Now Office Landlords Want To Be Angel Investors To Startup Tenants

Office landlords looking for innovative ways to drive customers in their direction have a new option open to them: found an angel investment network for early stage businesses.

Manchester-based regional property empire Bruntwood has teamed up with Menlo Park and London-based tech investment consultancy GP Bullhound, to found Manchester Angels. The pair say the new technology-focused angel investment network will provide a crucial missing step in the city region’s tech ecosystem.

The network will connect the very best of Manchester’s startup community with 30 or more local entrepreneurs who have the ability and desire to invest. The group will work closely with venture capital funds and other institutional investors including Praetura Ventures, Northern Gritstone and Octopus Ventures, as well as Ecosystem Partners Silicon Valley Bank and the University of Manchester Innovation Factory.

Serial technology entrepreneur David Levine will take the lead in identifying high-potential businesses seeking early stage funding and matching them with the right angels.

“Access to funding is a developing part of our proposition for our occupier customers,” Bruntwood chief executive Chris Oglesby said.

Bruntwood may be the first to launch its own business angels network, but it is not the first to look into ways to back potential tenants in novel and potentially money-spinning ways.

Earlier this year Stanhope revealed that it was looking to explore ways of providing floorspace to growing companies in exchange for equity stakes.

The initiative, at the 960K SF White City Place complex in central London, is initially targeted at the life sciences sector.