Category Archives: Investment News

Investment News, News, Tech

Solid Bond Venture Builder invests £460k into three tech start ups

Solid Bond Venture Builder has invested £460k in PixelMax, Veo World and Mapmate – tech firms on Enterprise City’s start-up support scheme, Exchange

Solid Bond Venture Builder, the residential investment vehicle at Exchange within Enterprise City, has invested almost £500k in three of the programme’s first cohort of businesses.

The residential investment vehicle – part of the Solid Bond Capital Group – has made initial investments in three start-up tech businesses on the Exchange scheme, a digital and technology development programme for the UK’s next best start-ups, as it aims to accelerate their progress.

Solid Bond Venture Builder has invested £250,000 in PixelMax, a 3D events and conferencing software solution, £150,000 in Veo World, an online marketplace for connecting conscious consumers to sustainable brands, and £40,000 in Mapmate, an app for discovering new friends nearby and exploring your area.

Led by Shaz Sulaman, Solid Bond Venture Builder plans to fast-track the early-stage businesses to the next phase of their business journey. It will provide them with smart investment, giving the founders access to one-to-one mentorship from the venture builder business heads who have previously created and worked within some of the UK’s most successful start-ups.

Shaz Sulaman, co-founder of Solid Bond Venture Builder, said: “We’re thrilled to have invested in these three exciting start-ups, and hope to help them fulfil their full potential. The North is often overlooked when it comes to start-up talent, however it is a hotbed for aptitude and innovation. Enterprise City and its Exchange programme have amplified the tech and digital businesses in the area, and given them the opportunity to come together, collaborate and share notes.”

Shaz is an active business angel and has worked with technology businesses across the globe over the past 20 years. He successfully helped scale Phones4u from 80 to 400 stores, and has operated at board level in the retail finance and service sectors. Along with co-founder, Gordon Bateman, who has worked with over 700 investor-backed businesses, and manages the InvestorLadder network consisting of over 100 active investors from across the UK.

Gordon added: “It’s not just about the money – investment isn’t everything for new businesses, and insight into how to run the operational side of the business, as well as deliver outstanding work is invaluable. Start-up founders also need help anticipating the hurdles they will encounter in the first few years of business, and support in reaching the milestones needed in order to scale and raise further investment.

“We often see a number of common mistakes among new businesses, despite them having huge potential, which if corrected will result in them being wildly successful. The work and mentoring we provide will help PixelMax, Veo World and Mapmate excel in their respective industries on a national and global scale.”

Tanya Grady, head of partnerships at Enterprise City, said: “Having our own dedicated in-house investment vehicle is a huge bonus for the businesses on our programme. Not only do they have access to some fantastic strategic partners in Tech Nation, Microsoft Advertising and RMS, the businesses also have direct access to potential investment, and invaluable expertise from people that have held senior positions at companies that have achieved the things they dream of.

“Solid Bonded Venture Builder brings the expertise of Shaz, Gordon and their team to the doorstep of our start-up businesses at Exchange. I have no doubt that the insight and advice Solid Bond will add will boost the progress and potential of these businesses to become Britain’s next big tech, digital and media companies.”

The residential investment vehicle which all Exchange members have access to as part of the development scheme, is based in Bonded Warehouse in Enterprise City, Manchester.

What is Exchange?

The Exchange programme was created to support and empower the UK’s next best digital and tech start-ups. It provides access to the right tools, digital infrastructure, professional support and voices of experience can make the difference between success or failure in businesses’ critical early months, and Exchange aims to make that difference. By granting ambitious early-stage tech companies and entrepreneurs access to the tools and expertise they need to learn and develop, Exchange hopes to pave the future of tech and digital in the UK.

How will it be delivered?

The scheme is situated in Bonded Warehouse, part of Enterprise City. In order to qualify for the scheme, businesses must meet at least one of the following criteria: the business has been trading for 1 – 3 years, it is headquartered in the UK, it is a digital tech business with a product or service to sell, has at least one active client or pilot in progress, or has ambitions of growing and scaling. Successful applications will receive subsidised workspace at Bonded Warehouse throughout the length of the programme, and be supported through the wider Enterprise City district once they become alumni.

Enterprise City is set in the heart of Manchester, and developed by Allied London, an award-winning property development and investment company, Exchange intends to create a collaborative community of like-minded, forward-thinking entrepreneurs and global organisations.

For more information about Exchange and to find out how businesses can join its latest cohort of tech entrepreneurs and global organisations, visit www.enterprisecityuk.com/exchange.

 

Finance and Banking, Investment News, Investor Advice, News

What are the key investment trends for 2021? New CAMRADATA whitepaper explores opportunities & risks for pension funds

CAMRADATA’s latest whitepaper, Trends for 2021 considers pension fund investment strategies and asks how schemes will refine their asset allocation to meet their funding and liquidity requirements in the current investment conditions.

The whitepaper includes insight from guests who attended a virtual roundtable hosted by CAMRADATA in December, including representatives from Newfleet Asset Management, Prestige Funds, State Street Global Advisors, Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Russell Investments, XPS Pensions Group and Secor Asset Management.

The report highlights that with retirees living longer and the average age of pension scheme members getting older, some asset owners are finding it difficult to guarantee the cash flow required to meet payments to retirees.

In this uncertain economic climate, some sponsoring companies are also finding it challenging to meet their funding commitments and to fulfil their employers’ covenant.

Sean Thompson, Managing Director, CAMRADATA said, “Confronted by a weak dividend outlook through 2020 and into 2021, some pension funds are increasing their allocations to investment grade, and sometimes high-yield, corporate debt to meet their cashflow needs. But they need to be watchful of a spike in default rates in corporate bond markets as governments wind down emergency support measures.

“Traditional areas of fixed income are likely to return very little in the short to medium term. Consequently, pension funds need to assume greater investment risk to generate a similar level of return that, 10 or 15 years ago, they could generate from their core bond holdings.

“More broadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has also forced the industry to re-examine its goals and ways of working. It has forced pension funds, and the asset managers and custodian banks they appoint, to move to remote working and to apply technology in new ways to deliver business continuity.

“Our panel considered which trends will shape this year for investors. High on the list of considerations were ESG, the economic recovery from Covid and inflation.”

The panel also discussed the biggest concerns for Defined Benefit pension schemes, including responsible investment strategies; long-term funding; the deterioration of scheme covenants’ impact on net cashflows; recovery from Covid; climate change; inflation and technology.

Another key concern is that US-China tensions will not go away simply because America has a new president. The panel discussed these concerns and the impact they may have on investment strategies, before moving on to examine the effects of Covid from the perspective of employers and their pension schemes and finishing with a discussion on gold.

Key takeaways points were:

  • A guest suggested that asset allocations were going to change in 2021, but predicted disinvestment from all risk assets, including some alternatives. The cause of this switch will be stagnant equity markets starting to reflect the underlying malaise in the economy. They also suggested that institutional investors will seek greater safety in gold.
  • Another guest gave more bullish predictions. They believe that equities will be one of the best-performing asset classes. The underlying rationale is that both households and corporates are sitting on huge amounts of cash.
  • The panel discussed overconfidence that was overflowing in financial markets. The FTSE (at the time of the roundtable) was up 20% up since October’s announcement regarding a likely Covid vaccine.
  • One guest questioned whether the news justified the increase, and warned that investors had to keep their eyes wide open on what is happening at a local level versus the markets.
  • Another said the economy is in a mess while spread levels and equity levels are back where they were before Covid struck. A natural conclusion is that markets offer less value now than they did then.
  • The panel warned that the next 24 months will expose those companies that have not grown earnings.
  • The panel ended by discussing gold, with one guest highlighting it would form a greater part of institutional investors’ portfolios as 2021 proves to be another year of disappointments.
  • Another said that “Gold is an insurance; you don’t buy insurance after an accident. You buy it because you don’t know the future. You buy it because you don’t know the future. That’s why you always keep a small portion”.
  • The conversation came back full circle to the economic outlook for the year ahead, with a final point from a guest, “I hope the optimists are correct but in the USA I am very worried about COVID. My big concern colours my whole outlook.”

To download the ‘Trends for 2021’ whitepaper click here

For more information on CAMRADATA visit www.camradata.com

Investment News, News

World-renowned Bird College demonstrates commitment to training performers despite COVID-19 challenges

One of the UK’s most acclaimed performing arts colleges, Bird College, has added a new state-of-the-art dance and theatre classroom to its facility, underlining the school’s commitment to future performers despite the industry’s recent struggles caused by the pandemic.

The new, two-storey building is a modular facility and the second of its kind in two years for the world-renowned college. It mirrors another classroom on-site, which was delivered back in 2019.

The project team for both facilities consisted of specialist asset management company, Solutions Asset Finance, and leading modular build supplier, Elliott Group.

Completion of this latest space has helped to ensure continuity of operation for the South London-based school during these challenging times, enabling them to take on more students and increase revenue at a time when the arts has been hit extremely hard.

When discussing the new facilities, Shirley Coen, CEO and Joint Principle of Bird College said: “We are thrilled with the results of the new teaching facility, which will go a long way in ensuring our students have access to the space and resources required for their education and training.

“Working with the teams at SAF and Elliott Group was a fantastic experience first time around, so it was obvious to us that we should work with them again when we needed a second facility. We were very impressed with both the quality of the building and the flexible finance agreement put in place to pay for it. The entire process was simple and seamless, and we hope to work with them again on future projects.”

With modular buildings being so flexible and reusable, the project is being viewed as a long-term investment strategy for the college, which wanted to increase space to accelerate the uptake of new pupils.

Jane Tabiner, Managing Director at Solutions Asset Finance, said: “We were thrilled when Bird College approached us about financing a new facility for a second time, following the success of the first project completed in 2019. It’s also wonderful to have played a role in helping them to increase their student cohort and revenue at such challenging times.

“We’ve collaborated with Elliott Group on projects for almost a decade and are confident their modular facilities are built with excellence in mind. Using asset finance to fund these facilities is a fantastic, long-term investment made by Bird College, which plays an important role in the UK’s performing arts industry. We look forward to working with both companies again in the future.”

Investment News, News

Surging investor interest in agriculture, fintech and medical startups, finds Angel Investment Network report

Angel Investment Network (AIN), the UK’s largest online angel investment platform, has revealed its latest ‘State of the Angel Investment Nation’ findings. It is based on the data of more than 125,000 UK registered businesses looking for funding and 35,000 UK investors.

Technology remained the top category of interest for angel investors looking to back businesses in 2020. Meanwhile, finance closed the gap, climbing five places to become the second most popular category for searches. In the year of the pandemic, medical & science climbed two places with a surge in investors backing entrepreneurs focused on improving health outcomes. We also witnessed a huge growth in interest in agriculture which saw a rise of 63% in searches and climbed seven places to become the eighth most searched term.

For entrepreneurs, property is the most popular sector for pitch ideas. Entertainment and leisure is the second, followed by fashion and beauty. This highlights something of a mismatch between the sectors in need of funding and the sectors investors are interested in backing.

AIN has also revealed the UK’s top entrepreneurial hot spots. London’s share of all pitch ideas has fallen slightly, although it remains responsible for 36% of all pitch ideas. The South East is second in the list with the North West number three. Growth in both Wales and Scotland outperformed the rest of the UK seeing a rise in the number of pitches as the startup culture continues to flourish across the UK.

According to AIN co-founder Mike Lebus: “It has been an extraordinary year with so many lives and businesses impacted by the virus. However in the face of unprecedented challenges, we have witnessed the resilience and adaptability of UK startups working to bring solutions to the problems of our time. From innovations in finance, technology bringing people together during social distancing to the wonders of medicine and science. It’s no surprise these are the businesses gaining interest and investment from our investors.”

“We are also seeing the nascent development of ag-tech and brilliant technological solutions tackling the very real challenges we face of feeding the population and maximising efficiencies and yields. The challenges of climate change are undimmed and this is a sector that is at the forefront of that battle.”

He continued: “While London has been dominant in the past we are now seeing the comparative growth of other nations and regions in the UK as our embedded startup culture takes further root. We can look forward to a continuing resurgence across the country as we emerge from this difficult period.”

Top 10 Sectors for Pitches:

1. Property
2. Entertainment & Leisure
3. Fashion & Beauty
4. Technology
5. Food & Beverage
6. Software
7. Retail
8. Hospitality, Restaurants & Bars
9. Finance
10. Business Services

Top 10 Sectors for Investors:
1. Technology
2. Finance
3. Software
4. Medical & Sciences
5. Property
6. Food & Beverage
7. Energy & Natural Resources
8. Agriculture
9. Entertainment & Leisure
10. Retail

The entrepreneur hotspot list is as follows (based on number of pitches from each region):

1. London
2. South East
3. North West
4. South West
5. West Midlands
6. East Midlands
7. Scotland
8. East Anglia
9. Yorkshire and Humber
10. Wales
11. North East
12. Northern Ireland

 

Investment, Investment News

Psigma Investment Management confirms it will no longer apply VAT on the Managed Portfolio Service (MPS)

Psigma Investment Management has confirmed that it will no longer apply VAT on the Managed Portfolio Service (MPS), effective from 1 January 2021. This will apply to MPS, MPS on platforms and the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) range of MPS.

A spokesman for the company said:

“This change means that we can now offer our adviser partners and their clients our asset allocation expertise and investment management services at a lower overall cost, regardless of which MPS service they choose to invest in.”

Andrew Cantouris, Head of Psigma Investment Management, added:

“This is a very positive step, which enables us to offer our highly rated, core model-based investment management services, including our recently launched SRI MPS range, at an even more competitive price, benefiting and doing the right thing for clients.”

For more information, please visit: https://www.psigma.com/