Investment as a growth accelerant

It has been an investment-heavy week with events that looked at boosting the amount of capital going into companies solving the payment issue, launch of the South East Investment Fund, and how to attract investors to coastal areas. Discipline on prompt payment was a thread throughout. This newsletter covers highlights.

Investment in payments

Tuesday morning saw us 24 floors up in the London clouds talking about how we can replicate the fund-raising success of businesses like Adfin and SAIBLE, who have respectively raised investment to address the late payment issue. Around the table were venture capitalists, UK Private Capital, British Business Bank, Beauhurst, Office for Investment (OfI) and organisers of Fintech Week. All gathered saw the potential for the UK to position itself as a great place to start and grow a payments company where ambitious founders trade in an environment with flowing capital, a payments peer network, and introduction of pro-payment legislation.

If you offer funding to businesses, there are two areas we would like you to consider; directing more of your funding to companies working on payment, and to look at the payment performance of companies before making an investment. Caroline Escott is a pioneer in this area and you can see her talking about how she reviews payment quality before deciding where to invest her £37bn under management here. Caroline’s belief is that a company with prompt payment is well-run and therefore an investable one – we agree!

Investment in Place

It is well understood that the best form of funding is a company’s cashflow, but external capital helps, and growth prospects across the South East were boosted this week with Wednesday’s launch from British Business Bank of the  South East Investment Fund; a £210m fund aimed at businesses from all sectors, at all stages, and in every part of the region. Applications are open and you can find out more here.

Investment in Ports

Then I was off to Ramsgate for a final event focused on attracting investment into the town’s Port where I chaired a panel of what investors look for when placing capital in long-term ventures and assets. At the risk of sounding repetitive, what they want to see is a solid plan, quality teams, and good money management. All roads lead to prompt payment!

Emma