INVESTMENT
28 April 2016
FUTURESCOT 19
Eastern promise adds spice
to investment showcase
Now in its eighth year
EIE has lured Chinese
capital to its annual
gathering of investors
The Engage Invest Exploit (EIE) 2016
event on May 12 is the biggest annual
gathering of investors in Scotland; 60
tech companies will get the chance to
pitch their ideas to the ‘dragons’
BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
The head of a £500m Chinese venture
capitalist fund will be among 250
investors at the annual tech investment showcase EIE in Edinburgh next
month.
Cocoon Networks, which is backed
by China Equity Group and Hanxin
Capital, will be represented at the technology investment pitching contest on
May 12 in Edinburgh.
John Zai, its CEO, launched the fund
in London in January and is part of a
growing network of Chinese investors
with plans to become involved in UK
and European start-ups. For EIE it is
a major coup at the same time as the
organisers themselves consider plans
to host an event in China later this year.
Gordon Stuart, Director of Operations at Informatics Ventures, which
will put on the day-long event at the
Assembly Rooms, said: “We are getting
more and more people coming from
further afield, from Europe, the States
and this year we’re looking to get a
few more from Asia, particularly from
China, which is obviously a new area.
And we are considering doing something in China later this year.”
SIXTY COMPANIES will get the
chance to pitch their ideas to an investment community comprising high net
worth individuals, at the lower end
of the scale with an average £50,000
investment, to large multi-national
venture capitalist funds, who may
invest up to £2m or more. Pitches will
be limited to just a few minutes, and
John Zai, CEO of Cocoon Networks,
will attend the EIE
firms vying for cash have been offered
the chance to learn some stagecraft by
Informatics Ventures, which aims to
create a slick event.
“We want them not only to pitch but
to pitch in a way that’s impressive and
entertaining and leaves an impression
on the audience,” says Stuart. “If we
manage to get people to come from
far afield it’s very important we put on
a bloody good show. That is not only
content but also the capability of the
people to put over their proposition in
a way that grabs the attention of the
investors.”
AMONG COMPANIES pitching are Ed-
inburgh Molecular Imaging Ltd, which
has developed technology which scans
the body for diseases in real time, and
the Glasgow-based makers of Double,
an app which allows couples on first
dates to find each other in a way that is
intended to make dating safer.
Stuart believes the EIE, which also
runs a smaller event in London, would
benefit from larger investment groups
setting up in Scotland. “The angel
community in Scotland is very strong
but what we are missing is the followon finance for companies that want
to scale. A typical digital company
can get up and running for around
half a million pounds but if they really
want to scale up around the world and
recruit and open up offices outside the
“The angel community in Scotland is very strong
but what we are missing is the follow-on finance
for companies that want to scale”
Gordon Stuart, Informatics Ventures
UK that’s going to cost a fair amount
of money. People with that level of
investment are mainly VCs and we just
don’t have venture capitalists located
in Scotland.” However Birmingham
VC firm Mercia Technologies did open
an office in Edinburgh in the past six
months.
Stuart also thinks if FanDuel or
Skyscann W"( 2F