Dragons Lair IV - Tech Investments Series
Event Info
Description
The Dragon's Lair format was first introduced a year ago in Dec 08. Started as an experiment, Dragons Lair is now a regular feature of Techcelerate Calendar. The Dragons Lair II in Mar 2009 saw an investor making two offers. Dragons Lair III in June 2009 ran as part of Tech Mission 09 attracted angel investors such as Michael Birch of Bebo.
Dragon's Lair provides a compelling environment for early stage technology companies to pitch to a panel of investors. Whilst the audience does not take an active part, among the audience, you will find angel investors and venture capitalists or those who could make a difference to your business.
Dragons Lair is arranged as two sessions, each session with four companies pitching to a panel of 3 to 4 Dragons. Each company is given 5 minutes to deliver a razor-sharp pitch and the Dragons have 10 mins to quiz the entrepreneur.
Business Plan Summary for Dragons Lair - Business Plan Template If you wish to grab one of the slots available, now is the time to get in touch. Cost to pitch is £60+VAT for Members and £80+VAT for Non Members. Membership is £150+VAT per year, which give free access to all our events and access to discounted accountancy and legal services among many other benefits. To download the application form, click on the thumbnail and then the link in description for an editable document.
Companies have sought from £50,000 to £2 million in the past and included DataNovata, Image Alchemy, LocallyCompared.com, Phonefromhere.com, Ibexis, CompetitiveUrge, TalentOnView, FaceTec, Robotics, InstantTicketSeller, PostDox, RecycleLocal, TourDust, DCS, CaptivePortals, mapme.at, Slicethepie, Siondo, theWeddingVine.com, 15SecondTV, BitCoin, et al.
Past Dragons included Amin Amiri (A2E Venture Catalysts), Andrew Nutter (Balderton Capital), Michael Birch (Profounders Fund), Nic Brisbourne (DFJ Esprit), Steve Purdham (Angel Investor and CEO We7.com), Scott Fletcher (Angel Investor and Chairman ANS Group), Scott Livingston (Angel Investor), Roy Shelton (Drop Jaw Ventures), Andrew Burton (Viking Fund), Simon Howship (Angel Investor), Alex Stevenson (Aquarius Venture Partners), Daniel Waterhouse (Wellington Partners), et al
DRAGONS
Amin Amiri's picture
Amin Amiri - a2e Venture Catalysts
Having won ACQ Small/Mid Size Equity House of the Year Award for the last two consecutive years, brains behind a2e venture catalysts, Amin has defied the economic downturn by investing wisely, returning £5m for an investment of £100k made in 2003. NS20 history: Amin has already invested in to one company and has made two further offers, which are currently under negotiation.
Ajaz Ahmed's picture
Ajaz Ahmed - Business Angel (Freeserve Founder, exit for £1.6 billion)
Ajaz Ahmed is the Founder of Freeserve, the UK’s largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) now known as Orange. His eureka moment came when he bought a PC at PC World in Leeds and nobody in the store could tell him how to get onto the Internet. After much persuasion by him, Dixons launched Freeserve in September 1998 and became the UK’s largest ISP in just three short months. It floated just nine months later at a market cap of £1.5bn and entered the FT 100 soon after, in March 2000 it had a market cap of £9bn. Ajaz was one of the three founding executives to launch the business, seeing it through flotation and the £1.6bn sale to Wanadoo. Ajaz held the position of Business Development Director until April 2001 when he left the company to pursue a variety of business interests. He now sits a number of boards and has a number of investments which he is actively involved in and he also sits on the Governing Council at the University of Huddersfield.
Andrew Nutter's picture
Andrew Nutter - Balderton Capital
Andrew can invest from £250k up to growth capital of about £25m and is agnostic to stage, geography and industry, looking for amazing entrepreneurs with big ideas
Prior to joining Balderton Capital, Andrew worked with McKinsey & Company, a leading management consultancy, advising clients across a range of industries in the UK, India and the Middle East. While at McKinsey, Andrew worked with the senior management and boards of various companies, in telecoms and media sectors amongst others, to address their most significant business challenges. These included how to respond to disruptive competitive threats, expand internationally, manage billion dollar portfolios and make operational improvements to remain world-class enterprises. Andrew also worked with London-based management consultants, Candesic, understanding and appraising the commercial viability of businesses across Europe. Prior to this, Andrew spent time with a number of technology start-ups and financial services companies, and taught Economics at Stanford as a university teaching assistant. Andrew holds a MA in International Policy Studies from Stanford University and an MA in Economics from Cambridge University.
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COMPANIES
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Whamoosh - Online Greeting cards with a twist
Whamoosh! launched its online ‘print to demand’ personalised greeting cards and gifts website in Nov 2009. Although Whamoosh! competes head on with market leader Moonpig (£20m turnover/£6.7m profit – 2008) the company has an exclusive licence to a patented face personalisation platform that gives the company a USP and exceptionally high barrier to entry offer. The company has also built a best in class web platform with added value services. Online personalisation is just 2% (mostly Moonpig) of the £1.5billion UK greeting card market (excluding gifts) and is expected to grow to between 10-15% (£150>£225m) of the market within the next five years
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Little World Gifts - Virtual Gifts
Little World Gifts is a boutique store full of festive curios and trinkets to surprise, delight and amuse during the festive season. The free Little World Gifts iPhone App lets you browse a range of gorgeous, handcrafted, 3D, interactive digital gifts, and send them to your friends. And of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas if you couldn’t play with your presents too.
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Smartlife Technology
SmartLife® Technology Ltd is a UK based technology company providing intelligent body monitoring garment technology, via channel partners and licensees into a range of commercial and public sector markets.
