DSW Angels, the venture capital investment business of the Dow Schofield Watts group, has changed its trading brand to DSW Ventures to reflect the increasing scale and reach of the business at a time of a massive increase in market activity.DSW Ventures will continue to work as an angel investment network – funding EIS qualifying venture capital deals for its growing network of over 100 individuals, as well as institutional investors including British Business Investments, the commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank.
The Cheshire-based investment house has so far built a portfolio of six high-growth companies but plans to aggressively expand its portfolio and angel investor base across the UK.
Keith Benson, co-founder of DSW Ventures, says: “The rebrand is part of a wider strategy to redefine our proposition – particularly in communicating the professionalism and rigour of our investment approach. We have worked incredibly hard to build DSW Ventures into a top-quality institutional VC with access to significant funds and certainty over fundraising.
”We have been expanding our reach very quickly – with a focus on regional UK early-stage companies. We have seen a huge increase in our access to investment opportunities, receiving over 100 new applications in September 2020. Investor appetite for this exciting asset class has continued despite Covid-19 and our investors have the benefit of a huge deal inflow thanks to the performance of our team.”
David Smith, co-founder of DSW Ventures, adds: “We are seeing a remarkable increase in funding propositions coming from start-ups outside of London. DSW Ventures has already invested in six exciting early-stage businesses who have all benefitted both from our team’s investment management capability and the experience and contacts of our network of over 100 investors. The rate and quality of inbound applications gives us certainty that we will be significantly adding to our portfolio over coming months.”
DSW Ventures invests up to GBP1 million on an EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) basis as part of scale-up funding rounds of up to GBP2 million.
