Investment boost for green UK companies
A new service is aiming to help UK environmental companies get access to global investors.
The move, called Gateway to Global Investors, involves City financier AngelBourse which has teamed up with trade association the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC).
The UK’s green industry is emerging as a major player in the global environmental market, predicted to be worth US$700bn (€303.95bn) by 2010, and finance will be a requirement to their growth.
AngelBourse and the EIC envisage that the new service, where AngelBourse acts as a “gateway” to global investors, will not only fill the investment gap but also prove a major incentive to environmental technology companies.
The service creates a network accessing all sources of finance from sophisticated investors to institutional investors and hedge funds.
The involvement of venture capitalists, banks, fund managers and angel investors is small compared to activity in the biotechnology and IT industries.
The new service is to be launched today in the British House of Lords.
UK Environment minister Ian Pearson, the guest speaker, said: “There is a real need amongst young environmental technology firms to have more interaction with the financial sector – to understand their investment criteria and the terms on which they are prepared to invest.
“I hope this initiative will help improve the quality of deal flow in this sector and at the same time raise the profile of this growing industry.”
Guy Saxton, chief executive of AngelBourse, said: “Growth companies power our economy and can deliver astonishing returns, yet they rarely get enough funding to achieve their full potential.
“AngelBourse addresses this by forging links between unquoted investment opportunities and smart, risk-aware institutional and major private investors.
“We provide investors access to ambitious, early-stage companies with high growth potential and help those companies focus on those milestones which are crucial to investors.
“This is a unique service for the UK’s environmental industry. Nothing else like this exists.”
Adrian Wilkes, executive chairman of EIC, said: “This is a vital new service for the UK’s environmental industry, which is dominated by SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) who often have problems raising growth finance.
“It will help them seize the huge new business opportunities in the fast-growing worldwide environmental markets and so boost the UK’s international competitiveness.”
