Memorandum from Catapult (EM 01)
Catapult Venture Managers Limited is a small
venture capital house based in Leicester with another office based
in Birmingham. We manage the £30 million East Midlands
Regional Venture Capital Fund which was the first of the Regional
Venture Capital Funds (RVCF) and was launched in January 2002.
We also manage a £30 million Enterprise Capital Fund
(ECF), again managed out of Leicester.
We would make the following observations with
regard to East Midlands Development Agency (emda):
— emda and Jeff Moore in particular
were instrumental in helping to launch the first RVCF in the UK.
emda understood the need for locally based venture capital
funds to help create innovative businesses capable of generating
wealth for the UK.
— emda's support also helped Catapult
secure an ECF. Indeed Catapult are the only RVCF manager who has
gone on to also manage an ECF. emdas support in this success
should not be under-estimated.
— Since then we have had regular communication
with emda who have always been commercial and supportive.
Jeff Moore chairs the Investment Advisory Committee for the RVCF
and also the ECF that we manage on behalf of our investors.
— From our experience we feel that emda
have a good grasp of the commercial issues that are important
for sustainable business success and have added greatly to a cohesive
joined up Regional Economic Strategy.
— emda also act as a facilitator
in getting together different business groups and are seen as
neutral supportive territory. Some business groups would not have
come together in productive dialogue to make things happen if
emda were not in existence. They are well respected by
the business community and can therefore take this important role.
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