Funding for UK based companies?

[Juliana Farha]

I've received an email from an organisation called Gateway to Investment (g2i) that's connected with the LDA. It was addressed to me personally, and they claim to have found me through 'Library House' which I know nothing about. G2i purport to offer investment support and advice to entrepreneurs, but lots of the groups that offer financing advice to entrepreneurs charge quite a lot of money for this service. Does anyone know about this group?

[Victoria Player]

Hi,

I don't know much about them but was going to do some research on them as I stumbled on them in this article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/30/c.... Victoria Player.

[Deborah J. Boyd]

Hi Juliana, My company - Funding Coalition - may be able to help. I am not familiar with gateway but normally the way things are charged is that the broker would get a % of the funds that you get. In other words you pay nothing up front. There are several companies that want you to pay them and what they do is add you to a list where investors can see you and contact you if they are interested. This might work but most investors do not work like this. Also be aware that you do not want to talk to anyone about any business plans you have unless they sign an agreement of non-disclosure. These agreements protect you from them steeling your idea and also from using your information with a third party. Anyone looking for investment money needs a solid business plan with a management structure and projected cost and revenue for about 5 years. The investor wants to see where they will get their money returned.