Category: Latest News

We are delighted to be sharing the news that we have supported Habitude with their funding round! They have a really compelling team and super solution in a large and sticky market.

Habitude is a SaaS workflow management platform for school groups.

Habitude takes complexity – that’s all of the parts that make up a school group’s infrastructure i.e. data of all the types, the different systems being used, and the people doing the work – and ties them together into automated workflows. It can help with everything from onboarding a new member of staff consistently across all schools, to making sure that every step of a Trust’s complaint process is followed.

Having launched in July 2022 Habitude is now working with 12 multi academy trusts representing 80 schools to solve complex admin across all functional areas.

Izzi Dorrian, Co-Founder Habitude said, “We really enjoyed working with angelgroups. Not only did they give us excellent support and feedback to help us to craft the narrative for our pitch, but we met some fantastic investors who are supporting us in the next stage of our organisation’s growth.”

We wish them every success on their exciting journey!

This video was shot a few years ago, but we still get the same responses from businesses who pitch with us.

Aside from the main purpose of the event, which is investment and support,
the founders also get a huge amount of value from spending the afternoon with the other founders who are pitching. Entrepreneurs have a way of gravitating towards each other, as they are on the same journey.

We like to make introductions between the founders we support, even if they’re not pitching at the same event. If we have worked with a founder in a similar space and we feel there is great synergy to be had, then we ensure those connections are made.

We are a people focussed angel group.

Watch our video HERE.

When we ask founders if they had a nice bank holiday weekend their response has been “what weekend?!”.

When you research how many hours on average an entrepreneur works it’s quite alarming. They are some of the hardest working professionals, but they are more at risk of burnout as a result.

We have known founders fly back in the middle of their family holiday to pitch at an event. A lot of them are also juggling two jobs to support their families and their startup. The entrepreneurial journey is often portrayed as being glamorous, but the reality can be quite different.

This article suggests ways to stop founder burnout in its tracks. The startup community is incredibly supportive, so if you’re a founder that needs a sounding board, this is a great place to start. If you need help in locating a startup community, just get in touch.

 

April is off to a brilliant start!

We are due to close four deals this month, which we are delighted about. The founders have worked so hard through the due diligence process and have been a pleasure to work with. We are just going through the final steps before the funding will hit their accounts.

The investors are really getting involved in these opportunities, which will provide the businesses with support and mentorship as they accelerate their growth journeys.

If you’re looking for funding we would be delighted to hear from you. You can register HERE.

Calling all investors 📢

We are running an online event on the 10th May (5pm – 6pm) on ‘The Tax Implications of Angel Investing’. Simon Whiteside, Partner at Ryecroft Glenton will be delivering the talk and will be covering:

The Taxation of Angel Investing in SEIS/EIS Qualifying Opportunities

– Initial Investment
– Gains/returns
– Losses
– Tax Return

If you are interested in attending, please register as an investor on our website and we will share the details.

Good luck to this afternoon’s pitching founders!

We’re over in Manchester for this afternoon’s pitch event, where we have five businesses pitching for funding and support.

The founding teams have all worked so hard to get ready for this week’s events, we have no doubt they will deliver excellent presentations. We’re looking forward to collating the angel feedback and supporting the businesses through the next stage of their funding journeys.

We had some wonderful feedback from one of recent female founders that we wanted to share:

“We are thrilled to write a review of angelgroups. The experience was nothing short of outstanding, thanks to the exceptional support, videos, and one-to-one service provided by Martin and Amber.

From the very beginning, angelgroups made it clear that they were committed to helping our company secure the funding we needed to take our business to the next level. Their support was second to none, with clear and concise explanations of the entire process and what we could expect along the way. The videos provided by angelgroups were extremely informative and well-produced, making it easy for us to understand the process and what was expected of us as we prepared to pitch our company.

Pitching for funding in front of angel investors can be a daunting task, especially when you have never ever done it before, but with Martin’s support, we felt confident and well-prepared. Martin’s expertise and guidance helped us to craft a compelling pitch that resonated with the investors, and his one-to-one support throughout the process was invaluable. Overall, we felt incredibly supported by Martin and Angelgroups, and we are grateful for the opportunity to have worked with them.

Thanks to the exceptional support and service provided by Angelgroups and Martin, we were able to successfully pitch our company. I cannot recommend Angelgroups highly enough. Their expertise, professionalism, and commitment to their clients are truly unparalleled in the industry.”

Today is International Women’s Day!

There are some incredible events being run across the world today, we will be joining and learning from some of them this morning. You can view some of the events HERE.

We work with incredible women on a daily basis, and celebrate women founders. Today we are in Leeds for our latest pitch event, where two of this afternoon’s pitching businesses are women run (and they’re fantastic!).

We can’t wait for the investors to review their opportunities, and are looking forward to supporting them through their funding journey. For now, it’s time to join some of these fantastic events!

#IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity

We had a great time attending yesterday afternoon’s Northern Angel Summit in Leeds.

Our Founder Martin Avison was on the ‘ ‘Why is now the time for angel investing?’ panel hosted by Jordan Dargue from NorthInvest, alongside Paul Munn from Par Equity, Roderick Beer MD of the UK Business Angels Association, Gordon Bateman the Founder of Investor Ladder, and David Pearce, angel investor.

Yesterday afternoon was full of fantastic speakers and the event is one of three events for the North.

It was great to see a spotlight on Northern based opportunities and investments.

The British Business Bank’s ninth annual Small Business Finance Market 2022/23 report is out today and highlights a rise in the number of equity deals in the Yorkshire and Humber regions for smaller businesses.

In these regions there were 67 announced equity investments into smaller businesses in the first three quarters of 2022. This is a 3% increase compared to the equivalent period of 2021.

The investment value of these deals also increased by 96% to £214m, the highest increase of all UK regions and nations.

You can read the full report HERE.

On the morning of the 23rd we are running our Supporting High Growth in the North East event where we are inviting founders to come hear from our fantastic speakers:

– RTC North, High Growth Support Iain Edwards

– Ryecroft Glenton, R&D Tax Credits and SEIS/EIS simon whiteside

– Ward Hadaway, the main legal considerations James Nightingale

– Barclays Eagle Labs and the High Growth Team Sally Curtis, David Summerbell

 

You can register for this event HERE

In the afternoon we will be running our usual online pitch event, where we have 4 brilliant businesses set to pitch.

Roll on next week! We’re excited to get these events underway.

A busy day in Leeds!

This morning we ran an in-person due diligence session where some of our local angels sat down with a business to go through the investment opportunity. A lot of our investors prefer to meet face to face with the founders that they are looking to invest in. After all, they are investing in the people as much as the business.

After a quick lunch we then welcomed the rest of the Leeds angel group to the afternoon’s pitch event along with four new fantastic businesses. We’re looking forward to supporting them through the next stages of their funding journey.

A big thank you to Schroders Personal Wealth for hosting today’s event.