Informed Funding’s Finance Seminars are aimed squarely at business owners, focusing on the critical finance challenges they face. This event is designed for business owners that are considering raising additional equity capital – whatever stage of development.

 

The event will combine access to a range of expert guidance, real case studies with entrepreneurs, and the chance to meet a range of different suppliers of capital.

 

This will be a packed afternoon that promises to make great use of scarce time, held at a fantastic venue, overlooking the Thames at Bridge: . 

Feedback on our last Informed Funding Seminar.

 

•    Covered the topic comprehensively with companies you could talk to if you had a need.
•    Short, punchy, good networking opportunities.
•    Really good speakers discussing topics at a human level. Topics discussed relate to real concerns and considerations.

 

 

Customers of the Workspace Group have free premium access to Informed Funding including free membership and preferential access to our seminars.

 

Others may purchase a single ticket for £40+ (VAT)

 

Timetable:

13:30 to 14:00 – Registration

14:00 to 14:20 – Welcome and Introductory Session with Chris Dines

14:20 to 15:10 – Case Study Session 1

15:10 to 15:40 – Networking Break

15:40 to 16:30 – Seminar Session 2

16:30 to 17:10 – Case Study Session 2

17:10 to 17:30  – Top Tips from a Top Tech Lawyer with Anthony Waller from Olswang

17:30 to 19:00  – Networking with Refreshments and Drinks 

 

Welcome and Introductory Session with Chris Dines: 

 

Chris Dines – CEO of Informed Funding

 

Chris Dines will present a strategic overview of the Equity Options available to businesses at different points in their development, together with an update on how the funding market for New and Growing Companies is currently developing. 

 

 

Chris has direct experience of raising Equity for the businesses he has built - including friends and family, Angels, Venture Capital and an IPO.

 

 

Chris is a chartered accountant who qualified with PWC and spent 10 years with the firm specialising in the middle market. He has since had various FD and CEO roles, including AIM listed Ovum plc, Europe's largest technology research business which was acquired by Datamonitor in 2006.

 

Chris has since successfully founded Knowledge Peers, a specialist in developing online, P2P knowledge-sharing networks, such as the Charity Leaders’ Exchange and Alternative Funding Network. Chris created the concept for Informed Funding due to his experience in witnessing the challenges that businesses have in raising finance.

 

Our Case Study Sessions – 14:20 to 15:10 & 16:30 to 17:10

 

We will meet business entrepreneurs that have recently raised Equity Capital through different channels. A great chance to learn of real experiences from those who have recently been through the process of raising equity.

 

Rod Brown, Co-Founder of “proptech”  that has raised £1.24m of seed capital followed by £3m of series A funding. Case Study Session Chair 

 

 

Rod Brown is a former officer in the Royal Navy who has worked in multi-channel customer services, retail services and he was, until 2012, the Services Director for Tesco. In between working for larger companies, he has been an associate consultant for McKinsey & Co. and for boutique consulting firms specialising in System Dynamics and strategy simulations (a bit like Age of Empires but for business!).

 

Rod has been managing director of consumer technology companies The PC Guys and Tesco Tech Support and is now CEO of Opun, a Proptech home improvement business that completed its Series A in February 2016.

 

 

Emily Bendell, CEO and Founder of Bluebella , a multi-award winning lingerie and nightwear brand. Bluebella are raising £500,000 on Crowdcube - .  Session 1 - 14:20 to 15:10 

 

 

Founded in 2005 by Emily Bendell, the story and vision for Bluebella was simple. Fashion-led luxurious lingerie and nightwear collections made with the highest quality at an affordable price. Bluebella is a lingerie brand with strength and modernity at its heart; designed to redefine sensuality.

 

Amit Sankey, CEO and Founder of SME loans specialist  – a business launched in July this year. Session 1 - 14:20 to 15:10 

 

 

Amit started his career with Citibank UK. His primary remit was to manage the organisations lending facilities for small to medium businesses in emerging markets.

 

Amit’s desire to launch his own venture led to him build a successful baby food company. Managing this large scale import business gave Amit first hand experience of ongoing cash flow demands. This in turn sparked the idea of a loan facility that could offer its customers a daily repayment option.

 

 

Richard Heyns, Founder and CEO of brytlyt www.brytlyt.com that overfunded to £306,000 (153% of its target) in September 2016 with the help of 31 SyndicateRoom investors. Session 1 - 14:20 to 15:10 

 

 

Richard was responsible for the initial and ongoing research in bringing processing database operations to General Processing on Graphics Processor Units. The intellectual property in natively parallelisable algorithms which emerged from this research forms the foundation of brytlyt's high performance data platform.

 

Richard brings 15 years experience working on large business intelligence, Big Data projects and software development. He has been responsible for leading architecture and design decisions, strategic approach to software development, quality assurance, testing and best practice. Richard has also led development teams. He was the senior technical architect and led a large team of SQL developers across two continents when dunnhumby migrated their flagship customer insight product to Oracle Exadata. Richard brings a wealth of experience gained from a diverse career, spanning pharma (Novartis) mining and minerals (BHP Billiton), chemicals (Rockwood), customer insight (dunnhumby) and budget travel (Jet2).

 

Steven Renwick, CEO and Founder of Fintech  that has raised Crowd Equity, Seed Capital and more recently £1.6m of Venture Capital combined with £3m of debt. Session 2 - 16:30 to 17:10

 

 

Steven started Satago after experiencing the problem of late-paying customers in his family business in the construction sector and deciding to build something to help tackle the problem.

 

Prior to starting Satago, Steven was Director of Global Projects at Rocket Internet, one of the world’s largest eCommerce investment companies, where he helped launch dozens of companies worldwide. He has an MBA from the University of Oxford and in a previous life was a research scientist, with a PhD in Genetics from University College .

 

Stephen Folwell, CEO of “storage by the box”  that has raised over £2m from three Equity crowdfunding rounds. Session 2 - 16:30 to 17:10

 

 

Steve Folwell is the co-founder and Chief Executive of LOVESPACE.  Prior to founding LOVESPACE, Steve was a Director at the Guardian Media Group, where he was responsible for digital P&L of £12m profit and all new venture activity.  He also launched the first red-button interactive TV when at ITV and co-led McKinsey’s media practice in the UK. Steve holds an MA in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Business School.

 

Seminar Session Two Synopsis – 15:40 to 16:30

 

We bring together a panel of senior executives from organisations that can supply capital for NGCs – and we include Venture Capital, Crowd Funding and Angel Networks. This will be a great opportunity to put such decision makers on the spot, and find out what is currently attractive to them as potential investors.

 

Malcolm Holloway – Director of EFM - Session Chair 

 

 

Malcolm is a Director of the EFM Network and provides hands on, on-site finance support, operating either as Finance Director or by providing team members to assist in other finance roles.

 

Malcolm works with multiple organisations providing hands on, on-site finance support either by personally acting as Finance Director or by providing team members to assist in other finance roles. Malcolm shares the experiences not just of his profession but also from practical experience of running many businesses.

 

Malcolm is also Finance Director of Rivers Capital Partners Ltd, the ‘Entrepreneurs Fund Manager’.

 

Francesca O'Brien – Head of Private Markets at SyndicateRoom

 

 

Fran is responsible for managing the private deals listed on SyndicateRoom.

 

Fran previously worked with the legal team responsible for preparing victim and witness statements for the Leveson Inquiry, and within the schools and education department of the Borough of Ealing Council. She joined SyndicateRoom to immerse herself in the unique challenge that comes from working at an ambitious, rapidly growing company, within an exciting and disruptive industry.

 

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Jeffrey Faustin – Investment Manager at Jenson Solutions

 

 

Jeffrey joined Jenson Partners in 2013. He started off his career as a design consultant and has worked as a project manager and a technical director on projects worldwide. Jeffrey holds a BSc and MSc (with Distinction) in Engineering (2004), qualified as a Chartered Engineer in 2007 and gained an MBA from Business School in 2012.

 

Oliver Woolley -  CEO and Co-Founder at Envestors Limited

 

 

Envestors brings sophisticated investors from around the world together with unquoted companies looking for equity funding between £500,000 and £10m. Envestors have a network of more than 2,000 investors looking to invest a minimum of £25,000 in companies we select as interesting investment opportunities.

 

Established in 2004, Envestors, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, receives 100 business plans a month, from which it completes two deals with its Private Investor Club, comprising 750 members looking to invest up to £10m in high-growth businesses.  

 

Henry Alty – Associate Director at Livingbridge

 

 

Henry meets with entrepreneurs and management teams running high quality businesses in sectors with the potential for rapid growth. Livingbridge invests where there is an opportunity for them to bring money, their network and their experience to dramatically increase a company’s value. Before joining Livingbridge Henry spent some years sourcing and helping to develop technology businesses at another private equity firm. His focus was software companies and managed service providers.

 

 

 

Informed Funding is Sponsored by Workspace.

 

Workspace is home to some 4000 New and Growing Companies. It provides unique office space, co-working and meeting rooms in over 65 business centres across . Workspace provides the right environment for its customers to grow, offering business grade connectivity, access to key partner services and a rolling programme of business insight and networking events.

 

 

With Thanks to our Event Sponsors: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With thank to our Event Supporters: