Funding early-stage start-ups
An interactive session led by Nic Pillow to talk through the main types of funding available for early-stage start-ups, including grants, debt, and especially equity funding. The discussion will cover potential sources of funds, including angel investors, venture capital, family offices, and crowdfunding. It will consider the stage and amount of investment, the additional benefits that each source can bring, as well as its constraints and conditions.
About Nic Pillow
Nic has worked in and with high-growth tech start-ups for 25 years. He co-founded and ran his own education-technology business Rhizome Live, seeking and raising seed funding. For the last 5 years he has worked in the venture capital team at a UK investment company, investing in UK tech companies at seed to Series A, then supporting them on their growth journeys. As part of that work he was recently appointed a director of a Venture Capital Trust that’s listed on the London Stock Exchange. He’s previously held both technical and commercial roles in a range of early-stage businesses and the large companies that have bought them out, including as the head of a global product management team at Nokia. He has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Oxford.