CellAura Technologies Ltd was announced as one of nine Midlands based companies to win the Connect Midlands £5M Investment Challenge at a Gala dinner at Kilworth House Hotel.
In its second year of running the Challenge is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs and businesses in the East and West Midlands to test their investment potential using the online Gauntlet tool, gain valuable free feedback, learn how to improve and grow their business and, as in the case of CellAura, gain real investment.
The Challenge is run by Connect Midlands, sponsored by BT Business, and backed by Catapult Venture Managers Ltd, the East Midlands Early Growth Fund, and Advantage Business Angels. The Challenge is also supported by emda (East Midlands Development Agency) and GINEM (Growth Investment Network East Midlands).
CellAura 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. CellAura was named in a shortlist of just 20 businesses in August 2007 and we have since delivered a “pitch” to a panel of real investors to ascertain the company’s suitability for potential equity funding through the Challenge.
Dai Hayward (CEO) was present at the gala dinner to receive the news and commented “this is an extremely rewarding outcome for CellAura and demonstrates that as a company, we have made significant progress since spinning out from the University of Nottingham in March 2006. This result clearly demonstrates that CellAura is maturing as a company and is a business that the key stakeholders involved in the Challenge really want to invest in”.