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Finalists announced for £5 million Investment Challenge final

25/09/2007

Seven East Midlands firms have been announced as finalists in the Connect Midlands £5 Million Investment Challenge.

CellAura Technologies, Pacemaker UK Ltd and Sutton Media Ltd (all Nottingham) are joined by SynchroPulse Ltd (Lincoln), Green Energy Options (Northants), SAKS Electronics (Derby) and TTE Systems (Leicester).

The Challenge, sponsored by BT Business, offers up to £5 million in equity funding for high-growth and technology businesses. The Connect Midlands £5 million Investment Challenge is backed by Catapult Venture Managers Ltd, East Midlands Early Growth Fund (managed by E-Synergy) and supported by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) and GINEM.

The firms reached the final by entering the Challenge online and completing the online assessment tool, ‘The Gauntlet’, developed by Doug Richard, formerly of Dragon’s Den. Acting like a virtual investor, The Gauntlet seeks the crucial information that investors need and ensures that the business is investment ready.

They were named in a shortlist of just 20 businesses in August and have since delivered a “pitch” to a panel of real investors to ascertain their suitability for potential equity funding through the Challenge. The finalists will learn their funding fate when the winners are revealed on October 10th at Kilworth House Hotel, Leicestershire. If successful, they will then be given the opportunity to enter into private negotiations with the Challenge backers.

Mick Mcloughlin, BT's regional director for the East Midlands said: “Having started the process way back in April, we have seen a huge variety of exciting businesses come to our attention. The great diversity of the applicants and the consistent quality of them is a very positive sign for the region as a whole.”

Now in its second year, the £5 Million Investment Challenge is operated by Connect Midlands, the not-for-profit network for investors, high growth and technology businesses in the region. In its inaugural year, up to £1 million of equity funding was available to the region’s businesses, but due to its success the pot was increased to £5 million for this year’s Challenge.

Jonathan Lowe, Head of Business Investment at emda, commented: “We knew from the first Challenge held last year that there was an incredible amount of talent and superb ideas within the East Midlands. The entrepreneurial spirit of the region is incredible and we are delighted to be in a position to support it once again this year.”

Isabell Majewsky, director of Connect Midlands said: “The standard of applicants in this year’s Challenge is phenomenal. It was hard enough trying to get down to a shortlist of 20 from the hundreds of applications we received so you can imagine the difficulty we had in selecting the finalists. I look forward to the awards evening on October 10th with great anticipation.”

Rob Carroll, managing director of backers, Catapult Venture Managers said: “Last year we had some very strong candidates, many of whom went on to receive equity funding as a result. This year the field is again strong. There are some companies that have learnt from last year’s valuable feedback from the panel and re-entered with stronger proposals and a host of companies that we had not been aware of until now. The Connect Midlands Investment Challenge really does help to unearth some of the hidden gems within the region and plays a vital role within the economy.”

More information about the Connect Midlands £5 Million Investment Challenge can be found at www.connectchallenge.org.

Terms and conditions apply - Catapult Venture Managers Ltd and E-Synergy (fund manager to the East Midlands Early Growth Fund), are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Any investment made from the Investment Funds will be in the form of a commercial venture capital structured investment on which the Funds managed by Catapult Venture Managers Ltd and E-Synergy will be expecting a return.

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For further information, please contact:

Chrissie Walker or Greg Simpson