Radius Equity, the provider of tax efficient private equity investments, has appointed Andrew Hodson as the firm’s new Head of Business Development, focussing on introducing investors to early stage businesses looking for growth funding.
Radius Equity says that Hodson has over 25 years of experience working within accountancy and financial services, having started his career at Coopers & Lybrand. He then worked as an investment manager at BZW, and as an analyst at investment bank UBS Warburg.
Following this, Hodson then moved into Private Banking, taking on roles within some of the world’s top private banks, including HSBC, Citi and Barclays. During his time at HSBC and Barclays he began working with small businesses and entrepreneurs, sparking an interest in addressing the lack of funding for these businesses through angel investing and venture capital funding.
Radius Equity adds that for the last ten years Hodson has also been investing on a personal basis in new start-ups, particularly in innovative technology companies like Deepmind Technologies, the artificial intelligence (AI) company. Deepmind was bought by Google in 2014 and went on to create AlphaGo, the computer program that earlier this year achieved a landmark win for AI over the world champion of the board game Go.
Hodson also holds a number of directorships on the boards of companies, including B2C mobile messaging platform Novastone Media, London based sustainable commercial urban farm GrowUp Urban Farms, and the production agency Stagestruck. He also advises Living Map in the field of digital mapping, and is an investor in a number of other businesses, including Featurespace, which specialises in adaptive behavioural analytics for management of fraud, risk and compliance.
Gary Robins, Director at Radius Equity, says: “We are delighted to welcome Andrew to the team. At Radius Equity we’re going to provide Andrew with the tools to bring entrepreneurs and investors together on a much larger scale.”
“Andrew’s wealth of experience, and his obvious passion for helping early stage companies find the funding they need to grow, will both be great assets for Radius.”
Hodson adds: “I’m extremely pleased to be working within a business that is helping to bridge the funding gap for SMEs.”
“The EIS and SEIS schemes play an important role in ensuring that the UK’s small businesses receive investment, and through Radius’ network I hope to be able to help more innovative and exciting businesses grow and succeed.”
