In Felixstowe, Ingenious Real Estate has agreed a development finance facility of £10.3m over 18 months with existing client Generator Group, to fund the development of 21 three and four bedroomed family homes and 10 one and two bedroomed flats. This latest agreement represents a loan to gross development value (LTGDV) of 70%, linking in with earlier phases of an existing and proven project.
In Gateshead, Ingenious Real Estate has agreed a development finance deal with The Morton Group Ltd to support the development of 17 family homes. The development features a mix of three, four and five bedroomed properties in Street Gate. The facility of £4.6m has been agreed over 18 months for an LTGDV of 68%.
In Abberley, Ingenious Real Estate has agreed a development finance facility with a regular client, Piper Homes. This is the 4th deal between Ingenious and Piper Homes. The finance facility of £5m over 21 months has an LTGDV of 70%. The Abberley site, in the countryside between Worcester and Tenbury Wells will offer a range of 25 two, three, four and five bedroomed homes, including two bedroomed bungalows with excellent finishes throughout.
Formed in 2013, Ingenious Real Estate focuses on providing senior development and bridging finance to well-designed schemes in locations across the UK that have a proven demand. Typical loan terms are 18-30 months, and the team has since completed more than £590 million worth of transactions. The current portfolio balance is weighted towards residential, with the majority of Ingenious developments qualifying for Help to Buy.
In September 2020, Ingenious became the first alternative lender to become a member of the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). As part of this membership, Ingenious is actively seeking to engage through training programmes, thought leadership and access to the latest research so that it helps drive sustainable standards within the sector.
In another challenging year, and with another record-breaking number of award entries, Ingenious has secured a spot as one of the finalists in the Best BR Investment Manager – Unlisted category of the 2021 Growth Investor Awards, hosted by Intelligent Partnership. Now in their seventh year, the Growth Investor Awards are a key event in the investment industry calendar. The awards celebrate the companies and individuals who go above and beyond to support the UK’s growing businesses, and in doing so create jobs, boost economic growth and support innovation.
About the award
Sponsored by Exact Libris, The Best BR Investment Manager – Unlisted award is open to leading investment managers specialising in non-Aim-based investments qualifying for Business Property Relief. Ingenious will compete for the award alongside seven other impressive finalists: Blackfinch Investments, Foresight Group, Octopus Investments, Puma Investments, Seneca Partners, TIME Investments & Triple Point.
This year the Growth Investor Awards are being brought back as a live and in-person black-tie awards ceremony at the prestigious London Hilton Park Lane. Taking place on the evening of Thursday November 4, 2021, the awards present an ideal opportunity to catch up with old contacts, make new ones, and acknowledge the ongoing excellence and resilience of the industry at one of the most important moments in its history.
Award submissions will now move to a second round of judging from an independent panel of judges. All scores are collated to determine the winner and runners-up, with all finalists receiving a tailored feedback and benchmarking report offering expert insight about areas for improvement.
For further information, please visit growthinvestorawards.com
BayWa r.e. continues its strong growth in the UK through the provision of Operation and Maintenance Services (O&M Services) for five solar farms totalling 22.37MW on behalf of its new client, Ingenious.
The delivery of BayWa r.e.’s expert O&M Services will look to optimise the Ingenious managed assets helping to increase production through enhanced utilisation of resources.
As an award-winning provider of O&M Services with four office locations across the UK and Ireland and growing staff numbers, BayWa r.e. has grown its solar portfolio to over 943 MW and continues to expand.
Ingenious is a specialist investment manager, founded in 1998. The company supports the global energy transition to a low carbon environment through investment of debt and equity into projects and businesses that harness low carbon energy generation, resource efficiency, transport and communications technologies.
In the space of just seven days, education technology company Mindful Education has won two awards for its blended learning professional courses delivered in partnership with UK colleges.
The first award win came at the Learning Excellence Awards 2021 in the Design, Content Creation and Video category, with the judges commenting that:
“The calibre of entries was high; the diversity of entries was exciting; the breadth of companies submitting entries was inspiring”.
A week later, Mindful Education then took home Best Study Resource for their AAT Level 3 Advanced Diploma course at the annual PQ Magazine Awards, which recognise the very best learners, practitioners and providers in accountancy training.
Commenting on the two award wins, Mark Mckenna, Mindful Education’s founder and Managing Director said:
Mindful Education partners with more than 55 colleges across the UK to deliver media-rich professional courses in accounting, management, law and human resources, delivering learning to thousands of students.
Mindful Education has been named Edtech Company of the Year at the Global Business Tech Awards 2021 at a virtual awards ceremony held on 17 June.
Mindful Education had previously won this category at the UK Business Tech Awards in 2019, but this time faced tough competition from established international edtech company D2L – creators of the Brightspace online learning platform.
This is the third award win in the space of just a few weeks for Mindful Education, following wins at the Learning Excellence Awards and PQ Awards.
Mindful Education works in partnership with colleges, employers and training providers across the UK to deliver media-rich professional courses and apprenticeships in accounting, management, law and human resources.
Ingenious is today delighted to announce that Ingenious Real Estate Finance LLP has completed two new loans totalling £12.8 million to fund new residential development projects in North Devon and the Cotswolds.
Ingenious is providing funding for the development of 22 apartments to a joint venture between Indigo Capital Solutions and Blakesley Estates in the seaside town of Westward Ho!, North Devon. The facility is £5.3 million over a 22-month term, with a Loan-to-Gross-Development-Value (LTGDV) of 69%. The apartments will benefit from sea views and be completed to a high specification.
In addition, Ingenious has partnered with established new homes builder, Piper Homes, to finance a £7.5 million loan for 26 family homes (four flats and 22 houses) in the village of Upper Rissington in the Cotswolds. The loan term is 21 months with a LTGDV of 70%. The new homes will be ideally situated just a short walk from the outstanding Rissington Primary School as well as local amenities. This will be the third project on which Ingenious has partnered with Piper Homes.
Tom Brown, Managing Director of Real Estate at Ingenious, commented: “We’re really pleased to be able to support these two projects in Devon and the Cotswolds. This represents the third time we have worked with Piper Homes and we’re delighted to be working with them again on this exciting new development.”
Formed in 2013, Ingenious Real Estate focuses on providing senior development and bridging finance to well-designed schemes in locations across the UK that have a proven demand. Typical loan terms are 18-30 months, and the team has since completed more than £480 million worth of transactions. The current portfolio balance is weighted towards residential, with the majority of Ingenious developments qualifying for Help to Buy.
In September 2020, Ingenious became the first alternative lender to become a member of the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). As part of this membership, Ingenious is actively seeking to engage through training programmes, thought leadership and access to the latest research so that it helps drive sustainable standards within the sector.
Ingenious announces that Ingenious Real Estate Finance has secured a £25m revolving credit facility from Shawbrook Bank, the specialist UK savings and lending bank, to support the growth of its development and bridging loan portfolio.
The wider Ingenious Group was founded in 1998 and is one of the UK’s leading private alternative investors, having managed the deployment of over £9bn across the real estate, infrastructure, media and education sectors.
Ingenious Real Estate Finance is focused on mid-market stretched senior and bridging finance on residential and commercial development projects located primarily in London, the South East and other major regional centres of England and Wales and their commuter belts.
The growth of Ingenious Real Estate Finance’s development and bridging finance portfolio is being supported by Shawbrook Bank’s Specialist Wholesale team. Shawbrook has provided a bespoke facility to meet specific funding requirements.
Howard Sefton, Investment Director at Ingenious, said: “Ingenious Real Estate Finance is delighted to announce this new key strategic partnership with Shawbrook Bank. The new term revolving credit facility will assist in funding further growth in our real estate backed development and bridge finance business in 2021 and beyond.”
Stuart Mogg, Corporate Finance Director at EY, said: “We are delighted to have supported the team at Ingenious on such an important capital raise. It has been a pleasure working with Tom, Howard and Wensde along with the rest of the Ingenious team. We look forward to working with them again in the future.
“Executing the deal under remote working conditions demonstrates our flexible approach and ability to adapt to a complex situation and help support our clients. I would also like the thank the teams at Shawbrook, Travers Smith and Ashurst for adapting their approaches during this challenging time.”
Warren Mutch, Structured Finance Senior Director at Shawbrook Bank, said: “Ingenious Real Estate Finance is a well-established lender that is expanding its footprint in the development finance market. We have been very impressed with their offering and management team and look forward to working with them. Equally, we continue to enjoy a strong relationship with EY’s Debt Advisory team as a regular introducer of funding opportunities and we are pleased to get 2021 off to a strong start with them.”
Accenture (NYSE: ACN), the global professional services company, has today made a strategic investment in Reactive Technologies, an Ingenious-backed company since 2018, that provides power and grid technology to help utilities accelerate the transition to low-carbon energy.
Reactive Technologies implements innovative technology solutions to address the energy industry’s greatest challenges. The firm offers unique measurement and analytics services for grid operators, an energy optimisation platform for corporates and an Enhanced Power Purchase Agreement for renewable generators. Reactive Technologies’ innovative services enable corporates, renewable energy generators and grid operators to actively mitigate rising energy costs, optimise their renewable assets in a non-subsidy environment and gain unprecedented real-time grid visibility, allowing for faster and more cost-effective decision making.
Ingenious’ investment in Reactive Technologies in 2018 was the first for its highly active Infrastructure Ventures EIS Service, which has recently fully deployed with seven subsequent investments in two years following the backing of Igloo Vision, Elmtronics, Shoreline, TeraView, 3D Repo, Winnow and Over-C.
Marc Borrett, CEO of Reactive Technologies, commented: “Through unique measurement technologies, the fundamental challenges of managing grid stability with ever increasing amounts of renewable energy being deployed can now be solved. Through GridMetrix®, critical grid parameters can be captured accurately and continuously for grid operators, transmission or distribution, national or regional. This will enable them to be properly equipped to better manage grid stability risks, save money, invest smarter, and integrate more renewable energy in the power system. Working with Accenture helps us to operate on a global basis with a local presence and support our offering with their full suite of technical and commercial delivery capabilities.”
Commenting on the investment, Neil Forster, CEO at Ingenious, said: “Today’s announcement clearly endorses our investment strategy. We have been delighted to support Reactive Technologies in providing world-leading innovation over the last two years. Reactive Technologies has developed and commercialised a number of compelling solutions for the evolving energy sector and has built a strong intellectual property portfolio. We remain focused on continuing to implement the necessary solutions required as we transition towards a lower carbon energy future.”
Stephanie Jamison, a senior managing director who leads Accenture’s utilities business, said: “As electricity production from wind and solar continues to grow, the share of variable renewables in the production mix is likely to present stability challenges for utilities to balance their grids. We believe Reactive Technologies’ innovative technology solutions can help improve critical decision making by moving from models to measurement. Coupled with Accenture’s experience in the utilities business, our Industry X business’ focus on grid-balancing expertise and our global reach, these services can accelerate the creation of the utility of the future. This type of collaboration is key to helping our clients achieve their sustainability and business goals.”
Reactive is now part of Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, a deeply immersive engagement and investment program that targets emerging technology software businesses to help the Global 2000 embrace the power of change and fill strategic innovation gaps. Project Spotlight offers extensive access to Accenture’s deep domain of expertise and its enterprise clients, to harness human creativity and deliver on the promise of new technology. Through the program, Reactive Technologies will co-innovate with Accenture and its clients at its Innovation Hubs, Labs and Liquid Studios, working with subject matter experts to bring solutions to market more quickly and more effectively.
Reactive Technologies is the latest addition to the investment portfolio of Accenture Ventures, which is focused on investing in companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies.
Ingenious today announces that its Infrastructure Ventures EIS Service has invested £750,000 in award-winning electric vehicle (EV) charging company, Elmtronics, a leading independent provider of charging points. The funding forms part of a £1.5m investment alongside the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), which is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia. The investment will be used to step up the roll-out of Elmtronics’ charging points across the UK.
The investment follows the announcement that the UK government is to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and will allow Elmtronics to step up its work in underserved UK regions. Elmtronics has developed its own software – Hubsta – which is installed on the charging points and measures customers’ electricity use, allowing them to manage their account and pay for charging services. The funding will not only enable it to further enhance the software but also support the creation of 19 new jobs around the country in the next three months, almost doubling the size of its workforce.
Elmtronics was established in 2016 by former electricians Dan Martin and Anthony Piggott. Based in Consett and with offices in Bristol, Manchester and London, the firm supplies and installs public charging stations as well as those for homes and businesses. Its clients include Nike, the NHS, National Grid, FedEx, Taylor Wimpey and a number of city councils.
Neil Forster, Chief Executive Officer at Ingenious, commented: “We have been following the progress of Elmtronics for some time and are delighted to back a company that aligns strongly with our investment strategy as it is well placed in an under-served market, made all the more relevant by last week’s news of Government action to promote the use of electric vehicles. We are very much looking forward to working closely with Dan and his team.”
Dan Martin, Chief Executive Officer, Elmtronics, said: “The latest Government announcement is another big step forward on the ‘road to net zero’. However, despite the growing popularity of EVs with consumers and fleet users, a lack of charging points continues to deter many from making the switch. This funding will allow us to step up our activity to help build the all-important infrastructure. We hope to make Elmtronics a key player in the roll-out.”
The transaction represents the eighth investment round from the Infrastructure Ventures EIS Service in the last two years, following the backing of Igloo Vision, the Shropshire-based immersive software and technology company that can take any digital content and put it into a shared immersive space; Shoreline, the intelligent field operations management software start-up; TeraView, pioneer and leader in terahertz technology and solutions; 3D Repo, the cloud-based digital platform design pioneers; Winnow, the technology company behind Winnow Vision, the artificial intelligence tool helping chefs cut food waste in half; Over-C, an analytics company focused on operational performance in the workforce management market and Reactive Technologies, a technology platform facilitating the transition to a low carbon future.
Ingenious today announces that its Infrastructure Ventures EIS Service has invested £787,000 in Igloo Vision, the Shropshire-based immersive software and technology company that can take any digital content and put it into a shared immersive space. The funding will be used to continue the build-out of Igloo’s software suite and accelerate the production of its recently launched Igloo Immersive Media Player.
The Igloo Immersive Media Player is designed to bring immersive technology easily into the reach of companies globally, with a user-friendly, plug-and-play, off-the-shelf solution. It offers any organisation the ability to retrofit any meeting room into an immersive workspace. Igloo software has also been integrated with video-conferencing platforms, like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. This immersive video-conferencing solution has been used by Igloo clients in the enterprise and education sectors adapting to the pandemic, for example by allowing onsite teams to connect with working-from-home colleagues, and by enabling teachers to deliver lectures to remotely-based students.
Early buyers include one of the world’s leading management consultancy firms, one of the world’s largest logistics firms, and one of North America’s leading utilities players. The firm’s technology is well-suited to training, simulation, visualisation, and education, as well as events and experiences. Long-term clients currently include Accenture, Microsoft, WarnerMedia, NTT, and AECOM, many of which are using the technology to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The investment from Ingenious will not only accelerate the production of the Igloo Immersive Media Player, but also the ongoing development of Igloo’s broad existing software suite.
The transaction represents the seventh investment round from the Infrastructure Ventures EIS Service in the last two years, following the backing of Shoreline, the intelligent field operations management software start-up; TeraView, pioneer and leader in terahertz technology and solutions; 3D Repo, the cloud-based digital platform design pioneers; Winnow, the technology company behind Winnow Vision, the artificial intelligence tool helping chefs cut food waste in half; Over-C, an analytics company focused on operational performance in the workforce management market and Reactive Technologies, a technology platform facilitating the transition to a low carbon future.
Neil Forster, Chief Executive Officer at Ingenious, commented: “In the current environment, it is the companies that effectively support collaboration and communication between multilocational teams that will thrive. Igloo Vision is certainly one of those companies as is demonstrated by their extensive client list which includes some of the world’s leading brands, software companies, and utilities. The deal aligns strongly with our investment strategy and we are looking forward to working closely with Dennis and his team.”
This is Igloo’s second investment round since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Back in April 2020, it secured £435,000 from a range of EIS investors. Since then, the valuation of the company has seen an annualised 12% increase.
Dennis Wright, Chief Executive Officer at Igloo Vision, said: “This latest investment, along with the ongoing increase in the valuation of Igloo, is a reflection of the significant progress we’ve made, irrespective of a global pandemic and recession. Sales have remained buoyant and we have been able to penetrate new geographies, with Igloo technology now used in 39 countries. The new funds, like the previous investment round, help us to fast-track our global growth.”
