News

A Padstow business specialising in wholesale dog care products is expanding into new markets with the support of a £32,000 loan from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund as part of a £97,000 package of support.

Slickers Doghouse has developed its own range of dog wear and dog pharmacy products, including branded dog slings and blankets, plus skin and coat care treatments, hygiene drops and sprays.

The business was founded by former telecoms director Lisa Hope in 2016 who saw the market potential for a range of high quality eco-friendly and where possible organic dog care products, which are mostly British-made.

The £32,000 CIOSIF loan will support the development of more own-branded Slickers products, and wholesale and online sales through website development, the purchase of a commercial embroidery machine and attendance at major trade shows, including Discover Dogs.

A further £65,000 of loan funding is being provide by SWIG Finance to help Slickers build up stock for growing wholesale and online orders.

Lisa said: “As a relatively young business without a long trading record, we’ve found it difficult to raise finance from traditional sources. But with the support of CIOSIF and SWIG Finance we have now have the backing we need to grow our own-brand range and tap into new markets.”

The deal was led by The FSE Group, with SWIG Finance managing the process as they deliver the smaller business loans part of CIOSIF. Rachel Thomson, CIOSIF Business Manager at SWIG Finance, added: “From locally sourced high-quality treats to the latest fashionable dog wear, Slickers Doghouse has everything covered for your four-legged friend. We are delighted to be supporting Lisa and the Slickers Doghouse team and look forward to seeing how this CIOSIF loan will aid the development and growth of the business.”

Lloyd Brina, Senior Manager at the British Business Bank, said: “Young businesses like Lisa’s often struggle to raise finance from conventional sources and that’s one of the reasons why CIOSIF was set up, to help break down the barriers to accessing growth finance that small businesses face.”

LEP non-executive director John Acornley, who chairs the CIOSIF Advisory Board, said: “Slickers is tapping into a dog owner market worth £10 billion a year in the UK and Lisa has already shown how premium quality, innovative products can appeal to a wide range of owners.”

Lisa received support from Rebecca Bettin at Oxford Innovation to help develop her ideas for growth into a credible business plan with sound financial forecasts.

CIOSIF is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

A world-renowned brewing company who are on a mission to bring back the bear are the latest company to be supported by the Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator. Hofmeister has successfully completed their latest funding round, and raised a total of £720,000, which included £200,000 from the Enterprise M3 Growth Fund.

Hofmeister has a rich and fascinating history within the alcoholic drinks sector. Initially launched in 1976 by Courage, the Hofmeister brand was best known during the 1980s and 1990s. Its famous “follow the bear” Hofmeister adverts featuring George the Bear were the final directorial works of Orson Wells and remain much loved to this day.

The beer remained popular until lower alcohol lagers fell out of fashion in the nineties. Luckily for beer lovers, this is now changing with a surge in taste for premium lagers.  Relaunched in 2017 as a premium world lager, the new Hofmeister has been crafted to meet this growth in appetite for great quality lager. The relaunch of this historic beer is being expertly steered by two friends, Richard Longhurst and Spencer Chambers who bought the brand and have revamped the recipe for new-age beer drinkers. Now the beer is a genuine Helles lager brewed in Bavaria using the Reinheitsgebot or Purity Law, a traditional brewing method dating back to 1516. Beers brewed with this method only contain barley, hops, and mineral water.  Both men held senior positions at Beams, the UK’s leading branded alcohol gifting company. Ocado, the 5-star Connaught Hotel and the Ritz are just two of Hofmeister’s big name collaborations and more exciting partnerships are in the pipeline for the coming year.

Richard Longhurst, CEO at The Hofmeister Brewing Company, commented, "The past few years have been utterly phenomenal at Hofmeister and we are thrilled that The FSE Group has joined us on our journey. From winning contracts for in-house lager deals at prestigious venues to being the first ever lager to receive five stars at the International Wine & Spirits Competition, our relaunch has achieved so much already. With this funding round we will be opening up new facilities in Surrey and also expanding our talented team, so that the 2020’s carry on the momentum we have already built into the company.”

Avent Bezuidenhoudt, Senior Fund Manager at The FSE Group which manages the Enterprise M3 Growth Fund on behalf of the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership, adds, "We are delighted to add Hofmeister to our investment portfolio. The company’s high level of success in such a short space of time is incredibly encouraging and can be credited to the team’s expertise and love for their product. They went to great lengths to find the right brewing partner and found the award-winning, privately-owned family business Schweiger Brewery in Bavaria to produce Hofmeister. Choosing a brewery partnership of such calibre has resulted in a fantastic high-end and critically acclaimed product. We are excited to follow the journey of Hofmeister…by following the bear!”

The Enterprise M3 Growth Fund is part of the Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator, a £10million initiative funded by Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership. The escalator, which includes an expansion loan scheme, a trade finance loan scheme and an equity growth fund, provides eligible companies with loans and equity funding between £50,000 and £300,000 for activities that will deliver high-growth and employment opportunities across the EM3 area.

Truro based, Clinical Design Technologies, a business producing a new way for healthcare professionals to carry out urine testing, is the latest to receive funding from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF).

Clinical Design has received a £750,000 CIOSIF equity investment as part of a £1.57 million fundraising round, which includes £400,000 from Sorbon Investments Ltd. The funding will support rollout of the product in the UK, alongside progression with overseas markets and will also allow the business to take on six new staff initially with further hires planned for next year.

Urine Testing System™ is an award-winning closed system for digital point-of-care urine testing for all healthcare providers including doctors’ surgeries, hospitals and care homes. As the world’s only closed system, Urine Testing System™ improves accuracy and enables semi-automatic desk-based analysis with the UTS Digital Analyser™. Urine Testing System™ has already been recognised as a significant innovation and earlier this year, it won a prestigious Red Dot Award for its intuitive design and potential to revolutionise one of the most common medical tests.

Having completed the design, development and robust testing of its system, the company is ready to move from trial stage into full-scale rollout.

Oliver Blackwell, Clinical Design Founder and CEO, said, “An estimated 100 million urine tests are carried out every year in the UK alone, many of which are still conducted with dipsticks that are colour-matched by eye. We have designed and engineered a digital solution that is easy-to-use and provides standardised results, which can be read on a desktop computer and saved to a patient’s electronic health care record.”

Mr Blackwell continues, “Securing funding at such a pivotal point can be tricky for early-stage med-tech companies like ours. We’re delighted to receive this backing which will be used to continue our UK rollout alongside entering overseas markets in Europe and preparing for expansion into the US in 2020.”

Ralph Singleton, Head of Funds, Cornwall at The FSE Group, commented: “Clinical Design has succeeded in creating a product that is not only superior to the existing solution but, crucially for the healthcare sector, is also cost neutral by comparison. This leaves them well placed to capture a significant portion of the almost 3 billion urine tests carried out globally each year and we are excited to be supporting such a dynamic team.”

John Acornley, chair of the CIOSIF Advisory Board and a non-executive director of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), said: “Once again CIOSIF is at the forefront of supporting real technological innovation in Cornwall whilst driving high quality job creation across the region. And with manufacturing of the product and associated software currently outsourced to St Austell and Redruth sub-contractors, this is positive news for the wider local economy.”

The £40m Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund provides debt and equity finance from £25,000 to £2 million to help growing small businesses across the region. It has been established by the British Business Bank in partnership with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP and is operated by appointed fund manager, The FSE Group.

CIOSIF is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

For more information about the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund including how to apply, please visit www.ciosif.co.uk or follow the fund on Twitter at @CIOSIFBBB2

A real-time fraud protection company that has established cutting edge software to revolutionise the telecommunications industry by offering a unique fraud tracking and blocking solution for companies is the latest organisation to be supported by The Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator.

Farnham based, Six Degrees Labs Limited were established in 2016 and have secured a £300,000 growth loan, which will enable the company to recruit additional resources to facilitate the growing demand for their products. Six Degrees have created a sophisticated and effective, identification fraud prevention system which helps stop telecoms operators and their customers from losing money.

Six Degrees provide their clients with RVS software which prevents direct fraudulent calls and they have also developed their own software to prevent SIMBOX fraud. SIMBOX Fraud occurs when fraudsters insert SIM cards into a server which connects 30 SIMs to the network per server. Some ‘SIMBOX networks’ have 10 or 20 of these in operation that can handle 300 to 600 concurrent fraudulent calls into the local networks.

The SIMBOX software is able to monitor calls coming in and attributes a score to any potentially fraudulent numbers, once a pattern is determined the number is automatically blocked from calling. Six Degrees have also extended the system to completely prevent telecoms customers from receiving annoying and harmful ‘Wangiri’ calls, where people are left in a missed call in the hope that the person called will return the call and be charged for premium rate or expensive international calls, from which the fraudsters receive a share of those costs. Vodafone, Three, BT and nearly all operators across the world are all experiencing high volumes of these harmful Wangiri calls for which they require an effective solution to prevent.

Six Degrees Labs Limited, Managing Director, Bryan Rowe said: “Over the last few years, Six Degrees has grown from a small software company for a couple of customers into one of the most successful real-time fraud prevention technology companies internationally. Obtaining finance for growth is crucial for us to succeed and achieve our goals in the future. The funding will allow us to expand our operations into the UK market, with the relocation of our head office to Farnham.”

Derek Ellis, Senior Fund Manager at the FSE Group, said: “Six Degrees team is made up of highly skilled individuals who have an abundance of experience in the telecoms fraud industry, which puts the company in a strong position to grow in the coming years. We are pleased to be working with Bryan and his team during this exciting new chapter and wish them all the success.”

Kathy Slack, CEO, Enterprise M3 LEP, comments: “As the Enterprise M3 region’s growth in high-value, hi-tech sectors continues, it is crucial that cyber-security moves at the same pace. We are delighted that we can help Six Degrees, experts in this field, to overcome the growth obstacle of access to finance and so, enable them to develop further their impressive technology. It is also great news that Six Degrees are placing their confidence in the Enterprise M3 region by locating their head office here.”

The Enterprise M3 Funding Escalator II is a £10million initiative funded by Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership. The escalator, which includes an expansion loan scheme, a trade finance loan scheme and an equity growth fund, provides eligible companies with loans and equity funding between £50,000 and £300,000 for activities that will deliver high-growth and employment opportunities across the EM3 area.

An events company organising music festivals, private functions and other events near Bude is the latest company to be supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF).

The Wyldes, which held its first festival in 2008, has successfully secured a large six figure CIOSIF loan. The Wyldes hosts a number of music concerts at its farm-based site with its main event, the Leopallooza Festival, having grown substantially year on year with attendance and revenues doubling in the last five years. The event now attracts a line-up of top-quality music and comedy artists.

The Wyldes co-founder, Sam Dunnett, said: “Over the last decade, Leopallooza has grown from a small event for our friends and family into one of the most successful festivals in the region. Obtaining finance for growth is crucial for us to succeed and achieve our goals, but it is not easy in this unique industry. We are thrilled to have secured this CIOSIF loan, which enables us to improve the site, invest in new equipment and increase and upskill our team.”

Tim Williams, fund manager at the FSE Group, said: “It is difficult for any SME to grow without financial support and advice; CIOSIF can make a big difference in providing the funding required, which might not be readily available from traditional finance sources. The Wyldes has a strong team who have gained considerable experience in this niche sector and are ready to take the business to the next level. We are happy to be working with them through this next stage of growth.”

The £40m Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund provides debt and equity finance from £25,000 to £2 million to help growing small businesses across the region. It has been established by the British Business Bank in partnership with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and is operated by appointed fund managers FSE Group.

LEP non-executive director John Acornley, who chairs the CIOSIF Advisory Board, added: “The Wyldes has established itself as one of the premier events venues in Cornwall, attracting global acts and making a significant contribution to the cultural economy. Their use of local contractors means there is a direct benefit to local businesses from events and we’re pleased the fund has been able to support them.”

Lloyd Brina, Senior Manager at the British Business Bank, added: “This loan is helping The Wyldes to invest in their infrastructure and their team, which will underpin future events and future growth. It’s great news for music fans in Cornwall and beyond, and will boost the visitor economy.”

CIOSIF is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. Further investment has come from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local LEP and HM Government. For more information about the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund including how to apply, please visit www.ciosif.co.uk or follow the fund on Twitter at @CIOSIFBBB2