Founders of the angel network already set up Cambridge Capital Group.
Anglia Capital Group (ACG) is being set up as a new angel network in Norwich to replicate the success of Cambridge Capital Group (CGC). The network has been created by the same founders as CGC.
Focusing on both Norfolk and Suffolk, the aim of ACG is to initially reunite 12 angel investors who will support early-stage companies in the food, agricultural technology, life sciences, health, advanced manufacturing and energy sectors. It hopes to grow the network to 30 or 40 angels by the end of 2015.
ACG is the result of a £1m ($1.6m) co-investment fund supported by the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, which will match angel funding. It will based at the Centrum building at Norwich Research Park.
CCG was launched in 2001 and has invested £16m into more than 50 companies since then, all with a basis in Cambridgeshire. Most recently, CGC participated in the £2.3m series A round of Cambridge University spin-out DefiniGen, one of the biggest such rounds in the university’s history.
Struan McDougall, managing director of the Anglia Capital Group, said: “Norfolk and Suffolk are two big successful economies and we believe there must be scale for more private investment into growth companies here. We think there’s more commercialisation needed in the Norwich Research Park – we are already seeing the University of East Anglia becoming more commercial and growth companies emerging from the likes of the Hethel Engineering Centre and Orbis Energy in Lowestoft. We are interested in a range of sectors, but the key thing for all our investors, whether it be mainstream companies or disruptive firms, is they have to have a difference.”