Thirty social enterprises aim to attract £4.5m from social investors
Thirty start-up social enterprises have been chosen to take part in a programme, which aims to raise £4.5m of external investment to help the companies scale up over the next year.
The Big Venture Challenge is an £8.5m programme which is set to revolutionise the way high-net worth individuals can support organisations dedicated to delivering benefits for society.
It has carefully selected thirty companies, all set up to create strong social and commercial returns to be part of the biggest ‘angel’ social impact investment programme ever launched in the UK. Big Venture Challenge is led by four social finance institutions which have spent months conducting due diligence and interrogation to ensure that the thirty companies are suitable to attract social investors and achieve scale up.
Each company will receive a package of business support and the opportunity of further funding to support their growth.
The thirty companies are being presented tonight by UnLtd, the UK Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, who provide early stage finance and support for 1,000 social entrepreneurs every year. ClearlySo, leaders of the UK’s first ‘social angel investor network’, will be brokering introductions to investors.
Angel investor Dale Murray, who helped select some of the winners, said: “I am always looking for novel, unique opportunities - what is so inspirational about the companies in the Big Venture Challenge is that they offer strong social as well as financial returns.”
The 30 companies include Oomph, the market leader in providing proven exercise classes to care homes residents, established by 26-year-old, Ben Allen. With a turnover of £150,000 last year and already reaching 15,000 residents across the North of the UK, Ben is seeking investment to scale up his work across the country and abroad, expecting to hit revenues of £500,000 next year and reach over 100,000 residents by 2016.
Ventures that successfully raise external investment over the next 12 months will be able to access up to a further £100,000 from the Big Venture Challenge, which is funded by the England Big Lottery Fund.
Rodney Schwartz, Chief Executive of ClearlySo said: “High Net Worth Individuals have the potential to play an absolutely catalytic role in the social investment marketplace —and the Big Venture Challenge is a great way for them to jump in and get involved, particularly given the attractiveness of the matching grants."
The event follows on from the Government’s announcement in the Spring Budget of a consultation into a new tax relief encouraging private investment in social enterprises. A recent analysis from Boston Consultancy Group stated that the social investment market in the UK is expected to grow to £1bn by 2015.
