No more easy money
by Jonathan Moules
Ambitious entrepreneurs are prepared to go the distance to get financial bac king for their bright ideas. Sanchita Saha. founder of CitySocial-
ising, a website to help people make new friends after relocating, travelled all the way to southern France.
This was not as pleasant an experi
ence as it might seem. Once there. she
10 spent months pitching to hundreds of potential investors to no avail. only to get a lucky break at the end.
First, she looked into 'angel" net
working clubs. which prov ide
15 entrepreneurs with access to large numbers of wealthy individuals interested in investing in early-stage ventures. However. she turned down a number of these for reasons of cost:
20 they were charging £ 1.500 ($2,488) just to submit a business plan.
Eventually, she settled on London Business Angels. through which she could pitch to roughly 100 'angels'.
25 She also hedged her bets by securing a place on gateway2invest
ment (g2i). a four-day programme to help ambit ious entrepreneurs hone their pitching techniques.
30 del ivered by financial advisers Grant Thornton and backed by the London Development Agency.
•A lot of it is about networking finding
out
who to talk to, who can
35 help you, and keeping your ears LO
the ground; she says. Through LBA, Saha discovered a
third scheme. called the European Border Investment Programme, which
40 was running its own event in Nice. Although it was a risk, she booked
herself on a flight and found herself
pitching to another couple or hundred investors from across the European
45 Union. Among those were a couple of' Finnish in vestors who. together with five wealthy individuals at LBA, agreed to back Saha's business with a combined investment of £300.000.
50 Her work was not yet done. however.
as
she
had
to
bring
the
disparate
team together to form a syndicate with a lead investor, who would then become CitySocialising's Chairman.
55 • 1t was hard work and vc1y stressfu l,' Saha admits. However, she is also one of the lucky ones.
Access to finance remains difficult for all sorts of companies. whether
c�> they are looking for rich individuals to take equity stakes. debt or venture capital.
Although bank finance is easier to get hold or than it was a year ago, the
65 costs remain stubbornly high. The latest quarterly research by the
Federation of Small Busi nesses (FSB) found more than three-quarters of companies had seen the cost of
10 their existing finance increase by up
to 5 percentage points above the Bank or England's base rate. Two-thirds of those in the FS B survey decided not Lo seek credit at
75 the moment. which could suggest they arc fearful of the cost. The good news for start-ups is that the banks seem happier to lend to them. according to Stephen
so Alambritis at the FSB. 'That is a fresh approach.' he says. Victoria Wcisener. Programme Manager at g2i. is less optimistic about debt rundraising. 'What you
ss hear is still the same: that people arc lending. but we arc not seeing any of that coming through: she says. She is similarly pessimistic about equity finance. 'While no one will
90 say they arc not actively investing, it is st ill pretty difficult lo raise funds,' she says. · Most or the activity is with business angels.'
Raising equity finance through
95 venture capital funds is possible, but it is taking about twice as long
as before the recession struck, according to Simon Cook . Chief
Executive of venture capital firm 100 DFJ Esprit. which has invested in
some of Europe· most successful technology start-ups. In the past. both Feed Burncr, the web-feed manage
ment system. and Skype, the Internet 1ostelephony service, have received
backing from Cook's firm. 'Fundraising is taking longer and is slower, but funds are being raised,' he says.