How things have changed in 10 years. When I started angel investing in 2009 just after the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), I could find revenue generating companies valued at less than £1m. Now an equivalent company would be £5m+. In those 10 years I have invested in 40+ companies, many founded by women. I have been fortunate enough to experience many successes and have learnt to accept failures with 1 or 2 investments out of 10 generating my return. 

Big data on big Data

Big data is a term that is used to describe the large volume of digital data that is created daily. Growing exponentially, it is estimated that we create on a daily basis at least 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, of which 90% has been created globally in the last two years. In 2015 according to IDC the estimated value of the big data market was $59bn and by 2019 it’s expected to roughly double to $102 billion. Companies are able to process, transmit and store more data than ever before and are understanding the valuable insights it can provide.

Simon was delighted to support Peter with the Invested Investor initiative; which is publishing online and offline content to help educate angels and entrepreneurs to prevent mistakes and produce more successful exits. 

Here we share their latest podcast 'The Digital Invested Investor' where Simon describes his angel investment journey. He also talks about several topics including the digital economy and the importance of STEM.

The North of England has long been at the heart of British innovation since the industrial revolution. Whilst on work experience Luke Cooper (Yr12 student) from The Bishop's Stortford High School looked further into the new emerging digital ecosystem of the Northern Powerhouse.

The digital revolution in the North is growing 4 times faster than the non-digital sectors. In the Northern Powerhouse area (highlighted red on map) major cities such as Manchester and Liverpool the have a rapid digital economy growth rate of 13% and 7% respectively between 2011 – 2014.