Below are brief descriptions of some of our publicly announced investments but should be taken as examples only rather than a definitive guide to our investment preferences. Further details on our investment criteria can be found in the ADL FAQ's section.

SUCCESSFUL EXITS

Pout Ltd

Avonmore first invested in this London based cosmetics company in August 2003. It supported the company through several funding rounds and an Avonmore representative sat on the board as Investor Director.

Pout’s founders had recognized a gap in the cosmetics market for a brand that was sexy, feminine and fun. With product names such as ‘pop my bubble’ and ‘eye want you’ the company developed a cult following and grew their own brand label to over 180 items, including their ‘hero’ product, ‘Pout Plump’.

A profitable exit was made from this investment through the sale of Pout to Catterton Partners a US private equity firm in February 2007.

Omega Logic Ltd

Avonmore investors put money into this Reading-based firm in June 2001. Run by Dale Anderson and Simon Murray, Omega Logic provided pre-pay phone transaction processing services for the major UK mobile telecom operators.

Omega Logic's clients included retailers such as Woolworths, Carphone Warehouse, Dixons Store Group and HMV. A profitable exit was made from this investment through the sale of Omega Logic to EPOSS Ltd in January 2003.

SOME OF OUR CURRENT INVESTMENTS

GroupSpaces Ltd

GroupSpaces was founded by a team of Oxford University students and graduates and received funding in January 2008 from Avonmore Developments alongside an experienced angel investor.

GroupSpaces is an Oxford-based startup that is revolutionising the way real world groups manage themselves in an increasingly online world. After a successful pilot programme at Oxford University in 2006-07, where almost 300 university societies used the GroupSpaces tools, the team is now developing a scalable product to meet the needs of millions of societies, sports clubs and common interest groups worldwide.

The company has secured advertising contracts with over 40 blue chip clients including IBM, BP, McKinsey & Company, Bain Capital, Clifford Chance and JPMorgan.

Further details can be found at www.groupspaces.com

Bac2 Ltd

Avonmore made a significant investment into this company in November 2007 as part of a larger funding round which included a seed capital fund and several business angels.

Bac2 Conductive Composites is developing materials to bring forward the commercialisation of fuel cells (that generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, making them the clean solution for our future energy needs).

Bac2's electrically conductive polymer, ElectroPhen ™, cures at room temperature and can be economically produced in bulk. It’s ideally suited to production of the bi-polar plates and end plates that link individual fuel cells to produce fuel cell stacks. The company’s expertise encompasses the custom formulation and manufacture of these components.

Further details can be found at www.bac2.co.uk

Inside Out Beauty Ltd

Set up by Kate Cazenove and Kate Shapland, Inside Out Beauty raised funding from Avonmore in October 2007.

The experienced founders have developed “sip”, a pioneering range of natural flavoured waters, to capitalise on the fast-growing flavoured water market and consumers’ increasing interest in drinks that are free from artificial additives. sip, which launched in June 2006 simultaneously in Selfridges, Fenwick and Harvey Nichols nationwide, can now be found in numerous outlets including Waitrose, EAT Cafes, Whole Food Market, Fresh & Wild, the Champneys Group and Superquinn in Ireland. There are ambitious plans to both expand the product range and grow internationally.

More details can be found at www.sipdrink.com

Intec Power Holdings Ltd

Intec Power Holdings Ltd is a company in the renewable energy market which raised £1.2 million from Angel Investors in January, 2006. Avonmore originally acted as lead angel investor in a syndicate that included the London Seed Capital Fund.

Intec is currently developing a commercial prototype wind turbine and generator that will utilize the pressure differentials of wind around buildings to generate electricity at much lower wind speeds and greater efficiencies than any other generator on the market.
The company website will be launched shortly, but in the meantime Avonmore can be contacted for further details on the project.

Cambridge Biostability Ltd

Avonmore invested in Cambridge Biostability Ltd (CBL) in November 2004 alongside a number of other investors including London Seed Capital.

CBL has developed patented technology that allows the stabilisation of heat sensitive vaccines. This is particularly relevant in developing countries where the destruction of vaccines through a break in the cold chain currently causes 50% of the vaccines administered to be non efficacious. CBL’s technology also allows multi vaccines to be administered through a slow-release single dose.

Since the date of investment, the company has progressed strongly, having won several grants and entered into commercial agreements.

More details can be found at www.biostability.com

In 2006 Panacea, a Bangladeshi vaccine manufacturer, invested £1.9 million into Cambridge Biostability.

Commerce Decisions Ltd

Avonmore's investment in this Oxford-based firm was made in October 2001, as its intial seed round, with Avonmore acting as lead investor and initial board representative for a number of business angels and a Venture Capital Trust. A further investment was made as part of a £1.8M financing round alongside Top Technology Ventures and Herald Ventures in July 2003.

CDL has developed a software package called AWARD that helps organisations making large procurements manage the bidding process more efficiently and the product now has users in central civil government, MoD, NHS Trusts, local government and utility companies. Strong growth over the last few years means the company is now profitable with on multi-million pound turnover.

Further details on the company can be found at www.commercedecisions.com

OCRobotics Ltd

Avonmore put money into this Bristol-based firm in February 2001, as its intial seed round, alongside some business angels and a Venture Capital Trust. In January 2003 Avonmore exercised its option to make a further investment in the company.

OC Robotics has developed a revolutionary type of robotic arm that they have termed the "snake arm" robot. This multi-segmented robot has the ability to follow a predetermined or real-time complex path around objects, with the "body" of the robot being able to follow the same path as the "head". This head can be fitted with a number of devices, for example, cameras, a gripper or processing tools.
The company has made excellent progress since the investment. Over the last few years customers have included UK MOD, US DOD, Airbus, British Nuclear Group, Areva, British Energy, Rolls-Royce Associates and GE. Many of these project have been paid research and development contracts and yet OCR has been able to maintain compete ownership of its IP and the company is consistently profitable.

More details can be found at www.ocrobotics.com

Virtual IT Ltd

Avonmore invested in Virtual IT in September 2002 alongside several angel investors in an investment round that totaled £500k and exercised their option for a second part to that investment in March 2003. This was the initial seed round for the company.

Virtual IT provides IT outsourcing service to the SME market to address the common issues such as wrong level and skill of IT support, slow and unreliable systems, incorrect hardware and software configurations and weaknesses in security and backups. The customer base includes companies with between 5 and 100 users in a wide range of industries, with a particular focus on service oriented organisations.

Virtual IT has grown significantly since the investment date. The company now supports well over 3,000 desktops and is profitable on a multi-million pound turnover. It was included in the 2007 Deloitte Fast 50 UK awards, as recognition for growth within the technology sector over the last five years. Virtual IT was ranked as number one in London and number three in the UK over that time period.

More details can be found at www.virtualit.biz

ByBox

Avonmore invested in Bybox in March 2003 alongside several other private angel investors.

Bybox, founded by Stuart Miller and Dan Turner, has built a network of unattended electronic locker banks to serve as delivery and collection points for parcel deliveries, both in the consumer and business-to-business markets. The Bybox solution is based on market leading Logibag technology which has been field-proven for over 15 years.

Since our investment Bybox has made exceptionally strong progress both in the UK and internationally (including the successful launch of the solution by Jersey Post) and acquired the field-support business of Hays DX. It achieved UK first place in the 2007 Deloitte Fast 50 awards, based on sales growth over the previous five years.

More details can be found at www.bybox.com