New partnership to support investment in chemistry-led start-ups and scale-ups

“We at the Royal Society of Chemistry are dedicated to supporting innovative and ambitious chemistry-led SMEs. This partnership will be absolutely key to providing our growing entrepreneurial community with the access they need to the UK’s early-stage investment community.”

Chemistry-led innovation represents a broad and compelling opportunity area for early-stage investors as it is integral to a vast number of sectors, including life sciences, energy supply /generation, the automotive industry, construction, and consumer products. Angel investors come from many different walks of life and have a wide variety of sector interests, so chemical science start-ups can appeal to a very broad cross-section of this community.

Our EnterprisePlus scheme currently supports 300 businesses across the UK by providing networking opportunities, grants and funding support, and help with recruitment and business promotion. The new partnership with the UKBAA, the national trade association for angel and early-stage investment, will now enable innovative start-ups from this community to connect with an established group of investors.

The UKBAA represents over 160 member organisations and around 18,000 investors. Business angels in the UK collectively invest an estimated £1.5 billion per annum and are therefore the UK’s largest source of investment for start-ups and early-stage businesses seeking to grow. The UKBAA’s members include angel networks, syndicates, individual investors, early-stage venture capitalists, equity crowdfunding platforms, accelerators, professional advisers and intermediaries. The UKBAA acts as the voice of the angel investment community and strives to build and connect the angel investment ecosystem to ensure a coherent landscape for financing high-potential entrepreneurs.

The event will take place at our London headquarters in Burlington House, 5-8pm on 11 April. Companies involved in our EnterprisePlus scheme and previous Emerging Technologies Competition finalists can apply to pitch at the event – applications will close on 27 February. We will work with the UKBAA to select the most promising applicants to attend the event and the UKBAA will work closely with the companies to coach them for their pitch to investors.

Further information

To apply to pitch at the event, please use our online application form at rsc.li/investment-catalyst.

Find out more about EnterprisePlus and our Emerging Technologies Competition.