BBAA awards

The British Business Angels Association announced the winners of its annual awards mid June at its annual conference held in London. The nominations and winners of each category of awards were as follows:

Business Angel Funded deal with Young Management:

82ASK/c2Ventures sponsor (CEO Sarah McVittie (28) and CPO Thomas Roberts (28), met while working as financial analysts in London); Imagineer Systems, (Allan is one of the youngest entrepreneurs to raise funds through the London Business Angel network, raising £400,000 in 2004 at 28 years old); and Screen Select, which secured 80% of the online DVD rental market merged with Video Island and Lovefilm in the past year.

Most Exiting new entrant to the market:

Beer and Partners – to reduce the risks to investors, Beer and Partners is offering a new portfolio method of investing in early stage health technology; Seraphim Capital Fund, Seraphim’s partners include Business Angel networks from the South East represented by London Business Angels and PiCapital, Advantage Business Angels in the Midlands; South West Angel and Investor Network Limited (SWAIN), SWAIN held its first meeting in May 2004 since when it has established itself as an active and vibrant network with a reputation for doing deals having completed 15 deals in the year ended March 31, 2006.

Most promising investment in a Technology Firm:

Plant Impact plc, RisingStars looks for very early stage companies with the potential to achieve a market capitalisation of £10m to £20m within three years; Intec, London Business Angels identified in Intec Power Holdings Ltd an early stage green-technology that has the potential reduce the cost of electricity; Orthos Limited, within a year of meeting the angels Orthos’s more credible plan had succeeded in raising £250,000 in equity from Angels and GEIF as well as a £250,000 SFLG from HSBC; Phynova Group plc, this company has licensed a number of Chinese medicines from the Chinese government and is developing them for the European and US market.

Business Angel of the Year:

Brian Whitaker, nominated again for this award, Brian has made a total of six investments through TEChINVEST in the last two years (totalling in excess of £400,000); Nazim Manji, he has been working with angel networks in the South East of England for several years last year investing in the Natural Company, Oakfields Care and James Allan Construction; Vanish Patel, he has made successful divestments during last year including his investment into Vibrant Media during the post bubble crash that delivered a 17x return to angel investors; and Stephen Hannam, who made four investments during 2005.

Best Syndicated Deal:

London Seed Capital (LSC) investment in Bac2 Ltd and LSC proceeded to help secure twice the initial amount sought; Moixa Energy Ltd & c2Ventures Limited/Eyes of Texas Syndicate, (Moixa Energy is a new company that is developing and launching pioneering battery technology and is founded by serial entrepreneur Simon Daniel, the inventor of the folding PDA keyboard, which sold over two million units globally); and Plant Impact plc, TEChINVEST, a member the RisingStars Growth Fund, invested £50,000 as initial seed capital followed by further syndicated funding from RisingStars and angel investors.

Most Creative Deal Structure of the Year:

London Seed Capital investment in Bac2 Ltd, London Seed Capital led the first round of funding of £500,000 into Bac2 Ltd in conjunction with the London Business Angel Network and the newly raised LBA EIS Tracker Fund III; and RisingStars Growth Fund/TEChINVEST investment in Plant Impact plc, the company proposes to float on AIM during 2006 having been formed in 2003, and in 2004, TEChINVEST member the RisingStars Growth Fund, invested £50,000 as initial seed capital followed by further syndicated funding from RisingStars and angel investors.