A corporate financing agency is launching the first Investor Pitch Expo as part of plans to accelerate funding into existing UK businesses.
 
Ethos Corporate Finance, a boutique corporate financing group, will launch the first Investor Pitch Expo at Leeds Armouries on 21 September. The one-day event is expected to feature 50 existing companies from the region and the UK looking for funding to expand their businesses.
 
Investor Pitch Expo is the first time Ethos has attempted to run its own trade show. Ethos partner Chris Silverwood claimed the 50 venture capital firms and 100 business angels already signed up to attend have morethan £2bn in cash available for fresh investments.
 
“Start-up companies wanting to raise cash are well look after by existing events,” Silverwood told EN. “Our new event is for existing companies that want £5m or more in funding as part of a stage two expansion of their businesses.”
 
Ethos said the nature of the live event will put the focus on companies with tangible products in areas like manufacturing, technology, food, printing, haulage, engineering and biotechnology. A particularly strong sector will be those with products applicable to emerging markets.
 
“There is this pre-conception that there’s no money out there but there’s lots of equity available,” Silverwood continued. “What is happening is investors are not seeing enough good-quality deals to put their money into.”
 
Silverwood agreed a tightening of funding from the banks was also making it difficult for companies to find the money to take the next step.
 
“This event is a good way of these business angels to meet other types of business and will help fast-track the process of stage two companies finding investors,” he said. “I expect our exhibitors to come out with two or three potential investors.”
 
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