The Advantage Early Growth Fund
For five years between 2004 and 2009 the Advantage Early Growth Fund was one of the most active investors in the UK making 111 investments in 61 West Midlands based companies totalling £8.79m. Because it was a "co-investment fund" each investment had to be at least matched by private investors at the same price per share so AEGF's capital was matched by £21.5m from 507 private investors and a further £7.6m of bank and other institutional loans. This means that AEGF brought a total of almost £40m to early stage businesses in the region.
The Fund made small Venture Capital investments made in the so called "equity gap" where traditionally venture capital funds find it uneconomic to make investments.
The fund is now fully invested and has entered a period of 5-7 years in which it will be seeking profitable 'exits' from its investments so that it can achieve its main objective; to demonstrate that small venture capital investments can be profitable.
In 2010 the AEGF team identified that the "credit crunch" had opened up a "Loan Gap" because of the reluctance by banks to lend to businesses and at the same time private investors and pension funds were getting very poor rates of interest on their bank deposits. From this they have developed a new funding initiative "The Business Loan Network" which can be found by clicking HERE.
