A groundbreaking community interest company is being launched later this month that will support entrepreneurs in York to raise funding and grow their businesses.

York Angels CIC, founded by Huntington School alumni and venture capitalist Sam Hields, has already secured hundreds of thousands of pounds for York-based firms over the last 12 months and is now expanding. 

The launch event at the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall on Wednesday April 24 is sponsored by HSBC Innovation Banking and in partnership with Tech York.

Some 200 people are expected, from successful business leaders and investors to those from government and academia. The event includes a York Angels keynote, flash talks, a panel discussion and networking. 

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Sam said: “This is an exciting time to launch, we have been able to support several local tech firms to raise investment, and are now working with local investors keen to give back and help support start-ups in York. Our model is unique, we are a not-for-profit social enterprise set up to benefit the local economy and ecosystem.”

Co-founder and director Ashley Mason said: “The organisation is not just about money, it aims to help local entrepreneurs to build important networks and gain the support to scale successfully, with whatever funding model is best for them.

“We are very lucky to be working with some of the city’s most successful business people, who are keen to reinvest their wealth into supporting the next generation.”

Sam is Principal of OpenOcean, a pan-European early-stage venture capital investor.

Sam is based out of OpenOcean's London office and has a background working in software development and operations.

Having studied Computer Science, he started his career at JPMorgan working on the world’s first real-time liquidity monitoring and flow control system which automatically managed in excess of USD 6 trillion in cash flows per day. He also spent some time in JPMorgan's Cyber Defence team focusing on application security.

Sam's experience in high-growth startups came when he joined Uber as an Operations Manager helping to launch the product across the UK and as a member of the executive team at Community Fibre, joining on their seed round, which would later be acquired through a £400 million LBO.

 

The last few remaining tickets can be obtained from Tech York’s eventbrite page. Those interested in acting as angel investors should email hi@yorkangels.co.uk to find out more.