The Angel CoFund, a fund that invests in high-growth SMEs alongside UK angel groups, has realised its first investment through the sale of Nonlinear Dynamics, a Newcastle-based developer of software for analysing proteins, to Waters Inc.
Waters is one of largest companies in the analytical instruments industry, listed on the New York Stock Exchange and with a market cap of USD8.85bn.
Nonlinear Dynamics was the Angel CoFund’s seventh investment, completing on 19 July 2012 and participating alongside a group of experienced angels investors from Yorkshire and the North East, with additional debt provided by FW Capital and support for the syndicate provided by Tiger Corporate Finance. The Angel CoFund acquired approximately five per cent of the company, whilst also investing in a convertible loan.
The disposal represents the first exit for the Angel CoFund, delivering an aggregate return of GBP1.086m on its original investment of GBP383,000, equating to a money-multiple return of 2.84x for the fund and its angel co-investment partners.
George Whitehead, Angel CoFund chairman, says, “To have had an exit in the first two years of running the Angel CoFund is absolutely brilliant and everyone involved in the deal is delighted. The Angel CoFund looks to both support angel investment across the UK, and to ensure that enough cash gets to good, scalable businesses – just like Nonlinear Dynamics. This is real evidence that the rationale behind what we are doing is spot on.”
To date the fund has supported 32 companies, providing GBP12m in direct investment alongside GBP50m from business angels.