19 July 2007 

ANGELS DEN CELEBRATES FIRST FUNDED BUSINESS DEAL
 

Angels Den, the first fully national online service that connects UK business angels with entrepreneurs seeking investment, has today announced the first completed deal through their website, www.angelsden.co.uk.

The entrepreneur who initially posted their business summary online for a fee of £99 on 4 June 2007 is now, five weeks later, celebrating their success in gaining funding for their business PINoptic Limited. The company has produced a novel form of PIN protection and validation for application in secure systems. PINoptic aims to provide a solution to credit and debit card fraud caused by ‘shoulder surfing’; obtaining the user’s PIN by watching, covertly or overtly, as the PIN is entered.

Colin Allison, a founder of PINoptic said: “We had been trying for several months to gain funding in order to complete a US patent application. We thought we had exhausted all options with no success. To find the time to go to regular pitches in front of existing angels in angel groups was very hard, so to be able to put our case forward without going through the pitch process at all helped us enormously.”

Business angel Chris Ward who is now working with PINoptic is a property developer by profession and this is his first investment as an angel. Chris Ward commented: “I signed up to Angels Den as I was looking to invest in a company in a different sector to the one I am already involved in. I have no spare time to attend monthly pitches within an angel network, so to be able to find a business with such good potential and looking for funding without needing to go through this process suited me down to the ground.”

Bill Morrow, joint managing director of Angels Den, said: “By linking people seeking finance with those who want to invest in business, quickly and simply, we are able to provide a solution to both entrepreneur and business angel investment needs. I am astounded by how swiftly the deal was completed and delighted that we are achieving what we set out to do in the first place; to break down the barriers to equity funding.”

Angels Den’s objective is to fill the equity funding gap between the amount of money that entrepreneurs want and need. Angels Den compliments the services offered by existing business angel groups by facilitating deals with a value of up to £500,000.

Freddie Mahon whose company is currently going through the process of seeking funding via Angels Den commented: “Angels Den is very organised and driven without being intrusive. The business plan is standardised  - we felt it was like having a virtual advisor holding our hand, which encouraged us to look in detail at every aspect of our business.”

Entrepreneurs who have had the ‘divine inspiration’ (a business idea) and need some ‘divine intervention’ (investment) can log onto www.angelsden.co.uk and submit their idea to a host of UK business angels.

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Notes to editors:

Key facts – entrepreneurs

Key facts – business angels and investors