Having hosted over 20 of the most promising technology companies in the digital, retail, mobile and cleantech sectors last year, Tech Invest is returning to connect entrepreneurs with investors.

Now in its second year, the event provides a way for business builders to access a room full of venture capitalists, private equity firms, angel investors and crowdfunding platforms.

Last year saw the likes of MoPowered, which went on to list on AIM, and SocialSafe, which closed a $1 million seed investment, explain where each business was heading.

The day’s proceedings also involved keynote speeches from Lowcosttravel Group’s Lawrence Hunt and Richard Muirhead of Londonlabs.co and Firestartr.co, who explained what it was like raising investment for their companies.

For fast-growth technology companies, institutional investment provides a way to speed up product development in a competitive market, hire sales and marketing teams and take operations international. However, when the opportunity to expedite growth presents itself, all too often start-ups are not able to access the requisite capital fast enough.

Tech Invest 2014 will allow attending entrepreneurs to foster early communications with the kind of investors which may one day be the ones to back their company. Investors find prior exposure to businesses incredibly useful as a way of establishing when targets and benchmarks are hit.

The investment game is also becoming increasingly competitive, with start-ups being created by a growing entrepreneurial culture at a rate never before seen. Gaining access to an audience of established and successful technology investors provides an edge over rivals and could be the difference between success and failure.

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