Cambridge, UK, 4th July, 2019: We are delighted to announce Sunil Shah, CEO, o2h Ventures, has won the prestigious UKBAA Angel Investor of the Year Award for his active participation in backing high growth potential startups and early-stage businesses in the UK. Sunil’s contribution has been instrumental in the growth of biotech in UK. He has been investing into the biotech therapeutics sector since many years – a sector from which traditionally many angel investors have stayed away. Over the years, Sunil has championed EIS Angel investing and biotech therapeutics to generate investment into companies. He has also added immense value to his portfolio companies by providing active mentoring and more recently, Sunil has launched the o2h Therapeutics & AI EIS fund which builds upon his existing Angel portfolio.
Sunil Shah, said “I feel both privileged and delighted to win this award. I plan to use this award to champion Angel and Early stage investment into biotech companies. I believe this is an area in which Great Britain has world’s leading expertise, on par with the massive biotech base in Boston / San Francisco, however, comparatively, there is little appetite to invest in our early stage biotech companies. Large Pharma have publicly stated that they will seek to bring in large amount of innovation from outside (through research collaborations, option deals, and acquisitions) and so I believe this positively changes the investment rationale for Angels and early stage investors into biotech companies. In the UK, we also have a secret weapon of tax efficient investing through the Enterprise Investment Scheme”
About UKBAA
The UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) is the national trade association representing angel and early stage investment. UKBAA connects all those involved in the angel investment market with a view to ensuring a coherent ecosystem for financing the growth of startup and early stage businesses. Angel investing is part of a £1.5 billion EIS investment market in the UK – the single largest source of early stage capital in this country. The Angel community in the UK is fast-growing and diverse, reflecting a range of different investment models and approaches.
About the Awards
Celebrating the achievement and impact of the UK Angel investment communities and their role in backing the UK’s most exciting high growth businesses.
Now in their 14th year, the annual UK Angel Investment Awards recognise the high growth and success of the UK’s fastest growing brands, acknowledging the angels, crowdfund and early stage venture capital investors supporting them from startup to scale-up
About o2h ventures
o2h Ventures Limited has launched the o2h Therapeutics and AI fund which is the first S/EIS fund in the UK solely focused on early stage biotech therapeutics and related AI opportunities. The geographic scope shall be UK wide including Oxford and London but will target the growing Cambridge biotech cluster. The Fund is structured to be S/EIS compliant providing tax breaks for UK taxpayers.
The o2h team are leaders in the biotech community and have been actively involved as investors, holding various board/industry positions as well as being engaged in grassroots scientific activity for over 20 years. o2h operate from their proprietary 2.7 acre The Mill SciTech Park where they are developing a unique model for incubating small life science companies.
For further information: www.o2h.com/ventures