MediaCityUK’s digital and technology enterprise hub, the Landing, has announced an angel investment ‘pitch panel’.
From July, scale-ups and SMEs accepted onto three-month business incubator programmes will also now get the chance to meet with, network and pitch to a handpicked group of venture capitalists, angel investors and investment consortiums.
It will give participating companies the chance to share fully-formed business concepts, growth projections and any prototype technologies with potential investors.
In a twist on the more traditional ‘Dragons Dens’ model for investment pitching, The Landing has teamed up with the Barclays-sponsored Eagle Lab team, and popular members only bar On The 7th, to devise a dinner and drinks format for the quarterly events.
Shu-Ling Li, the community manager for The Landing’s Launch co-working space, said: “The recent dinner and drinks event we hosted, which saw a handful of Landing-based companies do a quick two-minute pitch to a group of leading investment angels between courses, was such a great success that we have decided to make it officially part of the Launch incubator offer.
“It will give scale-ups based at Launch the chance to put into practice all they have learned from the intensive scale-up and business support programme we provide in friendly surroundings.
“They can also then continue to network with potential investors, and The Landing’s wider business support team, in a very relaxed environment.
“When we opened Launch last year we described it as place to ‘Work, Test and Play’, and this more social and open approach to pitching for funding, and making connections with potential investors, is a great example of that philosophy in action.”
It is hoped the panel will give start-ups the first opportunity to put into practice all the help, guidance and learnings gained by taking part in The Landing’s series of boot-camps and workshops which are integral to the Launch incubator programme.
This follows on from a successful pilot evening held recently which saw seven leading North West investors – including Alex Buchan from Accelerated Digital Ventures, Connor Cantwell from Cosimo, Andrew Davidson from Livewire Capital and Colin Shenton of the Shenton Group – meeting and hearing from a number of fast-growing Landing-based companies over a three-course meal in On The 7th‘s popular restaurant.
The first Launch incubator cohort to benefit from the next dinner and drinks pitch panel event (scheduled for October 4) will commence in early July.