PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Research has shown that by far the most significant source of equity capital for high growth potential businesses are individual informal investors (or business angels). These are individuals who provide support for the formal venture capital sector by seeking out new entrepreneurs and nurturing them up to be investment-ready, thereby raising the number of start-ups and increasing the deal flow for venture capital companies. In this respect, business angels are widely recognized to play a key role in the first round of equity capital of ‘the funding escalator’ prior to entry by venture capital for a small proportion of companies. Indeed, contrary to popular myths about entrepreneurial finance, the vast majority of successful high growth potential businesses taking equity finance do not receive venture capital funding even in the most developed capital markets such as the USA. During the last few years, the UK has benefited from a number of policies that have provided incentiv...

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...