Investors urged to breath life into technology start-ups

START-UP technology businesses in Birmingham will be trying to woo investors during a series of investor roadshows.

The start-ups have participated in the first phase of the Oxygen Accelerator growth scheme, based at Birmingham Science Park Aston.

The mentoring scheme is run along similar lines to the successful Y Combinator project run out of Silicon Valley.

During the 12-week programme each of the nine companies enrolled in the programme have received one-to-one mentoring from a team of 60 professionals to help them refine their ideas and make their businesses a success.

The businesses, which will aim to raise on average £300,000 each, cover a broad range of disciplines, including social media, gaming, video, education and retail. In return for a soft loan of up to £20,000, the firms surrender a 6% equity stake to cover relocation costs.

The first phase is now nearing its end and the fledgling companies, which are from Estonia, Romania and India, as well as the UK, are hoping to secure the investment that will enable them to move to the next stage of their development.

Mark Hales, founder of Oxygen Accelerator, said: “The aim of the accelerator programmes like ours is to take a great entrepreneurial idea and put the business structure around it so that a venture capitalist can invest. It ensures the core fundamentals are taken care of, such as securing all intellectual property, as well as preparing financial essentials such as P&L and cash flow forecasts.

“Technology entrepreneurs can work wherever they want in the world, and will usually gravitate towards wherever talent is available and there is money on offer.

“By looking for investors from the UK to support these businesses, we hope they will stay here and flourish – creating jobs and wealth as part of the high-tech knowledge economy both the government and Birmingham City Council see as a key part of economic recovery for the region and the country generally.”

The first roadshow takes place at the science park today, followed by a similar event in London.

Mazars has provided financial advice to the start-up companies, aided by legal advice from Cobbetts.

Adrian Cutler, partner at Cobbetts in Birmingham said: “Oxygen Accelerator has brought some of the world’s most exciting technology start-up companies to the UK. Not only are there obvious economic benefits in attracting these firms to our shores, but the programme also provides a unique opportunity for investors in Birmingham to support the development of real game-changing technology.”

Over 100 technology entrepreneurs and businesses including Google, Amazon and PayPal have supported the programme.