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 London Bridge: Glaziers Hall.
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 13:45 – Registration
13:45 to 14:30 – Welcome and Seminar Session 1
14:30 to 15:10 – Case Study Session 1
15:10 to 15:40 – Networking Break
15:40 to 16:20 – Seminar Session 2
16:20 to 17:00 – Case Study Session 2
17:00 to 17:15 – Wrap Up with Guest Speaker
17:15 to 18:00 – Networking with Refreshments.
Session One Synopsis – 13:45 to 14:30
This session will set the scene, by:
• Providing an overview of the current options, available to Growing Companies, when planning to raise Equity
• Presenting a strategic framework to Equity funding – from first round funding through to positioning for an “Exit”
• Highlighting key legal and contractual considerations when engaging with shareholders
Session one will feature:
Chris Dines – CEO of Informed Funding
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.
Malcolm Holloway – Director of EFM
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’.
Our Case Study Sessions – 14:30 to 15:10 & 16:20 to 17:00
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.
Steven Renwick, CEO and Founder of Fintech www.satago.com that has raised Crowd Equity, Seed Capital and more recently £1.6m of Venture Capital combined with £3m of debt.
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 London.
Amit Sankey, CEO and Founder of SME loans specialist www.wirefund.com – a business launched in July this year.
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.
Stephen Folwell, CEO of “storage by the box” www.lovespace.co.uk that has raised over £2m from three Equity crowdfunding rounds.
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 London Business School.
Rod Brown, Co-Founder of “proptech” www.opun.co.uk that has raised £1.24m of seed capital followed by £3m of series A funding.
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.
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.
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).
Seminar Session Two Synopsis – 15:40 to 16:20
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.
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 London 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.
Anthony Waller – Head of Technology, Corporate Partner at Olswang LLP
Anthony has been a Partner at Olswang since 2008 and has been at the firm since the year 2000. Anthony deals with all aspects of corporate work, including private company and business acquisitions and disposals, public takeovers, schemes of arrangement, fundraisings, venture capital investments and IPOs, joint ventures and reorganisations. Anthony works alongside Olswang’s international Corporate team that extends across offices in Europe and Singapore.
Anthony is Joint Head of the firm’s Technology practice and the head of the firm’s Corporate Technology practice. Anthony has advised clients in the technology sector for many years. As well as advising established international companies in the technology sector on a variety of transactions and public company issues, Anthony founded the Olswang equIP Programme and leads the team focused on high growth technology companies, acting for both the companies themselves and investors into the sector.
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 London Business School in 2012.
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 London. 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.
