Oliver Woolley co-founded Envestors, a private investor network, with Scott Haughton and Nick Taylor in 2004. The firm helps investors source earlystage dynamic companies in need of growth and expansion capital. It has funded more than 200 businesses in the past ten years.
After finishing a degree in finance in 1986, Oliver raised private equity and bank debt to start his own venture in the food industry – including a retail catering business in central London and organic sausage shops in south east England. In 1997 he sold the business and moved into early-stage investing.
"I made three angel investments, all of which went bust," recalls Oliver. "It made me think there must be a better way. There were approaches from entrepreneurs which were poorly presented and far from 'investment ready'. Or they were 80- page technical information memoranda which were difficult to follow. So Envestors was set up by a group of entrepreneurs and investors, with the aim of getting better deals done."
Meeting the criteria
Today, Envestors has more than 1,800 investor members, of which 214 have made investments in the past two years. The key challenge is to find good deals to invest in.
"First off, firms must have a credible, commercial, competent and experienced management team," explains Oliver. "They must be ambitious and able to prove that their concept is more than just an idea. We look for businesses that are addressing a large and growing problem, which people will pay good money to solve. The product or service on offer needs to be defensible and keep ahead of its competitors and the business needs to show that it has momentum. We don't want desperate companies – we want ones with at least six months fuel in the tank."
Putting companies through their paces
Envestors receives more than 100 proposals a month, referred from various sources such as accountants (including Smith & Williamson), banks, lawyers, management schools and from giving talks.
"From the 100 we receive, we invite about 20 a month into our offices to attend our fortnightly 'Investment Briefings' where we meet the companies and put them through their paces," explains Oliver. "Of these, only around four companies a month will be selected to present to our network of private investors and family offices around the world."
"In 2013, we facilitated investment of £15m in 23 companies, and from January to June 2014 we closed £10.8m for 11 companies, including investment from family offices in Monaco and Jersey," says Oliver.
Award-winning deals
Envestors has won a number of awards, including the recent Investor Allstars' award for 'Private Investor Network of the Year' for the third time.
Another highlight was winning 'International Deal of the Year' for Chargemaster, an electric vehicle charging technology company, at the Annual UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) Awards in July 2014.
"Envestors has raised £11.1m for Chargemaster through 18 private investors from London, Jersey and Monaco."
Future plans
Envestors is developing a platform to offer a better service to its investor members, enabling them to communicate with fellow investors as well as directly with potential investee companies, within a secure environment.
"One of the biggest complaints investors have is the lack of communication with investee companies once the money has gone in," says Oliver. To address this, Envestors is launching a service to closely monitor the companies so that investors can track the progress of each deal.
To help continue the company's success into the future, Envestors has recently welcomed a new chairman to head the non-executive board, Kevin Lomax, the founder of the software company Misys plc. Two non-executive directors, Penny Avis and Julian Box, have also recently joined the firm.
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