FUNDING - PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

Eureka! You've hit on an idea that will make loads of money, but you need a couple of million pounds. The high street lenders won't touch it - so, who will?

When an experienced senior executive in his early 40s, with a goodou need a couple of million pounds. The high street lenders won't touch it - so, who will? track record in the IT industry, had a bright idea for a new development with growth potential, he prepared a detailed business plan, worked out his start-up costs and, acting on his bank's advice, approached venture capital companies. He needed #2 million to cover the costs of equipment, a small sales force, office staff, as well as general overheads and running costs that the comp-any would incur during its first three months and before any income could be expected.

Unfortunately, one venture capital company after another turned him down.

Although they respec-ted his industry knowledge and were impressed with his business plans, they couldn't relate to his idea. It was too novel, too untried.

Undeterred, he found a private investor - a 'business angel' - who studied the business plan, saw the potential for a high return and invested enough to persuade his bank to underwrite the bulk of the #2 million needed.

The business was launched as planned last year and sales and profits exceeded even the most optimistic forecasts.

Suddenly, the big players in the industry recognised the gap they had missed and the potential that was being exploited - and made a mad dash to takeover the company. The result? In less than two years, our senior executive, his backer and the bank were each richer by several million pounds.

What are the options for business start-ups that need to raise capital, or for employees who want to take over a division of their company? When banks refuse to help, are venture capital companies the solution? And what exactly are venture capital funds?

Venture capital investment to help new and developing busi-nesses has been a strong feature on the commercial landscape since the late 70s. Capital venture companies that are members of the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) are usually specialist offshoots formed by high street and investment banks, large accountancy practices and law firms, as well as financial organisations with funds for venture capital investment.

Many of these companies are currently flush with funds, raring to invest, even if they can be at times slow to recognise an opportunity. In 1997, venture capitalists' investments shot up by 29 per cent from a total of #3.2 billion in 1996 to #4.1 billion, according to the BVCA. The number of deals handled by members increased from 1,200 in 1996 to 1,272 in 1997. Figures for 1998 will be published next month.

Hi-tech companies are a strong favourite with venture capitalists. In 1997, #690 million was invested in 295 organisations engaged in computers, medical, health, biotech and communications related businesses; 163 engineering companies received a total of #378 million and 41 companies in leisure and hotels received #333 million.

Venture capital companies are experiencing significant growth. They represent a hot area in the City, according to John Spayne, director of Flemings Corporate finance department, where he is responsible for servicing growth companies in food, beverages, to-bacco and food retailing and is active in the burgeoning world of management buy-outs (MBOs).

Many venture capital companies cater specifically for smaller businesses and will typically have regional offices across the country. Companies such as 3i, NatWest Ventures and BZW Private Equity fall into this category. These institutions tend to be inter-ested in looking at investments ranging from #50,000 to #200,000.

What are their criteria for deciding whether or not to invest? Ideally, venture capitalists are interested in businesses with a good product or service and a proven management team with thorough experience of the product or service and its market. The management team must demonstrate a strong commitment, self-confidence and real ambition to turn its plan into a profitable reality.

Another option for the very small company in search of capital is an increasingly well-organised community of business angels - often wealthy individuals who have sold their own businesses or retired early with generous retirement packages and who prefer private investment opportunities, often where they can offer some management input and contribute to the firm's progress. These individuals are likely to have substantial business experience and can be less demanding in terms of rate of return on their investment than venture capital companies.

Most venture capital companies' investments take the form of equity capital. Their reward lies in the growth of the companies in which they invest, ideally resulting in the eventual sale of the business or its flotation on the stock market. In other words, they expect to make an exit at some stage. In fairness, venture capitalists are often more than mere investors looking for a generous return. In many cases, they provide strategic support to help clients develop the business and they are likely to possess relevant experience.

When you knock at the door of a venture capital company, it is important that you knock at the right one, talk to the right person and present your case convincingly. It is worth sending for a copy of the BVCA's Guide to Venture Capital and Directory of Members, which sets out a quick reference matrix detailing the particular interests of member firms, their size and local offices. They all have specialist areas - for example, biotechnology, communications, construction, property, automation and transportation.

At one end of the spectrum, Egan & Talbot Capital considers minimum investments of #20,000 up to a maximum of #150,000, is interested in all sectors ex-cept construction, property and financial services and prefers providing funds for expansion - whether start-ups, early stage financing, MBIs (management buy-ins) and MBOs, refinancing bank debt, rescue or turnaround.

By contrast, Electra Fleming, with access to total funds in excess of #1 billion and investments in companies such as Holt Lloyd and the Stationery Office, puts investments from #5 million to a maximum of #100 million and considers requests from all sectors.

In practice, smaller deals are the bread and butter of the industry. Sixty per cent of all deals are for less than #1 million, while the majority of the remaining are for less than #5 million. That said, overall, deals are getting bigger.

It is worth getting advice in the first instance from both your ex-ternal accountants and your local bank. Accountancy firms, from the very largest to small and medium-sized firms, are becom-ing more involved in corporate finance, whether it is advising on mergers, acquisitions, divestments, MBOs, MBIs or fundraising. For example, the UK 200 Group of Chartered Accountants, whose member firms specialise in the growing business, has many member companies with considerable experience in corporate finance and a top-flight corporate finance panel.

At the moment, MBOs are in fashion. They are attractive to managers who feel that the owners of the business might not be adverse to a takeover because a certain area no longer fits or because the parent company is in financial difficulties and wants to sell parts of the business to raise cash. Alternatively, the business could be a private company with owners who lack normal succession and now want to realise their investment. MBOs offer a way for ambitious managers to buy a business they know well. Banks are most likely to fund a MBO proposition, but venture funds are also possible.

The flip side to the MBO is the MBI. Management buy-ins enable managers from outside the com-pany to buy in. In contrast to an MBO, in which there is a change of ownership but continuity of management, in an MBI there is a change of both ownership and management. Thus, MBIs tend to be regarded as riskier than MBOs.

Many individual entrepreneurs and established businesses find opportunities to acquire part of another business - an MBI. A strong MBI candidate seeking investment funds would probably have experience as a chief executive and would be bringing along a capable management team along as well as minimum investment - #50,000 and upwards is typical. Many of today's successful MBI teams comprise a chief executive, a financial director and often a marketing or sales director.

Another format worth mentioning is the Bimbo, or buy-in management/buy-out, under which a company's management acquires the business with assistance from some incoming managers.

Elsewhere, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is an attractive option for companies that lack a sufficiently long trading record and that cannot justify the higher cost of a full listing, but nevertheless seek a listing as a route to obtaining finance.

Choosing the right financing path is difficult. On the one hand, there is a huge amount of money chasing venture capital. On the other, many companies on the AIM are doing well. MBOs and MBIs are options worth considering.

And even though most entrepreneurs hate parting with equity, a reverse takeover can offer the means of gaining a public listing and using shares to grow by acquisition.

INVESTMENTS THAT PAID OFF

Examples of venture capital companies that invest in hi-tech companies include 3i, British Steel (Industry), Candover Investment, ECI Ventures and Fleming Ventures.

British Steel (Industry), for example, backed Intelligence Data Marketing which was nominated for a joint BVCA and Financial Times-sponsored Enterprise Award. It has also invested in Alba Networks, a computer networking company engaged in year 2000 compliance internet services.

3i, a leading venture capital company and probably the largest investor in technology businesses, invested #126 million in 122 IT companies last year. It is currently making 170 technology investments per year and points out that 31 of its technology companies have gone public in the past two years.

3i's investments in IT companies include Topsoft, which specialises in designing computer security products. The company received a #780,000 capital investment to help finance the development of further products to take advantage of the growing market for security lines as more companies use portable PoS and distributed computing channels such as the internet.

3i also provided #350,000 to support the start-up of Netscient, which offers customers and equipment manufacturers a range of network planning systems and consultancy services.

Onyx Internet Ltd, which has been trading since 1992 and developed Tradezone, a third-party e-commerce service, received a second growth capital injection from 3i, who first invested in the company in 1997.

Total funding of #750,000 was invested to help support Onyx's leading-edge software for business-to-business trading on the internet.

Another company that received a second round of funding from 3i was Artisan Software Tools, based in Cheltenham, which specialises in the development of products for the real-time and embedded systems market. Funding of #1.5 million enabled the company to continue its expansion plans and implement its marketing programme.