D professionals need to be seen and see themselves as coaches – developing staff to be the best they can be, rather than just ‘good enough’ to pass an exam or tick a box.
“Embracing new tech which can truly upskill workers is a great first step.”
Following a brief respite at Q2 when business confidence held firm, the Savanta Business Confidence Index (formerly the Charterhouse Business Confidence Index) resumed its downward trend during Q3, reaching a new 6-year low of 45.
Larger businesses with annual sales above £1m continue to be the most confident group. However, despite a rally at Q2 that saw confidence increase by 4 points to 51, confidence among larger organisations slipped again at Q3 by 2 points t0 49.
Moreover, confidence among smaller established businesses, who represent the vast majority of enterprises by number, fell 3 points to finish Q3 at 44.
New start-ups remain the least confident segment on 43, although fledgling businesses nevertheless managed to retain their score from Q2.
In terms of geographic location, confidence decreased in 5 out of the 6 regions. This was most notable in Wales/South West and Scotland who recorded falls of 6 points and 4 points respectively to end Q3 as the two least confident regions. The 4-point fall in Scotland in particular resulted in an index score of just 38, an exceptionally low score even after taking account of the lower confidence levels usually seen in Scotland.
The most ‘optimistic’ regions are London and the North/North West, both on 47. Nevertheless, an index score of less than 50 means more businesses in both regions are pessimistic rather than optimistic about the current state of the economy.
Industry sector continues to be a stronger differentiator of sentiment than region, both in terms of the size of the quarterly shifts within a given sector and the degree of variation from one sector to another.
At Q3 confidence fell in 7 of the 9 sectors, with the biggest falls occurring in Transport (down 11 points to 42), Education (down 8 to 40) and Other Services (down 7 to 45).
The two sectors to record gains, 2 points in both cases, were Construction and Wholesale who ended the quarter with scores of 48 and 47 respectively.
In terms of age of business owners, the picture has turned on its head, with the under 35s being replaced by the 65+ group as the most confident. This follows a fall of 5 points among the youngest age group to 46 and a 2-point gain among the over 64s to 48.
Commenting on the findings Mark Dennis, Director of Savanta, said
“With uncertainty over Brexit continuing throughout quarter 3 it was too much to expect the quarter 2 plateau to be anything more than a temporary phenomenon. The results in quarter 4 will no doubt be heavily influenced by developments over the coming days which will determine whether the UK formally withdraws at the end of October or whether the uncertainty is set to continue with an extended deadline and potentially an accompanying General Election.”
Quarter 3 findings are from Savanta’s MarketVue Business Confidence programme (formerly the Charterhouse Business Confidence Survey), conducted among 3,144 British businesses from start-ups to companies with £1bn turnover, surveyed from 1st July to 19th September 2019. Indices are mean scores based on a scale of ‘extremely positive’ (100), ‘fairly positive’ (75), ‘neither positive nor negative’ (50), ‘fairly negative’ (25) and ‘extremely negative’ (0).
As Britain’s top banks reaffirm their commitment to back British business through access to finance, ahead of Brexit, Purbeck Insurance Services is urging small business owners not to be deterred by a Personal Guarantee to secure access to funding but to look at ways they can mitigate the risk.
In a survey by Purbeck, over 1 in 10 small business owners (12%) said they’d decided against taking out a business loan because it included a Personal Guarantee. Purbeck Insurance Services is the UK’s only insurance provider to offer Personal Guarantee Insurance.
The same study found that while 49% had never accessed business finance, the most common form of finance used is an overdraft with 29% of small business owners calling on their bank overdraft to fund their business, followed by an unsecured business loan.
Todd Davison, Director of Purbeck Insurance Services said:
“Our findings suggest that many small business owners could be looking at external finance for the first time in readiness for Brexit.
“It’s important they seek independent advice and consider Personal Guarantee backed finance as part of their options as they can seriously reduce the risk of these types of loans. As well as taking Personal Guarantee Insurance, they can also share a Personal Guarantee with fellow directors of the business, and negotiate which part of the loan is covered.”
Purbeck’s Top Personal Guarantee Tips
Educate yourself about the risks, whether you can afford to take them and always seek legal and/or personal finance support
Consider splitting the Guarantee between your fellow directors
Know where your responsibilities for the Guarantee begin and end – is it loan specific or does it cover all future loans that the lender may provide?
Negotiate a time limit for the Guarantee and a cap on the amount
Remember that if you have signed a Personal Guarantee for another business loan they are cumulative
Agree terms so that the lender seeks settlement from company’s assets before enforcing the Guarantee
Confirm all points of agreement intention and expectation in writing with the lender.
Consider Personal Guarantee insurance to protect against the risk that the Guarantee is called by a lender. This will offset any outstanding obligations called in under a Personal Guarantee.
Angel Investment Network (AIN), the world’s largest online angel investment platform, has announced strong growth, with annual revenues up 9.4% year on year and a record number of deals for the broking business. AIN connects startups with angel investors and now has more than a million users in total on the platform.
AIN received over 100,000 pitches in the past year from entrepreneurs across the globe, with the figure doubling over the last two years. Alongside existing markets there has been a rapid growth of startups coming from emerging markets. Meanwhile investors registering on the site have surged nearly 40% year on year, now standing at more than 200,000 registered business angels.
Alongside the online platform, AIN also runs a successful broking division, which has seen exceptional growth in the past 12 months. Revenues have increased by 22% as demand for the team’s expertise increases. AIN has been involved in several significant raises in the past 12 months for a variety of business. This includes eco-friendly baby product business Kit & Kin, fully customisable bio-polymer plastic company Teysha, and Pin Point, data science offering early cancer detection.
Despite ongoing uncertainty around Brexit and a global slowdown, AIN’s results reveal the buoyant startup culture both in the UK and internationally and the popularity for this method of financing. The biggest demand among investors over the past year has been for software-based business, however food & beverage and property ventures are also seeing impressive growth. Fast growth worldwide markets include India, Canada and Australia.
Additionally AIN has been expanding into new areas including a property investment site, BrickTribe and an impact-driven online hub SeedTribe, catering for the increasing demand from investors for businesses with sustainability at their core.
According to AIN co-founder Mike Lebus:
“AIN is the largest network connecting angel investors with startups, and we continue to see strong growth with investors keen to connect to our wide pool of early-stage businesses. We reflect a strong, growing and resilient worldwide startup culture which has now taken root in every continent of the world. We are particularly encouraged by the performance of our broking business as more and more investors are coming to us for access to high quality dealflow.”
He continues:
“We continue to operate a lean and agile business model and we are able to launch new products to respond to the needs of our users. This includes our two new standalone platforms, BrickTribe and SeedTribe, which we built to fulfil demand that we were receiving from our investors.”
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