November 25th 2024, Pitch Event in Bournemouth

Our next Pitch Event for Angel Investors takes place on November 25th at the Bournemouth Carlton Hotel.

DBA members, High Net Worth (HNW), and Sophisticated Investors (SI) from our wider community who comply with our requirement to deliver serious investor interest for our presenting entrepreneurs are welcome to attend. Access to pitch decks, business plans, financial information and one-page summaries will also be available via the Portal.

If you are HNW or SI but not a member please contact us to request access to the Pitch Portal.


To register for the pitch event, click here.

All pitches are confirmed as follows:

Market Sector: Worldwide Travel

This platform provides clients with a fast, easy way to create and book a holiday or special break, whilst taking all the responsibility expected of a normal tour operator.

Currently, no operator of full-service tailormade experiential holidays allows you to select, tailor and book these trips yourself online. Research shows that clients - especially 30–50-year-old professionals - are crying out for such a service, 89% of whom find existing online booking tools inadequate for the purpose. The only alternative - an offline operator or travel agency - typically requires 10 hours of client time over 2-3 weeks to complete the same process.  By contrast, this Company’s offering allows clients to do it all for themselves in around 30 minutes, with each trip being individually priced.

The management team have considerable experience in this sector. They realised that the trip selection process could be done far better and faster by a computer, than a self-styled ‘destination expert’ and that clients could tailor and book these trips for themselves if they were given the tools to do so.

Covid disrupted the business for 2 years, at a point where a client-tested, full MVP, featuring 143 fully online bookable and customisable trips to 40 countries had gained very high client approval. In the interim, a far more advanced second-generation platform using AI and machine learning was developed and this too has met with very positive client feedback.

With a new core team and a panel of expert advisors, management now seek £250k to build and launch a second-generation MVP, prior to launching a heavy-duty production platform for the UK and US markets.

Plant based confectionery
Market Sector: Plant-Based Confectionery

Manufacturers of sustainable and ethical award-winning chocolate in the UK. They are targeting the children’s market with plant-based organic milk chocolate accompanied by a fun creative non-plastic toy.

This Company’s mission statement is to inspire, delight, educate, and foster creativity in children with its plastic-free educational toys and encourage healthier eating with its non-refined 1/3 less sugar, organic plant-based chocolate.

Launched in 2018, it manufactures sustainably and ethically produced, award-winning chocolate in the U.K. It has been awarded 38 international awards and currently has a range of 21 product lines targeting the children’s market with plant-based organic milk chocolate, accompanied by a fun, creative non-plastic toy.

Sales for Y/E April 2024 are circa £500k, of which circa 80% was via retail and 20% online.

Launching into 3 major UK national retail outlets and two European retailers in 2025, management are now raising £1M to continue expansion.

Rainwear
Market Sector: Rainwear

An umbrella innovation that eliminates post-use wetness and storage hassles through its revolutionary waterproof case-handle design.
This Company manufactures umbrellas that overcome the problems usually associated with the standard retail offering - wet after use, not windproof, durability, and loss.

The Company’s USP is a watertight case that doubles as an optional handle. This stores the umbrella when wet, which means you can immediately store it in your pocket or bag. These drawbacks make existing products a burden to the user for hours after use, which leads people to either lose or misplace them. The consequence of this is that users are put off buying a good quality product resulting in a staggering 1Bn going into landfill annually.

Following two years of product development, the Company commenced trading with two versions of its 14th prototype in October 2023. Twelve months on, sales of 1,900 units in 46 countries have been achieved, including one major UK retailer.

Based on customer feedback, the 2nd generation product will launch in the UK next month and will be supported with national advertising.

Management now seeks £500K to continue to scale the business.

Recruitment
Market Sector: Recruitment

A social platform offered as a mobile application connecting aviation and maritime crew to jobs in real-time and without charge.
Crew shortages lead to costly delays and cancellations across the maritime and aviation industries, and the experience of looking for work as a crew member is often time-consuming, exhausting, demoralising and expensive.

This local Company’s product is a social platform accessed via a mobile app. It will connect aviation and maritime crew to available jobs in real time without charge. It ensures that those looking for jobs are connected as quickly as possible by drawing on the advantages of the community’s network. There are no hidden fees, no commission, and no lengthy enrolment process.

An MVP is currently in build, and there is already a waiting list for downloads. Strategic partnerships with MoD & RNLI are under active discussion.

Management now seek £500K to complete the MVP, conduct trials and take the product to market.

Affordable Housing
Market Sector: Affordable Housing

An agency and trading platform for shared ownership housing.
Through standardised shared ownership leases and technology-powered transactions, this platform created by a local Company, makes residential housing priced at open market rates significantly more accessible to homebuyers. Its aim is to provide finance and transaction solutions that help the 9 million renters become buyers and 6 million elderly homeowners in the UK afford to get on, up or down, the housing ladder.

House prices, on average, are up to 8.3 times annual earnings, deposits of more than £50,000 are required, and the average age of a first-time buyer is now 34 years. At the other end of the housing ladder, purpose-built retirement housing is unaffordable for most downsizers. Only 16% of people choose to or can afford to downsize.

To date, investment in the IP, prototyping, road-testing the required technologies, and assembly of the core skillsets and resources is complete. Proof of concept now requires further investment—circa £5m—to hit 100 platform transactions’ commercial target in 2025. When the trading model is proven, the business will require a further significant injection of capital to scale up rapidly across the UK and beyond, leading to a company with a forecast enterprise value of circa £1bn.

Seed investors will have an opportunity to either exit, achieve target returns, or dilute their shareholding and remain invested for a final exit at a significantly higher value through a trade sale or IPO.

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