It is October, the leaves have started falling, the pumpkins are carved, and the investment news is flowing. This month in the West of England (that’s Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) we have seen five companies successfully close equity investment rounds totalling a little over £1.5M, three of those companies have shared the news publicly so here’s a handy roundup.
But before we get to the main event, did you know that there is actually a phenomenon known as the October Effect which relates to investment? The October Effect is a perceived market anomaly that stocks tend to decline during the month of October which apparently leads to investor nervousness at this time. However, most statistics go against the theory so it’s thought to be a psychological phenomenon based on historical events including The Panic of 1907, Black Tuesday (1929), Black Monday (1987) and more. As an investor, you would need a pretty good memory to have your investment habits directly affected by this phenomenon – let’s hope there aren’t any data points that add to October’s dodgy investment reputation anytime soon!
Let’s take a look at the good equity investment news this month:
Condense Reality is a virtual reality startup developing technology to transform how viewers watch live entertainment and sports. They have raised a seed round of more than £800,000, including £220,000 from SFC Capital, the most active seed-stage investor in the UK. Read more.
Create Health, a healthcare marketing and advertising agency received £500k from Creative Growth Finance (CGF), the specialist lender for the creative industries. CGF is a fund set up by Creative England and ethical bank Triodos Bank UK, to provide vital scale-up finance to the UK’s most promising creative businesses. Read more.
Yumello is an Atlas Mountains-inspired nut butter brand from Somerset which has raised £100,000 from its online community in just two weeks. Yumello was one of the first companies to participate in the pilot Somerset Catalyst programme in 2019 and has since landed a place on its inaugural full 2020 programme. Read more.
Two additional investments were recorded by our data partner, Beauhurst but they were not disclosed, these totalled £170,000.
If you are interested in investing in companies in the West of England, please sign up to join us for Silicon Gorge, the premier pitching competition for the region which will take place on 12th November, 2-5pm to see 11 exciting companies pitching for £150k – £1.5M.
Read more about the October effect thanks to Investopedia.
This article is written as part of the Investment Activator Programme (IAP) in the West of England. This programme is run by TechSPARK and is kindly sponsored by TLT LLP, delaware, Smith & Williamson, West of England Combined Authority, UWE, Sanderson, Engine Shed and Rocketmakers.
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