Innovate UK Funding

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Jane Lambert

The start of a new year is when many new businesses and projects within existing businesses are launched. Such initiatives usually need funding and an important source of funds is Innovate UK.  Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation ("UKRI") which was established by s.91 (1) of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. Its website states that it "convenes, catalyses and invests in close collaboration with others to build a thriving, inclusive research and innovation system." 

Innovate UK connects businesses to partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth.  Since its establishment, it has invested £2.5 billion in 8,500 organizations which investment is estimated to have created 70,000 jobs and added £18 billion of value to the British economy (see the "About Us" page of the Innovate UK website). A spreadsheet listing all Innovate UK's funded projects and some typical case studies can also be accessed through that site.

A good starting point for anyone seeking funding is Innovate UK's Guidance for Applicants page of UKRI's website.  The General Guidance page contains an overview and provides links to the following information:

• Funding opportunities
• Before you start an application
• Your application
• What happens after you have submitted your application
• What happens if you are successful
• Funding rules
• Categories of research and development
• Other funding opportunities, and
• Updates to general guidance.

The best way to learn about current funding opportunities is to sign up for Innovate UK's newsletter.   This month's edition contains news on the Made smarter innovation: sustainable smart factory, Automotive Transformation Fund expression of interest: round 17. Innovate UK smart grants: October 2021, NATEP helping SMEs innovate in aerospace and Early ideas to improve the delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics. There is also information on Small Business Research Initiative projects.

Established businesses can access assistance through their trade associations, local chambers of commerce, local enterprise partnerships in England, Business Wales in Wales and similar organizations in Scotland and Northern Ireland.  Individuals who are not yet in business should approach the British Library's Business and Intellectual Property Centre or its national network of local partners.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during normal office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

The Border Innovation Hub

White Cliffs of Dover

Author Immanuel Giel Licence CC BY-SA 3.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

In UK Innovation Strategy I discussed ways in which the British government proposed to stimulate innovation so that the UK could join China, the USA, Japan and South Korea as a science and technology superpower by 2039,  Buried away in the text on free ports  on page 78 was this reference to the UK border:

"The innovation activity in Freeports will build on the government’s 2025 UK Border Strategy, published in December 2020, which set out a Technology and Innovation roadmap to drive forward innovation at the UK border."

 The 2025 UK Border Strategy mentioned in that sentence provided for private sector participation "to design, deliver and innovate around the border."

That strategy aims to achieve 6 "transformations:"

"Develop a coordinated user-centric government approach to border design and delivery, which works in partnership with industry and enables border innovation. 

Bring together government’s collection, assurance and use of border data to provide a comprehensive and holistic view of data at the border. 

Establish resilient ‘ports of the future’ at border crossing points to make the experience smoother and more secure for passengers and traders, while better protecting the public and environment. 

Use upstream compliance to move processes away from the actual frontier where appropriate, both for passengers and traders. 

Build the capability of staff and the border industry responsible for delivering border processes, particularly in an environment of greater automation; and simplify communication with border users to improve their experience. 

Shape the future development of borders worldwide, to promote the UK’s interests and facilitate end-to-end trade and travel."

The 4th of those "transformations" is reminiscent of arguments of the Democratic Unionist and the European Research Group politicians against regulatory alignment or the Northern Ireland protocol during the EU withdrawal agreement negotiations on the ground that it ought to be possible to avoid checks and inspections at the geographical frontier between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic by carrying them out elsewhere with the appropriate technology.

Whether or not the hope of renegotiating the Northern Irish protocol is the motivation for its interest in the topic or merely coincidental, the Cabinet Office published its "Border Innovation Hub" on 31 Aug 2021 together with a Technology and Innovation Roadmap, a list of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and guidance on Opportunities and Funding.   The purpose of the Hub is said to bring "together information from across government to help provide industry with the tools needed to innovate at the border."  The overview states that 

"Technology and innovation to unlock new possibilities for smoother and safer border processes is a key element of the new strategy."

Further information about how the government hopes to achieve that objective is set out in the Roadmap.

The Roadmap is taken from the  2025 UK Border Strategy and includes the following:

• "Create a visible first point of contact in UK Government for border innovation suppliers and users"
• "Define target use cases with industry.
• "Set and collate security and interoperability standards," and
• "Work across government to design the border and support border innovation and its uptake."

The "first point of contact" mentioned above is the "Border Innovation Hub". 

Possible funders for research and development work by industry include the Defence and Security Accelerator, the Connected Places Catapult,  Transport Research and Innovation Grants and Innovate UK.

Any inventions resulting from border innovation would be patentable subject to the provisions of the Defence Contracts Act 1958.  The names of businesses, products and services might be registrable trade marks.  Anything written down would be protected from copying by copyright.  Any commercially sensitive unpublished research could be confidential.   Anyone wishing to discuss those matters should contact me on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact form.

Resources for Inventors and other Startups in Northwest Wales

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Jane Lambert

The area coloured bright green on the map may not be the everybody's first choice for setting up a new business but it has a lot going for it:

1. It is a very pleasant place in which to live.  I have travelled the world but never have I found a more attractive combination of coastal, mountain and pastoral scenery than in the Lleyn Peninsula. 
2. It is close to four major conurbations, namely Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South and West  Yorkshire and Dubiln. 
3. It is part of the Northern Powerhouse and on the freight routes between Dublin and London and Dublin and the ports on the Humber.
4. It has a fine research university at Bangor which has developed the Menai Science Park in Anglesey (see M-SParc - Anglesey's Science Park 29 Aug 2018  NIPC News) and the Pontio Centre with its FabLab (see The Pontio Centre: A Resource for Inventors, Designers and Makers in North Wales 14 Dec 2018).

Unlike England, there are no local enterprise partnerships in Wales.  Instead, Business Wales offers the same sort of advice and support that used to be provided in England by Business Link under the strategic oversight of the Welsh government.  There are therefore no Business and IP Libraries though Llandudno junction was once part of the PatLib network (see A New Patlib has opened at Llandudno Junction North Wales 15 April 2011 Patlib UK).  The nearest English Business and IP Centre is at Liverpool Central Library. 

As there are no Business and IP Centres in Wales Liverpool Central Library hosts the nearest CIPA patent clinic. Advice on contracts, copyrights and trade marks is also available through specialist clinics at the library.  The only IP clinic in Wales takes place at the Intellectual Property Office in Newport.  A search of the CIPA and CITMA databases suggests that all the patent and trade mark attorneys in Wales practise in the south and mainly in and around Cardiff.

Business funding in Wales is offered by the National Development Bank of Wales which trades under the Banc trade mark.  The Bank has four offices in Wales the nearest being at St Asaph and Wrexham.  According to the "About Us" page of its website, it offers both loan and equity finance.  A list of the funds it manages also appears on its website,   There is also a business angel network known as Angels Invest Wales 

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any matter arising from it should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

An IP Strategy for Private Inventors

Strategy Game

Author Julio Reis

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Source: Wikipedia

Jane Lambert

An intellectual asset ("IA") is something that gives a business an advantage over its competitors. No matter how small it may be or how simple its business model, almost every successful business will have such assets.  An  IA may be the business's reputation, its customer list, a way of making or packaging things, a website or even its standard terms and conditions.

A business that possesses such an asset will want to hold on to it and, if possible, make money from it.  Its best chance of doing so is to devise a plan to

• identify assets likely to generate revenue or some other benefit for the company, 
• determine the best legal protection for the IA having regard to its value and available resources, 
• provide a means of enforcing such protection, and 
• manufacture, license or otherwise make money from the asset.

Such a plan is often called "an intellectual property" or "IP strategy".

Inventing is a business activity.  If an inventor is employed in a research and development capacity, his or her employer is likely to have an IP strategy.  If the inventor is not so employed, he or she would be well advised to develop such a strategy for him or herself.

The starting point for a private inventor must be his or her invention. Is anyone likely to buy it? If so, who will be its buyers and how many will they buy?  Developing, marketing and patenting an invention, not to say enforcing a patent, is likely to be costly.  Unless those costs are likely to be recouped, there is no sense in incurring them.  For many private inventors, this is a very difficult question. The technical elegance of their brainchild may blind them to commercial realities.  This is where membership of an inventors' club can help.  The members of such clubs are not a bad cross-section of the general public. If fellow inventors are unmoved by the invention or see snags their views should be considered seriously.

The next issue to address is putting the invention on the market.  That usually boils down to a choice between making and marketing the invention or licensing others to make and market it.  Some inventors already have their own manufacturing or retailing businesses but many do not.  If they want to make or market the invention for themselves they have to set themselves up in business. They will need to draw up business plans, find collaborators, raise funds, acquire premises, plant and staff and market their inventions to the public. They may subcontract production to a manufacturer in this country or abroad. If they do that, they must ensure that their invention is patented or otherwise protected in the country where the manufacturing is to take place and they will need a very tight written agreement with the sub-contractor.

Licensing is often regarded as an easy option but it is not.  A licensee will incur costs in tooling and marketing. A business will incur those costs only if persuaded that to do so would be worthwhile. Determining whether a licence is worth taking is a type of business planning that few potential licensees have the time or inclination to carry out.  It is therefore up to the inventor to persuade them that it is worthwhile.  Daunted by such difficulties many inventors resort to invention promotion companies or making unsolicited offers to manufacturers or retailers.  Such approaches rarely work and often lead to expenses for the inventor.

Patenting is expensive but may be necessary.   Ideally, the invention must be protected in the countries where it is to be sold and the countries where it can be made. However, such protection may cost many tens of thousands of pounds in filing, translation and renewal fees.  Another problem with a patent is that the inventor discloses his or her invention to the world in return for a monopoly in a single country.  If a patentee has a patent for his invention in the United Kingdom but not the United States there is nothing to stop an American from making and selling the invention in the USA or anywhere else where the invention is unprotected.  There may be other, cheaper forms of legal protection for the invention that are available to the inventor.  Simply keeping shtum about the invention is one option if the invention is a product that is hard to reverse engineer.  Relying on some other IP right such as unregistered design right in the shape or configuration of the product or copyright in any software that may control the device may be others.

An inventor must be able to resist applications for the revocation of his patent or a declaration of non-infringement as well as pursue infringers.  Even with costs caps and cost management civil litigation can be cripplingly expensive. The only way that most businesses can sustain such expense is by taking out adequate IP insurance and the premiums for such cover are not cheap.

An IP strategy can be drawn up at any time and it will be reviewed and updated continuously but the ideal time to devise one is when drawing up a business plan.  That is because the costs of prosecution, procurement, professional services, premiums and so on can be funded and balanced against other expenses.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article should call me during office hours on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.  

Animated Advice from across the Pond

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Jane Lambert

In Animated Advice 18 March 2016 NIPC News I introduced readers to some animations published by the Intellectual Property Office, the World Intellectual Property Organization and others. One of the films I mentioned was the IPO's IP BASICS: Should I get a patent?

Today I want to share with you an even more helpful animation published by the US Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") so long as you bear in mind that the USA is a different country, with different institutions and different laws. However, the United States like the United Kingdom is party to a number of international agreements such as the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") which requires each country's intellectual property laws to be broadly similar.

Here are also some points to bear in mind for British readers:

• The USPTO is the place to start for inventors in the USA because it is the intellectual property office for that country but inventors in this country can start either at the Intellectual Property Office in Newport (look you) or the European Patent Office in Munich ("there's lovely for you!" as they say in Wales).
• Our law does not expressly define an invention though it does list a number of things that can't be patented as such like computer programs or methods of doing business which are not specifically excluded in US law. Also, we cut out some of the verbiage like "machine" or "composition of matter." Basically, an invention can be patented on this side of the Atlantic if it is a product or process.
• One reason why I really like this animation is that it advises inventors to consider writing a business plan and carry out some market research. I've been ramming that message home in my IP clinics, talks to inventors' clubs and blogs for years. Here is just one of my articles: "Why every business plan should take account of intellectual property" 3 Apr 2016 NIPC News.
• The places where you can get help with your invention in this country would be the Business and IP Centres at the British Library next to St Pancras Station in London and the central libraries of Birmingham, Exeter, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Manchester, Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich and Sheffield. Those libraries are also part of a wider network of public libraries that are associated with the EPO called PatLib. If you study the list you will find help available in Aberdeen. Belfast, Glasgow, Plymouth and Portsmouth.  We no longer have anything quite as good as Business USA.gov in this country but we do have the Business and Self-Employed pages of the gov.uk website. Also, you can call me on 020 7404 5252 any time during business hours and I can point you in the right direction.
• As in the USA, you can apply to the IPO or EPO for a patent without instructing a patent attorney but I would strongly advise you against it.  I know patent attorneys don't come cheap but there are funding schemes here to help you (see How Small Businesses can fund IP Advice and Representation 3 Sept 2016 NIPC News). By the way, the terms "patent agent" and "patent attorney" mean different things in the USA. There, a patent attorney means a lawyer specializing in IP but a patent agent is a non-legally qualified professional who prosecutes patent applications. Here, the terms patent attorneys and patent agents are used interchangeably. Patent attorneys in the UK are members of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys which used to be called the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents until a few years ago. Finally, the expression "pro se" is not used in this country. Those who apply for patents without the help of patent attorneys are usually referred to as "unrepresented applicants". 
• In this country, we don't have "utility", "design" or "plant patents" as such but we do have registered and registered Community designs (for the time being) and EU and national plant breeders' rights  (see Jane Lambert Protecting Investment in New Plant Varieties 4 May 2016 LinkedIn). What Americans call "utility patents" are simply "patents" here.
• There is no call centre in Newport or Munich like the Inventors Assistance Center but both the IPO and EPO publish guidance for unrepresented applicants on their websites and the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, Ideas 21 and I hold free consultations with an IP professional at towns and cities around the UK. Check out CIPA's IP Clinics page and Ideas 21's regular advice sessions in London. Mine are held in Barnsley on the second Tuesday of every month and you can book your appointment through the BarnsleyBiz Surgeries page.

Wherever you are in the country, you can call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

IP Insurance: CIPA's Paper

Lloyd's of London

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Jane Lambert

It will cost you several thousand pounds to get a patent for the UK and considerably more if you require patent protection elsewhere in the world especially outside Europe but unless you can enforce your monopoly in the civil courts you may as well spend the money on a new car or exotic holiday or even down the pub.

The cost of patent litigation has come down considerably in England and Wales (though not in Scotland and Northern Ireland) with the changes to CPR Part 63 in 2010 (see New Patents County Court Rules 31 Oct 2010 NIPC Law) but it is still not cheap. The costs that you may recover from the other side are capped at £50,000 for the trial on liability plus another £25,000 for an account or inquiry but you will probably have to pay at least as much out on your own solicitors and counsel and probably a great deal more. As for litigation in the Patent Court there are no limits though the judges will do their best to keep the parties focused on the issues and avoid unnecessary expense.

So what are your options if you are an inventor or small business owner?

• "Legal aid?" Sorry, chum, that was abolished for business disputes by paragraph 1 (h) of Schedule 2 to the Access to Justice Act 1999 although it may become available for litigation in the Unified Patent Court (see Legal Aid for the UPC 23 Jan 2016), 
• "How about no win, no fee?" No mate!  That may be a perfectly sensible way of funding personal injuries claims against insurance companies but intellectual property litigation isn't like that. For a start liability (whether your patent has been infringed) and the account or inquiry (how much money is due to you) are separate proceedings separated by many months and sometimes years. There's a great deal more uncertainty. Several lawyers have got their fingers burnt (see Success Fees and ATE Premiums in the Patents County Court: Henderson v All Around the World Recordings Ltd. 4 May 2013 NIPC Law).
• Litigation funding? Possibly but unlikely. Most funds shy away from IP litigation for the same reason lawyers steer clear of no win no fee retainers in this area of law.
• Legal indemnity insurance? You will find that most policies specifically exclude IP litigation.

No your best bet is IP insurance. Two of my most popular posts in this blog have been IP Insurance 3 Sept 2005 and IP Insurance Five Years On 23 Oct 2010.

More than five years have elapsed since my 2010 update but I have decided not to update it because the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys have just done that job for me.  They have published a 10 page report entitled IP Insurance and other IP litigation funding arrangements which can be downloaded from the CIPA's website. This report discusses before and after-the-event insurance and various alternative funding arrangements and then lists the brokers, insurers and other associations who offer IP cover. 

Anyone wishing to discuss this article, the CIPA report or IP insurance in general should call me during on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

Funding your Invention: R & D Tax Credits

I am often asked about where to get funding for one's invention. I mention the usual such as triple F (friends, fools and family), business angels and venture capitalists but often overlook one of the most obvious which is R & D credits. This is a very generous deductible allowance against corporation tax which can actually be a cash rebate for companies that are not liable to pay corporation tax.

There are two schemes: one for small and medium enterprises which has existed since 2000 and the other for larger enterprises which has existed since 2002.  According to HMRC's Research and Development Tax Statistics  which was published on 15 Aug 2014 over 100,000 claims have been made for R & D tax relief since he scheme was launched in 2000 and some £9.5 million has been allowed or paid out in that time.

In R & D Tax Credit Statistics which I published in my Patent Box and R & D Credits blog on 25 Aug 2014 I compared the claims for R & D tax credits and the number of patent applications by region in 2013 and found a remarkable correlation.

R & D Tax Credit Claims and UK Patent Applications 2013

Region	Claims for R & D Credit	Patent Applications
South East	3,030	2,822
London	2,715	2,588
East	1,630	1,802
North West	1,595	1,259
West Midlands	1,280	1,180
South West	1,265	1,368
Yorkshire	1,065	984
East Midlands	1,020	742
Scotland	905	900
North East	545	314
Wales	425	539
Northern Ireland	345	236

Further information on R & D tax credits can be obtained from HMRC's website.  Also, I cover developments in tax law relating to IP in my Patent Box and R & D Tax Credit blog. Our chambers are almost unique in that our intellectual property specialists work under the same roof as Atlas Tax Chambers and share the same clerks. We can thus provide comprehensive IP and corporation tax advice to businesses that invest heavily in high technology. Should anyone wish to discuss this article or any of the topics referred to he or she should call us on 020 74404 5252 during office hours or contact our clerks through this form.

Patent Litigation Funding: HLP3 enters the Market

Although it no longer costs anything like as much as it once did to bring a patent infringement claim it is still too much for many individual inventors and small businesses. The small claims track which I discussed in "Soon there will be a Remedy if Someone steals your Idea" on 19 Sept 2012 does not cover litigation relating to patents, registered or registered Community designs, semiconductor topographies or plant varieties.

Ideally a patentee should take out intellectual property insurance before a dispute arises and I have written lots of articles on IP insurance in this blog and elsewhere (see "IP Insurance Five Years On" 23 Oct 2010).  Unfortunately, IP insurance premiums are not cheap and many patent attorneys are sceptical as to the value of the cover.   Consequently many inventors and small businesses cannot afford to fund challenges to their patents.

Some patentees who choose not to take out patent insurance do so in the hope that some law firm or counsel will take their case on a "no win no fee" retainer.   While there are lots of lawyers who will undertake personal injuries litigation on that basis there are very few who will do intellectual property cases without an assured fee for the reasons I explained in "No Win No Fee" (NIPC website on the 14 July 2011).  There will be even fewer such cases after the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 takes effect. For very much the same reasons it is hard to get after-the-event insurance ("ATE") for intellectual property cases.   Premiums are high and will be irrecoverable under the new Act.

For some types of litigation, third party funding may offer a solution.   I discussed that option in "Litigation Funding for IP Claims" on 18 Sept 2012.  The latest refinement is HLP3 which was brought to my attention by Peter Rouse.   Peter, who practised IP law for many years, is now working as a consultant with US firm HLP Integration who have brought together funding from Caprica and the legal expertise of Olswang to prosecute patent infringement claims where there is a good prospect of success.   A press release dated 30 Oct 2012 explains how the scheme works:

"In return for an admission fee of £3500 HLP Integration carry out validity, infringement and financial analysis and provide a detailed report. If the results of that report are promising then the report will be sent to Patent Counsel who will carry out an assessment of the prospects of success in patent proceedings. If those prospects meet the required percentage chance of success then the case will pass to ATE insurers for a further risk assessment. If ATE insurance is approved then the patent owner can exercise an option agreement, entered into at the outset, requiring Caprica to fund the proposed litigation. From beginning to end this process is expected to take no more than 3-4 months. In summary: a modest payment per patent; a robust and thorough process of analysis, expert review and risk assessment; and an option agreement exercisable at the patent owner’s discretion for qualifying patents."

Since it is likely to cost at least as much as £3,500 for patent counsel and specialist solicitors to evaluate a claim the admission fee seems almost a bargain.   .

Should any patentee wish to discuss any of these methods of funding he or she may call me on 0161 850 0080 or send me a message through my contact form. Readers can also follow me on Facebook, Linkedin, twitter or Xing..

Venture Hothouse - a Sort of Virtual Silicon Valley

Yesterday afternoon I met David Bagley at a seminar on private equity funding and initial public offerings hosted by Cobbetts at their spanking new offices in Leeds. David is a chartered accountant and a director of a number of companies including Finance Yorkshire which is how I got to know him. Over drinks he told me about Venture Hothouse of which he is chairman.

Venture Hothouse describes itself on its website as "a wealth of information for all those involved in business" and a cursory once over of the site certainly suggests that to be true. In the "Resources" section I found guidance on

• how to construct a balance sheet, cash flow statement and a number of other financial projections;
• how to organize a board meeting, a company flotation and an AGM;
• how to prepare a 4Cs and 4Ps, a business plan an executive summary of a business plan and so so
• how to register a patent, trade mark or domain name; and
• how to set up various types of companies.

The blog section has articles on such things as cloud computing and project management. A "useful documents" page has all sorts of useful precedents from confidentiality agreements to consultancy contracts.

However, to get the best of the site it seems you have to register and that costs money: £180 per year for entrepreneurs and £300 for investors such as angels and VCs, professional advisers such as accountants and law firms, mentors and business service providers. A downloadable booklet explains what subscribers get for their money:

"The core of the ‘Entrepreneurs’ section is the ‘Investment Profile’. The ‘Investment Profile’ is a secure, private web portfolio which can ONLY be accessed by the subscribing entrepreneur - and by third parties nominated by the entrepreneur, e.g. potential investors – via a secure a username and password. The ‘Investment Profile’ can be assembled quickly and easily, and contains all the documentation which will be required by a potential investor to assess an investment opportunity."

Investors and service providers appear to get advertising or at least a listing which brings them to the attention of investment ready businesses whose financial statements have been prepared using tools available to subscribers to the service. Glancing through the directory I noticed that there were quite a few angel syndicates, patent agencies, accountancy practices and, alarmingly, insolvency practitioners on the list.

While explaining it to me yesterday David described the service as a sort of forum for entrepreneurs and investors. "A sort of virtual Silicon Valley?" I suggested. David beamed "I suppose so. I never really thought of it that way, but yes it is." "Ah well" I replied "if you ever do use that term you can pay me a royalty." "OK!" he promised. I think we have a contract there, don't you.

David has offered to speak to the Leeds and Sheffield inventors clubs so I am sending copies of this article to Ged and Stef in Leeds and Lynn in Sheffield so that they can issue invitations. I think quite a lot of members of both clubs would be interested in Venture Hothouse.

Returning to Cobbetts' swish offices, one of the most intriguing features were lifts with no buttons. Visitors have to choose a floor from a key pad outside the lift. Imagine the queue at 08:55 when everyone in all the offices of the building turns up for work or at 12:55 when everyone wants to grab some lunch. If anyone from 1 Whitehall Riverside reads this article, perhaps they would like to tell us how this system works in practice.

New Angel Network: Ground Floor Ventures Ltd.

One of the things about twitter is that you never know who you may meet. Somebody who has just started to follow me is Ground Floor Ventures Ltd.

Ground Floor Ventures is an angel network. On its website it describes itself as follows:

"Ground Floor Ventures is about bringing together entrepreneurs with investors and, unlike other existing 'angel networks', we choose not to charge entrepreneurs to come along and pitch. This means Ground Floor Ventures gets really interesting opportunities that the other events miss out on by pricing out the early stage entrepreneurs. We look for unique businesses which have the potential for serious growth and we aim to attract entrepreneurs looking for a relatively small amount of investment (typically under £30k) so that investors don't have to be 'squillionaires' to reach into their pockets and 'get in on the ground floor' of fabulous business opportunities."

Its next pitching event is on 7 February. If you want to learn more, contact Jack Symons on 07717 171345 or email him on jack@groundfloorventures.co.uk