PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

  Developing a competitive knowledge-based economy usually requires two important elements namely entrepreneurs with ambitious businesses and a strong investor base that can provide the vital equity funding that can turbo boost the numbers of growing firms that can create wealth and employment The degree to which these two factors impact on the different nations and regions of the UK is the subject of an excellent new report from the British Business Bank entitled “Regions and Nations Tracker: Small Business Finance Markets 2021”. Drawing on information from data specialists Beauhurst, it shows that there have been nearly 15,000 private external equity deals small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK.  It proposes that at the heart of developing high growth businesses and a positive environment for investment is the relationship formed between the investor and the companies. Most important of all, the entrepreneur must be as happy with the investor as the investor...

I have been very fortunate in my career to work with some brilliant young academics who have gone to make a real impact in their field. One of these is Dr Niall Mackenzie , who joined the University of Wales from Cambridge University five years ago before leaving to go back home to a lectureship at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde University. Niall has been undertaking a number of research studies since he arrived back in Glasgow and possibly one of the most influential has been his analysis of the performance of Archangels, Scotland’s oldest business angel group . Business angels – those private individuals investing in unquoted companies - have received growing attention and recognition for their activities in the UK in the last 25 years. Their investments typically involve receiving equity that is reduced with further rounds of financing for investee companies. As would be expected with such transactions, angel investment involves a risk of failure but...

For many small growing firms, individual informal investors play a vital role in supporting their development. These so-called ‘business angels” are defined as individuals, acting alone or in a formal or informal syndicate, who invest their own money directly in unquoted businesses in which there is no family connection in the hope of financial gain. They also, after making the investment, take an active involvement in the business either as a mentor, adviser or member of the board. They are therefore important additions to the funding market for early stage businesses and potentially, given the reluctance of banks to lend to such firms, have a critical role to play in ensuring a strong private sector-led recovery within the UK economy. Unfortunately, there is very little data available on business angels and their investments on a regional level. The best proxy for this, at least in terms of informal investment by individuals into SMEs, is the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS...