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The Carbon Trust incubator scheme, which accelerates the commercialisation of promising low-carbon businesses, has announced partnerships with business advisory firm Grant Thornton and law firm Mills & Reeve LLP, to provide corporate finance and legal advisory support to its incubator companies.
Grant Thornton and Mills & Reeve LLP will offer world-class corporate finance and legal experience to the Carbon Trust’s early-stage incubator businesses. The advice provided under these relationships will include fundraising support, shareholder agreements, patents/IP, licensing, company re-structuring, manufacturing agreements, joint development agreements, employment contracts and NDAs; and will amount to a total of up to 17 hours of consultancy per company, valued at £200-£300/hour.
A recent survey of Carbon Trust incubator companies suggests that early-stage companies typically spend around £20,000 on IP/ patent advice and around £15,000 on general legal advice alone. These costs put significant financial pressure on new businesses. However, the professional services support that Carbon Trust can now provide has the potential to save each company up to several thousand pounds on legal and corporate finance advice; helping them to minimise costs at a crucial stage in their development.
Rachael Nutter, Head of Incubators at the Carbon Trust commented:
“Grant Thornton and Mills & Reeve have a track record of working in the clean technology sector, including with early-stage businesses. As a result of these new relationships, we believe that the Carbon Trust can deliver even greater value to the businesses we support, and ensure the best chance of rapid take-up of viable low-carbon technologies which will be vital to accelerate the move towards a low carbon economy.”
Dr Simon Crook, Clean Technology Corporate Finance Manager at Grant Thornton said:
"We're delighted to have been selected to work with the Carbon Trust Incubator companies. We believe our considerable sector experience, breadth of business expertise and international reach will make a real difference to these exciting low carbon businesses. We look forward to working with this select group of dynamic companies as they grow and make a positive impact on the environment."
Mills & Reeve partner, Zickie Lim, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Carbon Trust and their innovative incubated companies. We have a wealth of experience helping fledgling companies build market and investment-ready businesses, many of whom operate within the clean technology and renewable energies sectors. The Carbon Trust is playing a vital role in our response to the threat of climate change. We are thrilled to be able to contribute our knowledge and commercial experience to assist businesses committed to supporting the environment.”
The Carbon Trust incubator scheme was established in 2004 with the aim of helping scaleable, low-carbon businesses to market through the creation of investment opportunities. A key measure of success for the incubator scheme is the amount of private investment raised and the number of licence deals or significant partnerships established by incubated companies. To date, the incubator scheme has been extremely successful with:
• 69 companies supported and 30 companies in the incubator today
• Around 20 new companies per year admitted to the incubator
• Over £70m private funding raised by almost half the incubated companies
• Three licence agreements secured
• Three companies have achieved an IPO
• The Carbon Trust has invested in four incubatee companies; our Low Carbon Seed Fund has invested in two
Companies accepted for incubation receive up to £60,000 of incubation support over a 12-18 month period. Deal flow for the incubator scheme comes from active prospecting by the Carbon Trust’s incubator team and the four incubator partners; the Carbon Trust’s Applied R&D grant projects and Investment teams are also an important source of new incubatee companies.
More information on the incubator scheme can be found at: www.carbontrust.co.uk/technology/incubator
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Notes to editors
Spokespeople from the Carbon Trust are available for interview. Please contact the Carbon Trust Press Office on 020 7544 3100 or carbontrust@fishburn-hedges.co.uk
The Carbon Trust
• The Carbon Trust is an independent company set up by government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies. The Carbon Trust works with UK business and the public sector through its work in five complementary areas: insights, solutions, innovations, enterprises and investments. Together these help to explain, deliver, develop, create and finance low carbon enterprise.
• The Carbon Trust is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and Invest Northern Ireland.
• For more information on the Carbon Trust visit http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/ or call the Carbon Trust Advice Line on 0800 085 2005.
Grant Thornton UK LLP
Grant Thornton UK LLP is a leading financial and business adviser with 29 locations nationwide. The firm is the UK member of Grant Thornton International, one of the world's leading organisations of independently owned and managed accounting and consulting firms providing assurance, tax and specialist business advice to privately held businesses and public interest entities. The strength of each local firm is reflected in the quality of the international organisation. All Grant Thornton International member firms share a commitment to providing the same high quality service to their clients wherever they choose to do business.
Copyright (symbol) 2008 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.
http://www.grantthornton.co.uk/
Mills & Reeve LLP
Mills & Reeve is a top 50 national law firm with 89 partners and a total staff of over 800, operating from offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Manchester and Norwich.
Mills & Reeve is a full service firm with practice specialisms including corporate and commercial, banking and finance, technology, insurance, real estate, healthcare, local authorities, education and private client.
Clients include commercial organisations – from PLCs to start-ups – high net worth individuals and landowners, more than 70 universities and colleges, over 100 healthcare trusts and NHS bodies, and more than 65 local government institutions.
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