Liverpool Loves Business is excited to announce its involvement with Gateway2enterprise at the International Festival for Business 2016. IFB2016 takes place from June 13 – July 1 2016 at the Exhibition Centre Liverpool.

Organisers have confirmed that Liverpool Loves Business will be an official partner of Gateway2Finance and Gateway2Digital events – forming two days of activity at IFB2016, offering important investment opportunities to local entrepreneurs.

And Liverpool Loves Business is now calling out for applications from small businesses across the Liverpool City Region. Gateway2enterprise has secured £2m of potential investment and there will be the chance for local entrepreneurs to pitch for a portion of the available finance with Gateway2enterprise investors and judges.

As one of the highlights of the ‘Creative Week’, taking place on June 29 and 30, from 9am to 5pm, the events provide a platform to support businesses to grow through alternative finance solutions and business support services.

They feature an introduction to Gateway2enterprise CEO and founder, Karen Melanie Gould and free workshops with key business leaders to answer your questions on starting or growing a business. There will also be demonstrations of the new cloud-based search tool, FundMyBusiness on how to raise investment; which can help to secure all types of finance from equity, debt and crowdfunding to Angel Investors and more.

Headline sponsor of the event is Americamp, who invites local companies to join them for two days of exciting activity at ECL. Founder of the business, Lee McAteer is named as an ‘Enterprise Hero’ and originally comes from the Wirral – making for a shining example of how to really grow a business that now operates world-wide.

VC Investment Judges awaiting your pitches include:

Day One – 29 June 2016

●     Chinese Investment Group – Yingde Ssorry

●     Lorna Davidson, CEO – The Mothership

●     Hugh Campbell, Managing Partner – G P Bullhound

●     Steve Smith, NED  – Gateway2Enterprise

●     Lee McAteer, Founder – America Camp

Day Two – 30 June 2016

●     Nancy Cruickshank, Founder – My Showcase

●     Lorna Davidson, CEO – The Mothership

●     Lee McAteer,  Founder – America Camp

●     Steve Smith, NED  – Gateway2Enterprise

Over the two days there will be a wealth of keynote speakers from BBC Apprentice Winner, Steve Wright (2014) to Nicola Horlick, CEO of crowd funding specialists Money&Co and Adam Taverner, Founder and Chairman of Clifton Asset and creator of Alternative Business Funding – the 1st and fastest growing alternative finance platform in the UK.

Liverpool Loves’ Josh Boyd said:

“We’re very excited to be representing the host city and our local SME community at IFB2016. Karen and the Gateway2Enterprise team are offering a very unique and exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch to international VC investors – and we want to make sure that local people don’t miss out.

”If you’re not quite ready to make a pitch yourself, then come and attend on-the-day to see how it’s done, get some ideas and network with other entrepreneurs. We’re also urging people to take advantage of the fantastic seminar and workshop programme and we’ve secured an allocation of free tickets to launch with this announcement – so sign up for yours now!”

Tickets are available at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gateway-to-finance-and-digital-pitching-for-investment-tickets-19937414343

Gateway2enterprise’s Karen Melonie Gould said:

“IFB2016 is going to provide a fantastic platform for us to get much-needed investment to support businesses across the country. We’re so excited that Liverpool is hosting the festival again this year – its burgeoning economy and leading start up figures reflect the strong, entrepreneurial spirit of the city and its people. So we’re looking for home-grown business talent with the next big idea to take advantage of this opportunity. We want to hear from you – information for how to apply is available on our website.”

For more information on Gateway2Enterprise visit www.gateway2enterprise.co.uk