xénos facilitates Six Figure investment into bioscience company

The following story was published by xenos in January 2008.

A Welsh bioscience company that has developed a natural food supplement it claims can protect against electro-magnetic forces from power lines and cell phone transmitters, helping improve sleep patterns and enhancing complexions, has received £125,000 investment through xénos, the Wales Business Angel Network.

Asphalia Food Products Ltd of Pontypool has developed a supplement using ingredients that are rich in a powerful natural anti-oxidant five times more powerful than Vitamin C.

"Natural levels of melatonin decline in the body after reaching 50. Our supplement helps to improve sleep,acts as an anti-ageing agent, enhances complexion and protects against radiation from UV as well as non-ionising EMFs from power-lines, cell phones and their transmitters," said Roger Coghill, Managing Director of the company.

"The public is only vaguely aware of the many benefits of melatonin, but it is routinely requested in health stores which have previously been unable to supply it. Forecast UK sales for this unique product are £2million within three years.

"In order to take the business and new product forward, Asphalia Food Products Ltd needed a cash investment. xénos matched the company with a business angel who has invested £125,000 and taken a 20per cent stake in the company.

xénos, matches business angels (high net worth individuals) to companies seeking investment for business opportunities. The angels, often former company owners/managers, also bring management and mentoring experience to the business they are investing in. Since it was formed in 1997, xénos has facilitated more than £14 million of private sector investment.

Mr Coghill added: "We're delighted to have found an investor that has not only provided us with financial investment, but who will also be actively involved in and support the company's development,"

David Maas of xénos, said: "Companies like Asphalia Food Products Ltd often require an injection of capital to push their expansion plans forward. By matching a business angel to the company we have been able to provide the necessary cash investment while bringing additional management experience to the business to help drive its new product forward."

Small Business Owners Slay Dragons Den

The following article was published by Kashflow on 2nd February 2008.

Duncan Bannatyne and his fellow Dragons Den panellists will be crying into their millionaires breakfasts as nearly 65% of small business owners say that they would turn their back on an offer from them as they dont believe it represents good value for money. Duncan, Peter, Deborah, Theo and James are all out!

The Dragon’s Den flames have been put out by nearly 65% of small to medium sized enterprise (SME) owners who say that they would turn down a deal from one of the Dragon’s. The research, carried out by UK based accounting software company KashFlow revealed that business owners do not believe that the deals put on the table by the quintet represent good value for money and would instead turn to banks or private backers for a more reasonable rate or split of the business.

Just under 750 business owners took part in the research and KashFlow also discovered that when it came to reasons why small business owners would accept an offer from the Dragon’s 36% said it was for the experience they would bring to the company.

A further 27% said they would accept in order to try and grow their company, 24% said they would only accept because of the positive public relations opportunities, 6% said they would only accept if they had no option and a few jokers said they would accept an offer from Duncan Bannatyne just to get a discount off his gym fees.

KashFlow commissioned the research to try and get a better understanding of small companies financial requirements and speaking about the findings Duane Jackson, Managing Director of KashFlow said, “Many business owners don’t realise that if they just kept a better eye on their business expense and cash-flow they would probably not need to approach television shows for funding and could get a much better offer either from a private financial backer or the banks”.

He continued, “When KashFlow was looking for private financial backing I would have never dreamt of going on television and giving away 50% of my company just for a bit of extra publicity and I think many business owners realise this after they have appeared and this is why so few deals complete following an offer on camera”.

A good example of a business owner who went up against the Dragons and won is Ling Valentine from LINGsCARS.com. She turned down an offer from the dragons and her comment that “Chinese eat dragons for breakfast” became a cult hit with business owners across the UK.

Ling (34) said, “I had two joint offers from dragons Bannatyne and Farleigh. When I refused their first offer demanding a massive 30% of my business, they reconsidered and improved their offer. But they always wanted too much. I flat refused both of their offers. LINGsCARS.com has more than doubled turnover of cars to £28 million in 2007 and I’m really glad I walked away. Businesses who jump at their first offer must be desperate or barmy.”

Entrepreneur Action

The Western Mail reports today that Welsh business support agency Entrepreneur Action has gone into liquidation.

There is a terrible irony that an organisation that advised small and growing businesses on how to be successful can itself fail.

We are extremely sympathetic to all creditors and member companies affected by this collapse, and believe that there are very serious questions to be asked about how this was allowed to happen given that it received a significant amount of support from the Welsh Assembly government to deliver those services. Coupled with this, companies entering its "high growth programme" were asked to pay £5,000, for which they were promised support and consultancy worth up to £40,000.

The Collective would like to know:

• How much money did Entrepreneur Action and its associated companies receive from the Welsh Assembly over its life?
• What remuneration did its management team receive in that period?
• Why was liquidation the only course of action available to the Board, and how did they allow the company's financial position to deteriorate to such an extent that this became the only option?
• What action is being taken to protect the interests of those companies which paid £5,000 but had not received the full extent of the support they were promised?